The ivy and iron, the antique traditions, those gloomy, insular New England towns--there's something a little sinister about literary prep schools, especially one with a shady past and a secret society that terrorizes the school's elite. But while The Year of the Gadfly has enough drama and betrayal to rival The Secret History, Jennifer Miller's debut novel is more heartfelt than troubling and more funny than scary.
Fourteen-year-old Iris Dupont is still smarting from the suicide of her best friend when she starts ninth grade at Mariana Academy, a tony prep school in Nye, Mass. Plucky, precocious--and certain to resent that description--Iris is an aspiring journalist who regularly confers with the chain-smoking apparition of Edward R. Murrow. "I'd imagine Murrow in the room with me, the two of us speaking frankly about school, or the despicable state of the broadcast media," Iris explains. But not even Murrow's smoky guidance can prepare Iris for Prisom's Party, an underground society bent on vilifying anyone who violates Mariana's storied Honor Code. While the Party's intentions appear just, its destructive schemes and humiliating spectacles go too far--and Iris's sleuthing leads her into a sad, twisted story involving Mariana's unspoken history, her favorite teacher, Mr. Kaplan, and Lily, the mysterious albino girl who once lived in Iris's bedroom.
With wry sensitivity and a keen understanding of the deadly social landmines any high school student has to navigate (even without the intrigue), Miller has created a laudable heroine in Iris--and a poignant story about friendship and loss. --Hannah Calkins, blogger at Unpunished Vice