The Swallows

June 17, 2019
This sardonic standalone by the author of the Spellman Files mystery series takes no prisoners in its attack on the misogynist culture of a New England prep school in 2009. When 20-something Alex Witt, dismissed from her former teaching job under mysterious circumstances, starts teaching creative writing at Stonebridge, she senses a simmering conflict among her upperclassmen students. Most of the more popular young men, under the leadership of nefarious Adam, have formed a semisecret society devoted to rating the young women on their sexual abilities, and, not incidentally, humiliating them. The young women, led by volatile Gemma and joined by a couple of the more enlightened guys, decide to take them down by any means necessary. As the situation escalates, careers and lives are threatened. Lutz is harder on the faculty members, whose comfortable lives depend on looking the other way, than on the more weak-willed of the male students, who scrabble to protect themselves. Although she features such a large cast of characters, she builds her plot cannily and walks a neat line between satire and realism. Lutz’s withering portrayal of how the #MeToo movement plays out in this rarefied setting should shock some and delight others.

June 15, 2019
High school English teacher Alex Witt jumps from the frying pan into the fire when she takes a job at Stonebridge Academy, a Vermont boarding school. Alex doesn't love teaching, but it's a living, and she's hoping for a new start at Stonebridge after a debacle sent her packing from her last job. Dean Gregory Stinson, a friend of Alex's famous author father, Len Wilde, is happy to give her a place on staff, but a bait and switch has her teaching creative writing instead of English. Alex isn't thrilled but settles into getting to know her class. Her initiation isn't easy: Someone leaves a dead rat in her desk, and strange, vaguely threatening notes keep appearing at her barely livable cottage. Weeding out the good eggs from the troublemakers isn't easy, but Alex gives it the college try and even makes a few (maybe) friends among the staff. When a student named Gemma Russo makes Alex aware of an exclusive online forum called the Darkroom, where Stonebridge boys post photos and text about their sexual exploits and girls are vigorously scored, Alex can't ignore what's happening, but she's not eager to put herself out there in the face of adult enablers and vicious boys who will do anything to keep their toxic traditions alive. Luckily, Gemma is quietly recruiting an army to take the nasty little cabal down, and Alex offers guidance, never guessing just how far things might go. In 2009, when this is set, the term "boys will be boys" wasn't yet being truly challenged as an acceptable explanation for entitled, misogynistic male behavior, and questions of consent weren't at the forefront. Stonebridge is a perfect example of this kind of dysfunctional, entrenched culture. Lutz (The Passenger, 2016, etc.) draws on the droll humor and idiosyncratic characterizations that make her Spellman novels so appealing, and just about no one is quite who they seem. But kindness and decency do manifest in surprising places, revealed through the alternating narratives of Alex, Gemma, and others. An offbeat, darkly witty pre-#MeToo revenge tale. The patriarchy doesn't stand a chance.

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July 12, 2019

Lutz ("Spellman" series; The Passenger) makes a promising start with this super-smart and biting novel set at a Vermont prep school. Alex Witt, daughter of a jaded novelist and former Soviet fencing champ, who are divorced but still entangled, arrives to teach literature at Stonebridge Academy after a messy incident at her previous job. She ends up heading a creative writing course instead and soon learns the popular boys at the school have a secret online club that ranks the girls's oral-sex abilities. The girls, led by misfit orphan Gemma, become aware of this and wage war against the boys, egged on by Alex. What starts out as a digital, shamey campaign turns physical and dangerous. In the battle of the entitled sexes, nobody wins and some will lose their lives. A large cast of characters and multiple narrators slows down the story, but Gemma, Alex, and a scrappy first-year named Linny come alive. The male characters--teachers, a dean, boy allies, boy villains--are less believable but good foils. The ending feels rushed and chaotic, but that's also fitting. VERDICT Lutz's many fans will enjoy this, as will those who devour boarding-school novels such as Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep or #metoo revenge stories. [See Prepub Alert, 3/11/19.]--Liz French, Library Journal

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2019
As the newest faculty member at Stonebridge Academy, a small New England prep school, Alex Witt is ready for students to test her resolve, and her cool response scores high. But dark secrets lurk in the hallways, waiting to be exposed by the unafraid or the foolhardy. Alex and a few of her female students might be the right mix to take on the boys of the Darkroom, finally putting an end to their dirty dealings?as long as the ladies don't forget cornered animals can be vicious. In her witty and charming style, Lutz (The Passenger, 2016) offers a genre-busting work of fiction that will satisfy readers looking for a seriously engaging read. The story itself is disturbingly plausible, and the humanly flawed characters make choices, good and bad, based on their backgrounds, all blending smoothly into a darkly comedic mystery. The large cast offers diverse viewpoints on the action, but the multiple perspectives never become overwhelming. As tangled as the truth often is, this novel keeps readers on the edge of their seats while opening a conversation about public shaming, economic privilege, gender inequity, and revenge versus justice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)