School Days
I am currently re-reading The Secret Place by Tana French, as I eagerly await the October release of her latest Dublin Murder Squad novel, The Trespasser.
The Secret Place is a police procedural set in a girls’ boarding school just outside Dublin, and this has me thinking about all the boarding school books I read as a kid. Head Girls, midnight feasts, field hockey — how I dreamed of being a part of it all. (Actually, I would have hated the field hockey.) And this was long before the Harry Potter phenomenon!
As summer comes to an end, you might want to indulge in a little school days nostalgia with the following titles:
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The Secret Place by Tana French A year after a boy’s body is found on the grounds of a girls’ boarding school, someone leaves a note reading “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM” on the school gossip board. Like all of Tana French’s novels, this offers great character sketches and dialogue together with evocative, sharply witty description. You won’t want to skip a single page. |
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The Magicians by Lev Grossman Quentin Coldwater spent his youth engrossed in a series of fantasy novels set in the magical land of Fillory. Admitted to an elite college for the magically gifted, he learns that Fillory does exist, but not as he imagined it. This first title of a trilogy has hints of both Hogwarts and Narnia, but with a lot more brooding and angst. |
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The Exclusives by Rebecca Thornton
Although they were best friends at boarding school, Josephine and Freya have not seen each other for eighteen years. Then Freya tracks down Josephine to confront her over the traumatic events that tore them apart. This is still on my to-read list, but it’s getting some good buzz. |
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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Kathy reminisces about growing up with Tom and Ruth at an exclusive and secluded boarding school in the English countryside. Only as an adult will she learn what made them “special”. A gripping and disturbing read for fans of dystopian literature. |
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The Headmaster`s Wife by Thomas Christopher Green The respected headmaster of an elite Vermont school is found wandering naked and confused in Central Park. He confesses to police that he has murdered a student with whom he was having an affair. But major details of his story do not hold together… A tale of grief, guilt, and a broken marriage. |
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The Secret History by Donna Tartt Richard, a scholarship student, is grateful to be accepted into a tight-knit group of idiosyncratic classics scholars. But joining the clique means keeping their dangerous secret. Pulitzer-Prize winner Tartt wrote this potboiler at age 19, and while it bears more than a hint of teenage self-dramatization, it is still a page turner with some very vivid writing. |
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A Separate Peace by John Knowles A classic coming-of-age tale set in a New England boarding school during World War II. The loss of innocence experienced by introverted Gene and daredevil Phineas reflects that of the entire country. |
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Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster If you want a gentler story, try this old-fashioned tale of orphan Jerusha Abbott who is sent to college by an anonymous benefactor. The novel is told in letters as the lively teenager recounts her new experiences with humour and warmth. (And nobody dies!) |
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