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Book Review: The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham
While author Elin Hilderbrand has officially retired from publishing a “Nantucket” summer novel each year, she recently embarked upon an adventure to write a boarding school book with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham. Cunningham and one of her older brothers opted to attend boarding school rather than graduate from Nantucket High School, and Hilderbrand has made it no secret that she’s always been fascinated by the the settings of these exclusive schools. So while she didn’t attend one herself, she collaborated with Cunningham to create a fictional school set in Massachusetts called Tiffin Academy in their latest novel. Her daughter graduated from St. George’s School in Rhode Island. “The Academy” follows a colorful cast…
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Book Review: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
I picked up this novel by author Liz Moore for two reasons—many other authors and reviewers whose opinions I respect recommended it and I wanted to see if it was a comparative title to my latest work in progress, a novel about a podcaster whose sister disappears from a North Carolina summer camp. Basically, I couldn’t get away from this book. I saw it everywhere I went, from online spaces, podcasts, and prominently displayed on the front tables at my local bookstores. Here’s the official synopsis: Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter…
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Book Review: Survive the Night by Riley Sager
It’s November 1991, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, George H.W. Bush is in the White House, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer. I picked up Survive the Night this past summer while browsing at one of my favorite independent bookstores in Asheville, N.C. I read a lot of Christopher Pike novels when I was a teenager, and as this book is set in 1991, the plot description reminded me of themes Pike favored. The structure of the book, set up as if describing the narrative arc of a Hollywood screenplay, appealed to me. The protagonist, Charlie, reminded me of my…