First published 2005
Lee Fiora stands fourteen years old outside her dormitory as her father drives away from the prestigious Ault School. The Massachusetts boarding school reveals itself as an insular universe populated by wealthy, cynical teenagers who vacation on Nantucket and communicate in coded language only they understand. Lee watches these polished classmates with a mixture of fear and curiosity. She studies their customs and unwritten rules from the margins. Her sharp eyes catch details others miss as she maps the social hierarchies that govern daily life at Ault. Gradually, Lee moves from observer to participant in the complex rituals that define her new world. The transition challenges everything she thought she knew about herself and forces her to confront the gap between who she was and who she might become among these privileged peers.
Genres: american-fiction, coming-of-age, adolescence, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, outsider-perspective
Setting: Ault School, Massachusetts
Period: 20th-century
Hardcover · Random House