"As readers, we like to put ourselves in the shoes of the characters we read about, to ask ourselves what we might do in the same situations. I think it's normal to be fascinated by the darker side of humanity. As with true crime stories, it can be riveting to delve into the events and circumstances that might turn a good person into a monster or, at the very least, make them commit monstrous acts. And to ask ourselves, Could this be me? Am I capable of this too?"
These words in Jennifer Niven's Acknowledgements in her When We Were Monsters explore some of the reasons why this sophisticated and perfectly executed chiller is so impossible to put down from the very first paragraphs:
"The day before we kill Meredith Graffam is calm and blue. Like Massachusetts in summer after the rain. The scent of earth and flowers and fresh, clean air. Just a perfect sunlit day.
None of us will walk into the forest that night planning to commit murder. It's easy when you're surrounded by beauty and opulence and acres of privilege, to convince yourself that life will always be as rose-colored as this and nothing can go wrong."
The us are eight students at an elite Massachusetts private school, Brighton and Howe, who have been selected for Jan Term Visiting Artist series, an annual tradition held between fall and spring semesters. For several weeks they will be sequestered in the sprawling (and properly eerie) mansion of the school's founders, set apart from the school by a dark and dismal forest. At the end of those weeks one of them will win a $15,000 scholarship and a chance to have their work produced and/or published. Talk about your high stakes competition! Meredith Graffam is the visiting artist, a woman equally well known for her work and for the controversies surrounding her.
The first full day of the program there's a troubling incident. The students and Graffam are standing outside on a cliff overlooking the ocean. She tells them that anyone who doesn't jump in the frigid water will be sent home. It's not the last time she'll put them in serious danger. Meanwhile she manipulates them into sharing their deepest secrets and vulnerabilities.
And she's kicking people out. It's not long until half the students are gone, Graffam is acting increasingly and menacingly strange, the teens are learning that she's not being truthful with them, they're cut off from the rest of the world...
...and there's this big old blizzard, predicted to be the storm of the century, closing in.
If you're drawn to dark academia, you like chillers set in eerie sprawling mansions surrounded by ominous forests, and you can handle real suspense put When We Were Monsters on your Halloween reading list. You wouldn't want to miss out on a real treat.
On a purrrsonal note, it's another gorgeous day in Penobscot County, Maine. The predicted rain is holding off. I get to work outside near my flowers. I will so miss them during the long, frigid, desolate winter. Today is the Community Garden volunteers pot luck dinner. That should be bittersweet. Fun but another reminder of the upcoming encroachment of winter.
I was really pissed off today 😤 when I read a political article that said we should not vote for Janet Mills because she's 79. I can remember when candidates were considered being unfit for office because of factors like gender, race, and religion. A lot of people voted against Kennedy because he was Catholic. Ageism, sadly, is still accepted, often unseen. There are legit reasons not to vote for someone: disagreement with their policies and stands on key issues; evidence of criminal and/or unethical conduct, and evidence of severe mental and physical health issues such as Alzheimers. Age per se should not be any more of a factor than gender, race/ethnicity race/ethnicity, or religion.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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