Here, and only here

Christelle Dabos, 1980-

Book - 2023

"Welcome to the School of Here, an unsettling and peculiar place that is nonetheless familiar to us all. A place full of codes and unspoken rules that are passed down from year to year. At Here, society is highly stratified, the pairs, friend groups, and outcasts are all ruled by a godlike prince. This year--as all other years--things are not at all as they seem. A self-effacing first-year student vanishes into thin air. A persecuted outsider delivers himself into permanent exile. A tyrannical upperclassman meets his match. A newly-minted prophetess tests her powers. And, behind the scenes, a cabal of students conducts a top-secret investigation into the unexplained phenomenon at the heart of it all. Back to school season marks the sta...rt of a time-honored cycle of revolution and rebirth in which each must play their part. With Here, and Only Here, Christelle Dabos - author of the international sensation The Mirror Visitor Quartet - gives readers an intriguing and penetrating novel that explores the difficulties of fitting in and the private, individual choices that make up the sometimes abhorrent, always unpredictable Collective" --

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Subjects
Genres
Fantasy fiction
Published
New York : Europa Editions 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
Christelle Dabos, 1980- (author)
Other Authors
Hildegarde Serle (translator)
Item Description
"First published in French by Gallimard Jeunesse. First publication 2023 by Europa Editions."
Physical Description
209 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781609459567
  • First Term
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Madeleine
  • Guy
  • Iris
  • The Top-Secret Club
  • Pierre
  • Guy
  • Madeleine
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Guy
  • The Top-Secret Club
  • Second Term
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Madeleine
  • Guy
  • The Substitute Teacher
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Guy
  • Madeleine
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Guy
  • The Substitute Teacher
  • Third Term
  • The Top-Secret Club
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Guy
  • Madeleine
  • Iris
  • Pierre
  • Guy
  • The Top-Secret Club
  • The Substitute Teacher
  • Iris
  • Madeleine
  • Guy
  • Pierre
  • Together (or almost)
  • New School Year
  • You
  • About the Author
Review by Booklist Review

First published in France, this is one strange book about a strange school called only Here, inhabited by some strange preteen students. Consider: Madeleine, a "chosen," a guru with modest miraculous powers; Pierre, who murdered a classmate who's now haunting him; Iris, who has become invisible; and The Prince, who by choice, occupies the seat in the very center of the room, smoking a joint, unchallenged as the other students, forbidden to look directly at him, obey his every command. The Prince offers to swap places with Guy, who is fascinated by Sofie, the girl from abroad with a unibrow who tells him she loves him. Every Thursday at 2:28, a mysterious substance called The Schmoil flows--presaging Armageddon?--observed by members of the Top Secret Club. The substitute teacher, a former student at Here--who has a surprising alternative identity--observes all of this cyclical activity. The book's point of view shifts among four students--Madeleine, Pierre, Iris, and Guy--in vignettes that move the action briskly. The kids' stories are fascinating, delving sometimes into the obscure; half the fun of this enticingly peculiar book is trying to tease out meanings. While not for every reader, the novel will appeal to those who enjoy something radically different.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Secondary school can be a nightmare, and that's particularly true of a macabre school governed by peculiar social rules and supernatural machinations in this novel translated from French. The story follows four students, each feeling like outcasts in their own ways. First-year Iris abandons her childhood friend in his time of need and suffers the consequences. Pierre, the odd one out who's without a partner to share his desk in a class of 27 students, is violently bullied and ostracized. Madeleine feels insecure and ascribes mystical powers to herself. Guy is paired with a new girl in class and starts to question the tyrannical rule of the prince who dominates his class. Meanwhile, a small cabal of students who call themselves the Top-Secret Club meet to discuss the underlying cause of the school's peculiarities, which they ascribe to the schmoil, a supernatural substance in the pipes. All of this is a metaphor for the isolating perils of existing as an adolescent within the social trappings of schools that so often operate according to elaborate, cliquish, and downright indecipherable social conventions. This is well-trodden territory, and this iteration feels particularly impenetrable. The prose is clunky, and the circumstances of the characters feel so odd that they nearly obscure the familiar emotions of loneliness, isolation, and insecurity that readers might otherwise find relatable. A dense fever dream that's not for the faint of heart. (Paranormal. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.