I Am Her Revenge

February 9, 2015
Moore’s debut is a sort of Fatal Attraction by way of Flowers in the Attic. Vivian is just turning 18 when she arrives at Madigan, a boarding school in Yorkshire, under orders to destroy a boy named Ben by making him fall hopelessly in love with her. The orders come from Mother, whose “keening wail” over the boy who broke her own heart (Ben’s father) is a hallmark of Vivian’s early memories. Vivian has been groomed from birth in every tactic to captivate a male and stay cold herself. Mother’s obsession is unbounded—she’ll have a little boy beaten or slit the throats of kittens to further her aims. Vivian has always given Mother her unquestioning obedience, but her intentions to carry out Mother’s revenge are jeopardized by the appearance of Arthur, the uneducated son of Mother’s servant, who grew into a skilled poet under Vivian’s tutelage before vanishing from her life. The conceit is unconvincingly overstretched, but Moore is a gifted descriptive writer who brings her imaginings to strong sensory life. Ages 12–up. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, Janklow and Nesbit.

February 1, 2015
A girl raised to be a weapon by her brutal mother must decide whether she's willing to ruin a boy's life for the sake of revenge.For most teenagers, the first day at a prestigious boarding school in England would be fraught with nervous energy, but Vivian feels only duty and determination to please her mother as she begins to explore Madigan School in Yorkshire. When she was a girl herself, Vivian's mother's heart was broken by the now enormously wealthy creator of a digital doll program called Ava. Now Vivian's mother has sent her to Madigan to ruin the life of her former beau's son, to teach him a lesson in a new kind of heartbreak. Though Vivian sees herself as a weapon, distance from the cruel woman who tortured her as a child now gives her pause. The only friend she ever had mysteriously appears at Madigan, and suddenly it's her own heart she's at war with. Though given ample space for depth and development, Vivian never feels like a true product of her upbringing and her twisted mission. Instead, she's distant and waffling, with all of her lovelorn beaus and school-hall bullies standing out as vivid players in her story in unfortunate contrast. Though there are countless nods to mythic tragedies, well-earned emotion eludes this drama. More soap operatic than Shakespearian. (Thriller. 14-18)

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February 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-The circumstances under which Vivian comes to The Madigan School are anything but typical. Arriving at the school in the British countryside midyear, she takes the place of a young woman reputed to have been fraternizing with a member of the faculty, a charge that few seem to believe, including the student's roommate. Nonetheless, Mother needs Vivian to attend this school and Mother is accustomed to getting what she wants. For her part, Vivian is accustomed to bending to her mother's every whim, or suffering very real consequences for her disobedience. She has been bred to take on any role needed to further Mother's plans for revenge, but Vivian's task at Madigan is to cultivate a plot ending in the ultimate humiliation of the man who had betrayed Mother years before. While playing out this plan upon the man's son, also a student at Madigan, Vivian begins to unravel quite a bit of her mother's secret history. This journey of discovery will prove to be the undoing of each character's precariously balanced life. Moore leads readers through carefully constructed paths, set on the English moors, in her debut novel. The tightly concocted plotlines and clearly drawn characters are delivered in digestible pieces. The themes reinforce the idea that love does not have to be the undoing of any young female character. VERDICT A refreshing and dramatic tale with a fearless and fragile protagonist.-Colleen S. Banick, Westport Public Schools, CT

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