*based on an ARC edition
The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant, all the way up to the end, was a breath of fresh air. Anne Merchant, after finding her mother dead of suicide, is sent by her father to what appears to be a rich boarding school. She's not rich, even though she lived all her life in the ritziest zip code in America; her father is a mortician for the super-wealthy. She's been a freak all her life, ostracized by her classmates. She's never had much contact with boys, either...unless you count the time she kissed the cheek of dead boy five years previously. She's an artist as well, and all these things together equal a childhood from hell. After her mother's death it seemed that in order to ensure her future at Brown and her ticket out of freakdom, Anne agrees to be sent to Wormwood Island in Maine, an uber-exclusive boarding school that she has no idea how her father could possibly afford. She discovers that a Senator friend of her father endorsed her application, but other than that tidbit, information is slim to none...and Slim left town.
It doesn't take long for things to get super-weird. No one hangs out with each other. Everyone walks alone, save the pre-requisite Mean Girl clique. Every student is assigned a Guardian that grades them on every waking moment, and something called a PT- basically a way to live that is solely THEM, and they have to live by this plan or they have no chance of winning the Big V race...V as in valedictorian. There's more, too. Everyone here is perfect. Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect teeth. Except Anne, with her crooked tooth and wild curls. Agreements are signed in blood, there are dances in which you are not allowed to dance with anyone you actually like; in fact the rule is you must dance with someone you hate. There's a village you are not permitted to go into, or them to you. The penalty for breaking the rules is death. All in all, not your average boarding school.
I figured things out fairly quickly, but that isn't a disparagement of the story or the writing. There were some excellent clever twists, and Anne is easy to like and easy to root for. This is one that no one who loves a good "What the hell is going on here??" story should miss. My one, and only complaint is that it seems to be the beginning of yet another series and/or trilogy. I am sick to death of trilogies. I get the marketing perks, good for writers, etc, but as a reader I am way beyond tired of having to wait a year or more to continue a story that I am deeply into. What ever happened to just writing one amazing book with a beginning, middle, and end?! Sigh. In any case, trilogy/series aside, this is a great debut novel from a voice I am sure we will hear from many times in the future.
The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant, all the way up to the end, was a breath of fresh air. Anne Merchant, after finding her mother dead of suicide, is sent by her father to what appears to be a rich boarding school. She's not rich, even though she lived all her life in the ritziest zip code in America; her father is a mortician for the super-wealthy. She's been a freak all her life, ostracized by her classmates. She's never had much contact with boys, either...unless you count the time she kissed the cheek of dead boy five years previously. She's an artist as well, and all these things together equal a childhood from hell. After her mother's death it seemed that in order to ensure her future at Brown and her ticket out of freakdom, Anne agrees to be sent to Wormwood Island in Maine, an uber-exclusive boarding school that she has no idea how her father could possibly afford. She discovers that a Senator friend of her father endorsed her application, but other than that tidbit, information is slim to none...and Slim left town.
It doesn't take long for things to get super-weird. No one hangs out with each other. Everyone walks alone, save the pre-requisite Mean Girl clique. Every student is assigned a Guardian that grades them on every waking moment, and something called a PT- basically a way to live that is solely THEM, and they have to live by this plan or they have no chance of winning the Big V race...V as in valedictorian. There's more, too. Everyone here is perfect. Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect teeth. Except Anne, with her crooked tooth and wild curls. Agreements are signed in blood, there are dances in which you are not allowed to dance with anyone you actually like; in fact the rule is you must dance with someone you hate. There's a village you are not permitted to go into, or them to you. The penalty for breaking the rules is death. All in all, not your average boarding school.
I figured things out fairly quickly, but that isn't a disparagement of the story or the writing. There were some excellent clever twists, and Anne is easy to like and easy to root for. This is one that no one who loves a good "What the hell is going on here??" story should miss. My one, and only complaint is that it seems to be the beginning of yet another series and/or trilogy. I am sick to death of trilogies. I get the marketing perks, good for writers, etc, but as a reader I am way beyond tired of having to wait a year or more to continue a story that I am deeply into. What ever happened to just writing one amazing book with a beginning, middle, and end?! Sigh. In any case, trilogy/series aside, this is a great debut novel from a voice I am sure we will hear from many times in the future.
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