The Illness Lesson

Stunning. I will have to reread to get everything out of it–it's rich like that. Caroline and Samuel and Daniel are such complex characters. The rage against the patriarchy is so intricately, quietly built and rippling. But I wish there had been a trigger warning for sexual assault–that bit was truly horrifying.

Written in the style of Dickens, Waugh, Alcott - this harrowing tale of young girls at a forward-thinking boarding school who are caught up in feelings that are labelled hysteria by a medical doctor, told through the perspective of the young female teacher whose father runs the school. Reminiscent of the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock and the play The Crucible.