The Hawthorne School A novel

Single mother Claudia Vera, the heroine of the pseudonymous Perry's unsettling debut, supports herself and her fractious four-year-old son, Henry, as a massage therapist in the Chicago area. When Henry rebels against his traditional preschool, Claudia visits the Hawthorne School, a former convent converted to a progressive Scandinavian-style "forest school," which emphasizes outdoor learning. Claudia is charmed by the quirky director, Zelma Huxley, who offers her a tuition break in return for her volunteering at the school. At first, Henry does well, and Claudia is pleased by his improved behavior. But as time passes, it becomes clear Zelma and her handsome assistant, Niles Holloway, have a secret agenda. They play on Claudia's love for Henry and her feelings of inadequacy, drawing her into physical and psychological dependence by drugging her tea and food, with potentially dire consequences for her relationship with Henry. Perry, herself a psychotherapist, expertly explores the vulnerability of a well-meaning but insecure parent to manipulation, but her frightening narrative falters as it slides toward a surrealistic and unconvincing conclusion. Still, psychological thriller fans will be curious to see what she does next. Agent: Danielle Bukowski, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Dec.)

The first suspense novel by a pseudonymous Chicago psychotherapist follows a 4-year-old boy and his mother into a school that's all too perfect. At wits' end because her son, Henry, is miserable and miserably noncompliant at Happy Start Preschool, Claudia Vera, an artist-turned--massage therapist, takes him to visit The Hawthorne School. Even though she knows she could never afford it, she's encouraged by her neighbor Maggie Timmerberg, who hints that parents can volunteer there to subsidize enrollment. Zelma Huxley, the ageless director of the school, is so taken with Henry that she instantly offers Claudia a similar deal, and the weeks that follow are idyllic. Henry loves the school, bonds closely with his teacher, Evelyn Applegate, and charms everyone, who agree that he's the perfect little boy. Inevitably, however, storm clouds arise. Devin Richards, the man who abandoned Claudia and Henry weeks after his son was born, returns out of the blue and presses Claudia to withdraw the boy from the school. Claudia begins to sense that something's not quite right about Zelma's assistant, Niles Holloway, who befriends her with ferocious possessiveness. She feels Henry growing more distant from her day by day. Yet she's so peaceful when she's at the school and so unhappy when she's away from it that she feels compelled to quit her job, take up residence at the school, and do Zelma's bidding as the staff awaits the imminent arrival of Gabriel Hawthorne, the late founder's all-powerful son. As the horrors in this by-the-numbers fable of Stepford children become more literal, they get harder and harder to swallow. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.