The Truants

This is a remarkably assured debut, deftly plotted and with vivid, compelling characters that leap off the page. I had no idea where it was going to end up — but I knew I would be satisfied, and I was. I look forward to seeing what Kate Weinberg writes next.

A deeply affecting, artfully written, and entirely gripping story… The novel combines the best elements of a crime thriller, a campus novel, a love story and a psychological study. It is always beautifully and surprisingly written, has a perfect sense of plot, and is consistently clever. Weinberg is a major talent.

Well written. The relationships were a little too twisted for my tastes. My distress with this book probably says more about my experiences in life with untrustworthy people in my own life.

I loved The Truants. It grabbed me from page 1, and the first few chapters had me engrossed like no other book I’ve read for years. Not because anything startling happens, but the author’s style, characters, words, story are all just so compelling. The pace of the book is extraordinary, takes you in, keeps you enthralled and just as I was wondering where it was going, along came the final part of the ‘mystery’ and it knocked me out again. I felt like I had gone through it all with the protagonist. I think the blurb of comparing it to Donna Tartt meets Agatha Christie is perfect. Wonderful.

Various sources have compared this book to the brilliant novel, A Secret History, by Donna Tartt. It’s true that this novel revolves around a group of students and a charismatic professor. And, yes, this novel, like Tartt’s, focuses on students who are smitten with a professor and obsessing over various inappropriate lust/love attractions. Oh, right, and there’s a tragic death. But that’s pretty much where the similarities end. For starters, these students are studying Agatha Christie, and she’s only touched upon as an author here. You don’t need to know anything about Christie to read this book, nor will it make you want to read her mysteries. That’s just a framework for the real story, which is about how a young, inexperienced woman idolizes a professor who is inappropriate with her students (if the gender of the professor were male, this would be a very different story) and falls in love with an inappropriate guy whose dickheadedness you’ll guess early on. Jess, unfortunately, is the sort of passive female protagonist who lets things happen TO her; she’s the equivalent of that naive babysitter who hears noises in the basement. You want to shout the equivalent of, “Don’t go down in the basement alone, you moron!” at her throughout the book. I kept wanting her to be more of a take-charge protagonist.

However, having said all that, I also want to point out that the novel is beautifully written, especially toward the end, and that kept me reading. I loved the lush imagery and descriptions of the settings, and some of the individual scenes were gripping and well-paced.

Weinberg’s gripping and luminous debut, The Truants, lays bare the lengths to which we will go to feel seen, even when this means being blind to the glaring faults of others. At once thrilling and heart breaking, The Truants is a novel that beautifully captures how easy it is to wound those we love and be wounded by them, and the long, anguished road to forgiveness that follows.

One of the best books I have read in… forever. I fell in love with these characters and am still mourning that I don’t get to live in their world anymore. Kate’s writing is like a wickedly brilliant Donna Tartt, Agatha Christie and Liane Moriarty all mixed into one… Nothing but absolutely brilliant from beginning to end.

A mesmerizing novel of infatuation and betrayal, reminiscent of Muriel Spark and Donna Tartt. Kate Weinberg makes a stunning debut!