By: Rebecca Makkai
RECOMMEND
TLDR: This is not your average murder mystery. This author thoughtfully weaves in questions about sexual assault, youth, and the American Criminal Justice System. The main character (a film producer and pod caster) re-visits her boarding school as a guest teacher; one of her students decides to deep dive into the case of her former roommate’s murder as a topic for her class. It’s delicate, intricate, and you’ll want to read this. Sort of a slow burn, so it lost the “highly recommend” distinction for me.
The Longer Review:
In a society that can’t shake an obsession with true crime, this story about a previously closed murder case of an old high school roommate is one that is fraught with questions like: Is the wrong person in prison for this crime?; Is it too hard on the victim’s family to keep re-visiting a closed case?; Do I have too much emotional attachment to the case to see it clearly enough?; Did the professionals do their due diligence?; the list goes on.
What I liked about this novel was the imagery (set in a boarding school in New England), along with the re-visiting of youth and the places that shape us. I can imagine all of the memories of the places we’ve been flooding back to me, and I’ve experienced the realizations that come when you look back with a more mature perspective. I also enjoyed the thoughtful character development; so many of the family, friends and students felt like real people. By the end of the novel I found myself reading the acknowledgements looking for the “based on a true story” bit that never came. The author explicitly states that though she did in fact attend a boarding school, this story and it’s characters are completely fictional.
The transition of perspectives was a little confusing at first, but I did eventually catch on. And the twist wasn’t SO shocking, but once it came I couldn’t put this book down. If you’re into murder mysteries with a twinge of nostalgia, this one is a great pick.
