First published 2000
Becket is fourteen and trying to survive her Manhattan prep school after her mother's death. She lives with her widowed father and faces daily encounters with the Beautiful Girls, a clique that rules her school through intimidation. The mysterious school nurse draws Becket's attention with her dangerous allure, while Tobey, a rebellious boy, offers a different kind of connection. But Becket's real struggle happens in her sleep, where devastating nightmares begin to bleed into her waking life. As she moves through the rituals of teenage girlhood, the line between her dreams and reality grows thinner. Her nightmares threaten not just her sleep but her survival as she tries to become a woman in a culture that devours its young people through fantasy and narcissism rather than nurturing them with genuine values.
Genres: fiction, contemporary, adolescence, young-adult, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Manhattan, New York
Period: contemporary
208 pages · Hardcover · Riverhead Hardcover
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness