The Saint Ambrose School for Girls

A powerful coming-of-age novel that gradually, and brilliantly, morphs into crime fiction. Sarah Taylor didn’t apply to the prestigious, all-girl prep school Saint Ambrose. Her mother—and sole parent—who works as a lunch lady and barely has $200 in the bank, completed her application. “You’re nationwide smart, Sarah, not small town bright,” her mother reminds her when dropping her off on the first day. But Sarah, dressed all in black, with hair dyed to match, isn’t exactly fitting in at Saint Ambrose, and her diagnosis of bipolar with mania doesn’t help. But the worst is queen mean Greta, who, along with her court, goes after Sarah, humiliating her whenever there’s an opportunity—including Xeroxing and distributing a very personal essay Sarah wrote about being diagnosed bipolar. But slowly Sarah starts to build alliances, including “hot RA,” her incredibly handsome resident advisor, and Strots, her privileged, tough as nails, super-jock roommate, who’s gay and has her own set of challenges (the novel’s set in 1991). Serious stuff, but Sarah has a wild sense of humor that keeps you glued to the page, and the depiction of a New England prep school is spot on. Tensions mount, hatreds grow, violence is inevitable, the community becomes unglued, and readers are left gasping. As Sarah says: “There’s going to be no setting what just happened to rights. Ever.” Fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Rebecca Makkai’s forthcoming I Have Some Questions for You will love this.