Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An Australian immigrant navigates an English boarding school in Patrick's revelatory debut. The narrator is there to serve as "the Matron," the only name given to her in the novel. Between classes, she steals glances at Mrs. S, the headmaster's ravishing wife and a model of assured elegance. In the aftermath of a fight between a student and a visitor, members of the administration attempt damage control, providing an opportunity for the Matron and Mrs. S to spend more time together. Over the course of their work, they embark on a secret and torrid love affair despite their class differences. "Such things," the narrator thinks, "the heart cannot help but translate." As the school deals with a potential scandal involving underage drinking, the narrator's season of bliss is imperiled by Mrs. S's need to keep up appearances, prompting the narrator to vow, "I will become whatever she wants." Patrick makes palpable the compromises required by secret love, and though the romance is aching and well crafted, what emerges above all is a fascinating character portrait, that of a woman obscure to the world but radiant inside. Patrick wrings the exotic world of privilege for all that it's worth. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT This first novel is a melancholic yet seductive character study following a young, unnamed Australian woman at an English boarding school. Working as the school's matron, the narrator is bored by her job and isolated by her marked otherness as both a foreigner and a lesbian, until she meets the headmaster's wife, Mrs. S. The narrator quickly falls for Mrs. S, and they soon begin a passionate affair. During this time, the narrator also befriends the Housemistress, the only other lesbian staff member and the only one who seems to understand the narrator's relationship to masculinity and gender. Although much of the plot centers around the narrator and Mrs. S's affair, the novel is, at its heart, about the protagonist's emotional journey. With no mentions of modern technology, the setting takes on a liminal feeling, adding to the feeling of displacement that the protagonist experiences. The writing style is minimalist yet beautiful, and the text uses neither quotation marks nor paragraph breaks to indicate speech, blending the narrator's interior experiences with her external ones. VERDICT A powerful and introspective novel that fans of queer literary fiction will savor.--Jennifer Renken
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Dark academia meets forbidden love as an English boarding school matron falls in love with the headmaster's wife, Mrs. S. Unfolding through interior monologue, the novel follows the matron as she navigates her growing attraction to Mrs. S amid the politics of school administration and the complicated adolescent power dynamics of "The Girls," as she calls the students. The protagonist, identified only as "Miss," is drawn to Mrs. S from their first encounter, commenting, "I am discovered, I burn. Like her I stand my ground. Dare her to wave, to give that hand to me." Given the circumstances, however, their erotic relationship evolves slowly and behind closed doors--via glances held just a moment too long or a finger grazing a back. As desire trumps vigilance, they increasingly risk exposure by colleagues, Mr. S, and even The Girls. "Loving her will be impossible," the narrator confesses. "There is nothing I can do to stop it." Patrick's deft manipulation of narrative time and use of interior monologue to describe the tensions among thought, intention, and action recall the work of Virginia Woolf. The novel is also strikingly cinematic in its rendering of intimate moments: the setting sun filling the space between bodies moving closer toward each other in a kitchen, Mrs. S' hand sliding slowly across the spines of the narrator's books during a secret rendezvous. The drama of the forbidden affair keeps the reader voraciously turning the pages, but on a deeper level, the novel also offers an incisive and nuanced reflection on self-evolution as the narrator navigates the complexities of gender identity, social power, and the dynamic tension between private and public selves. An erotic yet high-minded literary achievement. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
