by Kate Walbert
First published 2018
Jo drives a stolen golf cart across dark greens with two friends, all of them drunk. The cart flips. One girl dies on impact. Jo's hometown turns against her. Her parents' marriage crumbles. She escapes to an elite boarding school, carrying the weight of her friend's death. At the new school, Jo encounters a magnetic teacher who becomes central to her story. The novel unfolds through Jo's adult perspective as she recalls the events that shaped her teenage years. Walbert examines how institutions fail young women when they need protection most. Jo must navigate both her guilt over the accident and new dangers at school. The story reveals the particular vulnerabilities that teenage girls face and the systems that exploit rather than shelter them.
Genres: literary-fiction, abuse, coming-of-age, contemporary
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Elite Boarding School
Period: Contemporary
1 pages · Audio CD · Simon & Schuster Audio
Content warnings: abuse, sexual-assault