Kate Walbert - His Favorites
After fifteen-year-old Jo Hadley is involved in a foolish stunt that kills her best friend, she’s persona non grata in her hometown and is shipped off to a boarding school. Vulnerable, if not naïve, Jo is harassed by a thirty-four-year-old teacher known as the Master. She knows she’s not the first student he has lied to and manipulated, but when she reports his behavior, her complaints are dismissed—because of that wild streak in her record?—and the abuse continues. Many years later, still feeling the malicious chill of the Master’s shadow, Jo tells her story. In this brief, taut novel, Walbert, author of books including The Sunken Cathedral and A Short History of Women, deftly explores issues of power dynamics, conformity, self-image, and truth.