A teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war—with deadly consequences—in this dark and provocative novel by the bestselling author of The Passenger “Riveting . . . full of imagination and power.”—Caroline Kepnes, author of You and ProvidenceNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NEW YORK • WINNER OF THE ALA’S ALEX AWARD When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge … AWARD
When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she’s hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school’s social hierarchy—and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who’ve started to question the school’s “boys will be boys” attitude and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her—and 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.
Lisa Lutz’s blistering, timely tale of revenge and disruption shows us what can happen when silence wins out over decency for too long—and why the scariest threat of all might be the idea that sooner or later, girls will be girls.
Praise for The Swallows
“The Swallows is fast-moving, darkly humorous and at times shockingly vicious. The battle of the sexes within its pages couldn’t be more compelling. . . . Lutz delivers a frantic, morbidly funny story.”—BookPage
“A decade before the #MeToo movement kicks off in full force, women are coming for the patriarchy in this big ol’ novel, ripe with idiosyncratic characterization and memorable scenes.”—Refinery29
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I devoured The Swallows. You’ll laugh out loud even as you anxiously flip the pages.
Wes Anderson meets Muriel Spark in this delicious and vicious battle of the sexes set within a private school. Wickedly fun and wildly subversive but packing an emotional punch, The Swallows is as powerful as it is timely.
Note to Self: Do NOT send my daughter to boarding school.
This book was infuriating and intense and scary and it made me want to scream and throw it across the room and commit random acts of violence. In other words, it did exactly what it was supposed to.
Lutz is a very talented and variable (in the best way) writer. From The Spellman Files to The Passenger to this one, she has demonstrated a consistent ability to dive into the heads of her characters and tell an utterly compelling story that lives and breathes in their unique voice(s), be they funny, smarmy, mysterious, horrible, or endearing. Each of her books/series feels so unique; the only unifying factor is the quality of the storytelling, which is always excellent.
This time she takes on sexual politics and she does it with her usual take-no-prisoners style of blood, guts, and sarcasm. I don’t always like multiple narrators, particularly when they are all unreliable, but that format worked perfectly here in a world of he-said-she-said in which there is no truth, just perspective (in all its twisted, gory, horrifying, aggravating glory). Ms. Witt is by far my favorite of the characters in this one; she’s Izzy Spellman as an adult, full of just the right amount of self-awareness and ennui to provide the snarky take-no-prisoners tone that ties the kids together in all their twisted quirks and foibles.
This one is dark and angry. As it should be. And it’ll make you dark and angry while you read it. As it should. And it’s a story that has to be told and retold and reinforced after it’s been retold. Well done, Lisa Lutz – well done.
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
There’s so much to love here. It’s a fun read with great characters but deals with serious subjects. Witty, mischievous, and deadly serious, Swallows has it all.
Riveting, caustic, and refreshingly funny, The Swallows is so full of imagination and power that my hands were shaking as I turned the pages.
Stonebridge Academy is an elite prep boarding school in New England. When Alex Witt comes to the school as an English teacher after a scandal caused her to leave her last post, she is not prepared for what she will find at her new school.
Assigning her students to answer 5 questions anonymously, she discovers secrets that lead down a dark road. She discovers that when “boys will be boys”, girls will exact a dangerous revenge.
This book has a lot of disturbing sexual activity and references. It has hints of the #MeToo movement.
Thanks to NetGalley for the copy! Opinions are my own.
#TheSwallows #LisaLutz #NetGalley
When you met Lisa Lutz as the author of the zany Spellman series, this book may put you off. It is not light and funny. Rather, it is dark and disturbing, with characters who are all too human and events that unfold in unpredictable ways.
I’ve enjoyed Lutz’s books but this is different from her series. Although it is witty and the characters are interesting, the plot line prevents it from being funny or happily ever after. I do recommend this book but the recommendation is half-hearted: I’ve read better by this author. The book should have been shorter and less tedious.
I loved the author’s Spellman Files series. I was expecting this book to be similar in nature and voice, but it isn’t, and unfortunately, The Swallows is too reminiscent of many other boarding school novels. I also found there were too many characters and points of view to keep track of.
I wanted to like Lisa Lutz’s The Swallows more than I did. It takes place at a middle class boarding school whose past and present are riddled with secrets, scandal, and more. In the #MeToo era, the intent of The Swallows is admirable: Trace toxic masculinity back to its roots of early adolescence and empower a group of young women to shatter it. The combination of a thriller-type novel with a feminist message didn’t quite work here. But Lutz does have pacing and character development going for her and I’ll be interested to see what she does in the future.
Not that great.
The Swallows centers around a complicated teacher who sparks a gender war at a private school. From the brilliant opening paragraph (one of the best I’ve come across) to the chilling ending, this book was hard to put down.
Starting over at a new job is difficult enough without the added stress of a questionable discharge from your past position and the knowledge that you only received this second chance due to family connections. In The Swallows, by Lisa Lutz, Alex Witt is an unconventional teacher who is far from enthusiastic when she agrees to take over the creative writing classes at Stonebridge Academy. Lutz tells the sordid story of a private school with a history rife with cover-ups and a long tradition of misconduct by both faculty and students. The novel’s rotating first-person narrators include Witt and Finn Ford, two teachers at the Academy; and Gemma and Norman, two students involved in the shattering exposure of the school’s secrets. When a database ranking the female students on their sexual prowess is discovered, a plot of revenge evolves into a full-blown gender war that ends in tragedy. The men in the story are depicted primarily as callous chauvinists or impotent followers, while the women personify forces of repressed rage and simmering resentment. Occasionally exaggerated and obvious, The Swallows nonetheless remains a timely story that reflects some current headlines in this #MeToo era. It is a tale about how social media and technology can help disseminate rumors and exacerbate prejudicial views under the protection of anonymity. Lutz explores potential consequences for those seeking to preserve misogynistic traditions when their victims are compelled to fight back as their voices remain unheard. A departure from her more light-hearted Spellman Series, this new novel will garner plenty of attention from Lutz’s fans who may (or may not be) pleased by this more serious release.
Good for: Fans of Lisa Lutz (Spellman series and The Passenger); suspense tales with academic settings; strong female protagonists; contemporary themes; #MeToo topics
You may like this book if you liked: The Secret History, Donna Tartt; A Separate Peace, John Knowles; Little Tales of Misogyny, Patricia Highsmith; The Secret Place, Tana French; Misogyny: the New Activism, Gail Ukockis
Thanks to the author, NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
The Swallows: A Novel is a disturbing tale of the trials and tribulations of the students residing at an eastern prep school. Stonebridge Academy in Lowland, Vermont has all the bells and whistles required of a preparatory high school/boarding school, stately brick and climbing ivy, miles of walking paths and trees. The scholastic achievement has faltered over the years, and the majority of graduates will qualify for the same college acceptances as those students applying from a normal public high school. Problems of a sexual nature seem to have escalated over the last few years, reaching an explosive point just before Christmas break, 2009. Though many girls are included in the ranks of those abused, shame keeps them silent and isolated. It takes Ms. Witt’s new role as an instructor of Creative Writing to bring a sense of unity to the girls and shine a spotlight on the systematic abuse perpetrated by a small group of upperclassmen who congregate online in the Darkroom and keep score on the subfile Dulcinea.
This is one of those novels that suck you right in and don’t let go till the last page. The characters, both good and bad, are exceptional, the sense of time and place (2009, 2010) is precise and the storyline is compelling. This is a novel I am happy to recommend to friends and family.
I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Lisa Lutz, and Ballantine Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.
This latest by Lutz is gripping, darkly funny, and whip smart. I am a sucker for an isolated college campus populated by people with lots of secrets — delicious and twisty.
Sharpen your axes, ladies, and get ready for this fierce, fun, unsparing novel of female rage, power, and friendship.
I really enjoyed the author’s Spellman books, so I decided from the beginning that I would probably enjoy this one. Not so fast! This book had a plot that was supposed to be mysterious but that was easy to figure out. It had way too many characters, with only a few of them well-developed. This book infuriated me with the foul language and the adult content since the book itself seemed to be directed towards a young adult audience. I would NOT recommend that my teen-aged grandchildren read this book. The premise of the book is that a new teacher, Alexandra Witt, appears at a third rate boarding school named Stonebridge. Through her creative writing class, Alex discovers that the school has a social ladder called The Ten and a place called “The Darkroom” that is not a good place to be since many of her students named it as a place that they hated in their assignment. Once Alex finds out that there is something definitely going on that is wrong at the school, she investigates and ends up being threatened herself. There are no real secrets in the book but it was an okay read. The ending was very melodramatic but not unexpected. All in all, I was disappointed in this book, but I look forward to more of the author’s books since she normally entertains me with her writing. This novel, however, just was not for me, although it may appeal to those who enjoy this kind of slow suspense.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
A different type of book for me but enjoyable. Took me a bit to get through it more of a dark twisted funny story. The characters are well thought out and kept my interest to see what the girls would actually do. Some of the topics involved made you actually think what if. All in all a good story to pass the time. will go back and try some other titles from this author.
What kind of trouble can students at Stonebridge Academy get into?
Read this book and you will find out.
The subject matter may be uncomfortable for some people but the story is more than that.
The Swallows is a complex book full of memorable characters and dynamic plot threads that all come together in a heart-stopping ending.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t sold at the beginning. For starters, there were a lot of characters to remember. The story takes place at a New England boarding school, and there are plenty of students’ and teachers’ names to remember. Also, the beginning – although interesting – moved a little slowly. However, by the fourth chapter, I was hooked.
Once the story gained momentum, I became intrigued by each of the main characters. There were some who started out seemingly good and then, by the end of the book, turned out to be bad. There were others who seemed shady but turned out to be good. I loved the complexity of the cast.
I also liked how the school’s secrets were gradually exposed. When I was reading, I had a strong feeling that something was very wrong at the school, but only as I read on did I find out how dysfunctional the students and faculty were. Each chapter did a great job of laying the groundwork for the ending.
The last few chapters were some of the best I’ve read. Certainly, they were among the top of what I’ve read this year. Beware, however. The end of the book doesn’t tie up everything with a nice bow. There are lingering questions and a few loose ends. I didn’t mind this at all, but not every reader likes uncertainty.
Overall, The Swallows was an excellent thriller that will leave you thinking about long after you’ve finished reading.
Four out of five stars.
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.