The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

November 11, 2013
Two years after her mother’s suicide, Anne Merchant is sent to boarding school. Anne is used to being an outcast—her mother was mentally ill, and her father is a mortician—and she hopes things will change at Cania Christy, an exclusive institution on an island off the Maine coast; they certainly do. While Anne has long dreamed of becoming valedictorian of her class, she isn’t prepared for how the process works at Cania. She’s assigned a Guardian she describes as “the ugliest son of a bitch alive” to guide her and evaluate her progress 24/7. He advises her to cultivate her talent for “seduction,” making the most of her “hyper-sexualized state.” She rejects the advice, but can’t stop thinking about it—at least until she witnesses the locals’ is-it-real-or-isn’t-it baby-burning ritual. Wiebe’s first novel uses the oft-seen boarding school setting to saturate this coming-of-age story in eroticized, derivative horror. The book opens a paranormal trilogy, but while major revelations turn Anne’s world on its head, it’s not a world that invites lingering. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jason Anthony, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

February 1, 2014
Grades 7-12 A shadowy, sinister island cloaked in mystery and secrecy off the coast of Maine is home to Cania Christy, a school for privileged, beautiful teens. However, Anne, a junior and up-and-coming artist, is different from the rest of the students: she is the brilliant daughter of a poor mortician. From her first moment there, nothing seems to be . . . quite right. She is assigned her prosperitas thema (PT), or success theme, by which she must live, act, and breathe as part of the competition to be named valedictorian, the title for which everyone battles obsessively. Her PT is simply to look closer. As she does, she uncovers the shocking truth behind the odd behaviors, rules, and occurrences that are all part of an unearthly, chilling plan. Dripping with delectably eerie overtones, this debut novel and first book in the V Trilogy dips its beckoning fingers into the dark, unspoken corners of death and desire, daring us to wonder how far we would go to hold on to those we love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)