The swallows : a novel / Lisa Lutz.
Record details
- ISBN: 1984818236
- ISBN: 9781984818232
- ISBN: 9781984818232 : HRD
- ISBN: 1984818236 : HRD
- ISBN: 9781984818232 (hardcover)
- ISBN: 1984818236 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 402 pages : map ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Ballantine Books, [2019]
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | What do you love? What do you hate? What do you want? It starts with this simple writing prompt from Alex Witt, Stonebridge Academy's new creative writing teacher. When the students' answers raise disturbing questions of their own, Ms. Witt knows there's more going on the school than the faculty wants to see. She soon learns about The Ten--the students at the top of the school's social hierarchy--as well as their connection to something called The Darkroom. Ms. Witt can't remain a passive observer. She finds the few girls who've started to question the school's "boys will be boys" attitude and incites a resistance that quickly becomes a movement. But just as it gains momentum, she also attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her--including what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place. Meanwhile, Gemma, a defiant senior, has been plotting her attack for years, waiting for the right moment. Shy loner Norman hates his role in the Darkroom, but can't find the courage to fight back until he makes an unlikely alliance. And then there's Finn Ford, an English teacher with a shady reputation who keeps one eye on his literary ambitions and one on Ms. Witt. As the school's secrets begin to trickle out, a boys-versus-girls skirmish turns into an all-out war, with deeply personal--and potentially fatal--consequences for everyone involved. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Female friendship > Fiction. |
Genre: | Mystery fiction. Thrillers (Fiction) Detective and mystery fiction. |
Available copies
- 39 of 40 copies available at Bibliomation.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 40 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ansonia Public Library | MYS LUTZ, LISA (Text) | 34045120734921 | Adult Mystery | Available | - |
Beacon Falls Public Library | FIC Lut (Text) | 33120000393436 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Bentley Memorial Library - Bolton | FIC Lut (Text) | 33160142929515 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Bethel Public Library | MYSTERY LUTZ (Text) | 34030142867420 | Adult Mystery | Available | - |
Bolton High School | FIC LUT (Text) | 34062141576280 | Fiction | Available | - |
Booth & Dimock Library - Coventry | AF LUT (Text) | 33260000302498 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Brookfield Library | F/LUTZ (Text) | 34029145638671 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Burnham Library - Bridgewater | MYST LUTZ (Text) | 36937002157585 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
C.H. Booth Library - Newtown | FIC LUTZ (Text) | 34014141735804 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Derby Neck Library | MYS LUT (Text) | 34046146009439 | Adult Mystery | Available | - |
Electronic resources
Publishers Weekly Review
The Swallows : A Novel
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
This sardonic standalone by the author of the Spellman Files mystery series takes no prisoners in its attack on the misogynist culture of a New England prep school in 2009. When 20-something Alex Witt, dismissed from her former teaching job under mysterious circumstances, starts teaching creative writing at Stonebridge, she senses a simmering conflict among her upperclassmen students. Most of the more popular young men, under the leadership of nefarious Adam, have formed a semisecret society devoted to rating the young women on their sexual abilities, and, not incidentally, humiliating them. The young women, led by volatile Gemma and joined by a couple of the more enlightened guys, decide to take them down by any means necessary. As the situation escalates, careers and lives are threatened. Lutz is harder on the faculty members, whose comfortable lives depend on looking the other way, than on the more weak-willed of the male students, who scrabble to protect themselves. Although she features such a large cast of characters, she builds her plot cannily and walks a neat line between satire and realism. Lutz's withering portrayal of how the #MeToo movement plays out in this rarefied setting should shock some and delight others. (Aug.)
BookList Review
The Swallows : A Novel
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
As the newest faculty member at Stonebridge Academy, a small New England prep school, Alex Witt is ready for students to test her resolve, and her cool response scores high. But dark secrets lurk in the hallways, waiting to be exposed by the unafraid or the foolhardy. Alex and a few of her female students might be the right mix to take on the boys of the Darkroom, finally putting an end to their dirty dealings as long as the ladies don't forget cornered animals can be vicious. In her witty and charming style, Lutz (The Passenger, 2016) offers a genre-busting work of fiction that will satisfy readers looking for a seriously engaging read. The story itself is disturbingly plausible, and the humanly flawed characters make choices, good and bad, based on their backgrounds, all blending smoothly into a darkly comedic mystery. The large cast offers diverse viewpoints on the action, but the multiple perspectives never become overwhelming. As tangled as the truth often is, this novel keeps readers on the edge of their seats while opening a conversation about public shaming, economic privilege, gender inequity, and revenge versus justice.--Stacey Hayman Copyright 2019 Booklist
Kirkus Review
The Swallows : A Novel
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
High school English teacher Alex Witt jumps from the frying pan into the fire when she takes a job at Stonebridge Academy, a Vermont boarding school.Alex doesn't love teaching, but it's a living, and she's hoping for a new start at Stonebridge after a debacle sent her packing from her last job. Dean Gregory Stinson, a friend of Alex's famous author father, Len Wilde, is happy to give her a place on staff, but a bait and switch has her teaching creative writing instead of English. Alex isn't thrilled but settles into getting to know her class. Her initiation isn't easy: Someone leaves a dead rat in her desk, and strange, vaguely threatening notes keep appearing at her barely livable cottage. Weeding out the good eggs from the troublemakers isn't easy, but Alex gives it the college try and even makes a few (maybe) friends among the staff. When a student named Gemma Russo makes Alex aware of an exclusive online forum called the Darkroom, where Stonebridge boys post photos and text about their sexual exploits and girls are vigorously scored, Alex can't ignore what's happening, but she's not eager to put herself out there in the face of adult enablers and vicious boys who will do anything to keep their toxic traditions alive. Luckily, Gemma is quietly recruiting an army to take the nasty little cabal down, and Alex offers guidance, never guessing just how far things might go. In 2009, when this is set, the term "boys will be boys" wasn't yet being truly challenged as an acceptable explanation for entitled, misogynistic male behavior, and questions of consent weren't at the forefront. Stonebridge is a perfect example of this kind of dysfunctional, entrenched culture. Lutz (The Passenger, 2016, etc.) draws on the droll humor and idiosyncratic characterizations that make her Spellman novels so appealing, and just about no one is quite who they seem. But kindness and decency do manifest in surprising places, revealed through the alternating narratives of Alex, Gemma, and others.An offbeat, darkly witty pre-#MeToo revenge tale. The patriarchy doesn't stand a chance. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.