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Staff Pick
They call it The Darkroom and it is Stonebridge Academy's most shameful legacy. For years, the male students have used it as a digital scoreboard to rank their female classmates by their sexual activity — pictures included. It's a disgusting display of misogynistic entitlement, but anyone who's tried to expose it has paid a steep price. Until a small group of girls decides to fight (and bite) back, but their burgeoning resistance has consequences none of them imagined. As entertaining as it is, Lutz also raises interesting questions about some of the thornier issues of the #MeToo movement, particularly regarding the effectiveness and morality of battles waged somewhere between the high road and the low. It's snarky, it's relevant, it's incredibly disturbing: The Swallows is a stunning update to the classic prep school novel! Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war — with deadly consequences — in this dark and provocative novel by the bestselling author of The Passenger
"Suspenseful and utterly riveting " Tess Gerritsen
When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she's hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school's social hierarchy — and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who've started to question the school's "boys will be boys" attitude and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her — and what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place.
Meanwhile, Gemma, a defiant senior, has been plotting her attack for years, waiting for the right moment. Shy loner Norman hates his role in the Darkroom, but can't find the courage to fight back until he makes an unlikely alliance. And then there's Finn Ford, an English teacher with a shady reputation who keeps one eye on his literary ambitions and one on Ms. Witt. As the school's secrets begin to trickle out, a boys-versus-girls skirmish turns into an all-out war, with deeply personal — and potentially fatal — consequences for everyone involved.
Lisa Lutz's blistering, timely tale of revenge and disruption shows us what can happen when silence wins out over decency for too long — and why the scariest threat of all might be the idea that sooner or later, girls will be girls.
Review
"[Lutz] takes no prisoners. . . . She builds her plot cannily and walks a neat line between satire and realism [in a] withering portrayal of how the #MeToo movement plays out in this rarefied setting." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Lutz draws on the droll humor and idiosyncratic characterizations that make her Spellman novels so appealing. . . . An offbeat, darkly witty pre-#MeToo revenge tale. The patriarchy doesn't stand a chance." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Sharpen your axes, ladies, and get ready for this fierce, fun, unsparing novel of female rage, power, and friendship." Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy
Review
"In her witty and charming style, Lutz offers a genre-busting work of fiction that will satisfy readers looking for a seriously engaging read. The story itself is disturbingly plausible, and the humanly flawed characters make choices, good and bad, based on their backgrounds, all blending smoothly into a darkly comedic mystery. " Booklist (Starred Review)
About the Author
Lisa Lutz is the New York Times bestselling, Alex Award-winning author of the Spellman Files series, as well as the novels Heads You Lose (with David Hayward), How to Start a Fire, and The Passenger. She has also written for film and TV, including HBO's The Deuce. She lives part-time in New York's Hudson Valley.
Lisa Lutz on PowellsBooks.Blog
A while back I was meeting with an editor — not mine. She asked me to name another writer whose career I wanted to emulate. My answer:
I don’t think like that. I want to do my own thing...
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