I started this book and after the first 100-150 pages i was ready to give it a 4-5 star rating. But things started to slip after that. I don’t necessarily know when it started but something shifted in me.
Alex Witt comes to a sub-elite prep school in Vermont thinking she’s going to be teaching English Lit. Things don’t go as planned. Her father, once a professor (?) at the school has a lot of influence.
I liked Alex. She was string and willful and wasn’t afraid to say what she thought or stand up to the sometimes unruly students. But there’s a secret within the school. Something she discovers after assigning her first creative writing assignment. There’s something called the Darkroom that the males seem to like but the females don’t.
As she starts putting pieces together so do a few of the students.
What follows next is an all out war - male vs. female.
What started out as a bang ended with a whimper IMO. I read the book but was left feeling unsatisfied.
So that’s how i ended up with 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for thenARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was pretty depressing and disturbing. I liked the concept of the resistance but ultimately I didn’t find it satisfying.

Interesting premise in an insulated environment. It seemed realistic to me when you are talking about a co-ed boarding school. That is a lot of hormones and immaturity in a small, secluded space. It felt like it took longer than needed for it to pull it all together though. I kept waiting for the action which really took place in the last 10%.

Notes:
- It was interesting that she chose to set this book in 2009/2010. It feels like a precursor to #MeToo but like she didn’t want to mention it.
- I am not sure I understood Gemma’s motivation. She was so focused on it but only a couple years later when she was a senior herself. Linny’s motivation was more realistic.
- I wanted to dig into Claude’s back story more. We didn’t hear from her directly so it was hard to see how this all fit together. Same holds true for Adam. I feel like we were missing some key background on how it all started, especially given Witt’s epiphany about Dulcinea. At the same time, I expected more from Witt’s back story.
- The ending bothered me, too rushed and convenient. I hated that the one person with lasting effects didn’t deserve it at all.

Yes it's a boarding school novel and yes it's about a me-too issue but this novel is also smart, funny, and insightful. And eventually you'll understand the title! Alex Witt is the new writing teacher and she's got a class full of sullen (aka typical) teens. Her first assignment is a questionnaire- and it's anonymous. That questionnaire gives her a window into life at the school but she's not sure, initially what a BJ is. Hah. Gemma is one of the students; she's a foster kid who landed at the school due to her stellar academics. She's determined to break the back of the boys who are involved in the Dulcinea contest and enlists a group of female students. Told alternately by Alex and Gemma, with a few chapters from one of the male teachers (his voice is not as clear as Alex or Gemma) and from Norman, who runs the website and who helps the girls. There are some great characters here (I also loved Alex's mom and Linny) as well as some clever bits. Keep in mind this is set in 2009. If I have a quibble it's with the end but that's ok- I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fans of Lisa Lutz give her a break and understand that this is a standalone0 and she's a great writer with a wicked way with a plot. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An excellent read.

As many times as I've read books that I absolutely love, this one hit a very special, different, powerful note.

First of all, The Swallows is set in 2009, so, pure nostalgia for me. I was but a wee baby college freshman. But holy shit, do these events really resonate. Alex Witt does not want to teach creative writing. At all. Just because her father is a semi-well known author, that doesn't mean she wants to teach rich kids at a boarding school how to write. But damn, after the shit show that was her last teaching job, she'll accept it.

Enter Gemma Russo, an absolute badass I both want to be like and to protect from the worst parts of the world. She knows there's something sketchy and terrible happening at Stonebridge, but she can't quite place her finger on what. She just knows the guys in her class are overly cocky, and she hates all but two of them.

Alex is definitely who I would've been if I'd ended up ever pursuing teaching. She's very much a laissez-faire type teacher, but she's not above shutting shit down when she needs to. She notices a lot of her students respond to the "what do you hate" question with one act: blow jobs. Thus, the Blowchart is born:

I'll say now, nothing is ever explicitly described when it comes to various sexual acts. It's guys being the absolute shittiest versions of guys, and it's all accurate. Like, these are all guys I've interacted with, or been friends with, or known in some capacity.

The teachers aren't much better. Finn Ford, the old creative writing teacher, is such a scumbag. Martha Primm is complicit in sweeping terrible things under the rug. Claudine Shepherd is the sexy librarian, with a whole massive closet of skeletons. And Dean Stinson...he's clueless, but not because he doesn't care, but because he's so focused on trying to keep everything afloat.

Gemma and her band of girls are such powerful figures. They all want revenge for being codified into just numbers and statistics on their *ahem* performances. This is the exact book we need right now.

A powerhouse of a book that fits properly into the #MeToo movement, I give The Swallows 5 out of 5 axes. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for providing a copy in exchange for review.

Alex Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, hoping to put her previous teaching job behind her. When her first creative writing assignment generates some disturbing responses from her students, Alex starts digging to get to the answers. Alex soon uncovers something called "the ten", the top ten of each classes’s social hierarchy—and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She begins to inspire the girls who’ve started to tire of the boys' attitudes and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her—and what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place.
There was lots to love about this book. I especially loved the strong female protagonist. She was quirky and authentic and didn't put up with anything. I loved how each chapter was told in turns by the different students and teachers. I loved that there were a couple of shockers in there too. I think you will really enjoy this.

This was just infuriating.

Stonebridge is a private high boarding school for the more rich teens and some scholarships. There's been a terrible group of boys that has run this underground blow job ring where they rate the girls on performance, and often include naked pictures. The teachers all know about it, but because the "boys are so cunning" anyone that tries to make a case against them gets terminated in one way or another. Enter Alex Witt. She's the new English teacher, except she gets conned right away and is not the Creative Writings teacher. The dean knows her parents, and the whole school basically knows about her. She's running from an incident at her old school that involved a crazed student stalker, and decides teaching here while living in the woods will be the best solution. That is until she discovers that there is this hidden oral sex ring and that the girls are sick of it, because who wouldn't be honestly.

The story is told from four perspectives. Miss Witt as she deals with encouraging the girls to fight back and tried to navigate having sex with the right teacher at the school. Mr. Ford, who has decided to turn the shitty underside of his school into his own cash cow and writes it up as a fiction novel. Which he then sells for a lot of money. Who then blames all his problems on the women in his life... Can't see why he wasn't a good influence. Then there's Gemma, who's a senior, who is also an orphan with no where to go, and is sick of what is happening at the school and wants revenge. Finally, there's Norman, who is a coward but also a computer geek and controls the darkroom, which is the website where all of the comments and photos are kept. Honestly, this whole thing could have been solved if Norman had just sent the police a link to the page with all the information about deciphering everything and then the police could just arrest the whole school.... That wouldn't have been as long though. Oh, also, there are Announcements every few chapters, which are supposed to be some clever ploy for something... I didn't really get the purpose except it's yet another secret the whole school is keeping about who is actually doing them.

The book is written to make it sound like the four of them are confessing to police or something about how it all went wrong in one year, but there is no real conclusion or wrap up, or explanation why it was written like that. I kept waiting for something and nothing ever happened. Even the ending, with the big retaliation scene, just fell flat because at this point I was so sick of everyone that I wanted it to be over and done with and the two people that died were not significant enough to warrant all of this build up.

What was supposed to be this suspenseful mystery of boarding school underbelly, became a dull collection of snapshots of people failing to be adults and/or call the police as needed.

This copy was provided by NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

How you feel about this book depends on how you expect from Lisa Lutz. If you're a fan of "The Passenger" you are probably looking forward to a novel like one of those sled rides where once you push off you are flying non-stop towards the end with absolutely no chance to catch your breath until you screech to a stop and close the back cover. This is not that book.

"The Swallows" is a boarding school book, where an non=traditional teacher starts at a mid-level school. She's pretty funny and builds an interesting rapport with the students. The girls discover that the boys are ranking and rating them based on their oral sex performances. It turns out to be an established, high-stakes tradition, and stopping it will not be easy or safe and when the girls get woke, trouble begins.

I put this book down about three-quarters of the way through but did pick it up and finish. Some of the characters are surprising in the end, but "The Swallows" is still just okay.

//You can keep telling girls to be polite, to keep a level head and it’ll all work out in the end. But don’t be surprised when they figure out that you’ve been feeding them lies.//

3.5 stars

The Swallows is a little bit hard to define in terms of what categorical box to put it in. I've seen some say it was YA or mystery, but I don't necessarily agree with either of those sentiments. Yeah, it's about an elite boarding school of high school students and well... yeah, it's kind of a mystery. But neither of those shoes seem to fit just right.

This one seriously character dense book, and if the overwhelming number of characters and view points were not enough, they are all repeatedly addressed by nicknames, last names, first names... I had to check myself on multiple occasions to make sure I was following the story correctly. And honestly, aside from the sheer number of characters and names, it was easy enough to follow. This 'mystery' lacked a real mystery. There is a bit to figure out but it's really more of a drama.

But those notes aside, the story is compelling and a fast read. Once I started, I didn't want to stop and I finished it pretty quickly despite being really busy and despite the book itself dealing with pretty serious subject matter. I don't have an issue with the way the subject matter was handled, it's very clear from the beginning so it's not a spoiler when I say that the story revolves around a sexual competition (unbeknownst to many of the female students) that the males are running through their own little hidden and twisted online message board. The meat of the story is how deep this competition goes and what happens when its unwitting participants (and those who find it downright appalling) start to find out.

While that subject matter would make you think this is a very 'me too' movement novel, it certainly doesn't feel like one. What's happening is absolutely horrible, but handled with a lightness that won't keep you up at night. It's not humorous or brushed off, but it's also not terribly deep. These are teenagers and Lutz definitely captured the nature of the age group.

But the story does not revolve entirely around the students- the primary character is actually a new teacher at the school and the ever-changing character views toggle between Ms Witt, many of the students, and several other faculty members. And all of their stories and history are interesting, though a bit confusing at times.

I really enjoyed the last 20% or so of the book, and though some of why is given away very early on, I don't want to spoil that for readers because there are some gripping and emotionally driven moments that unite the reader with the characters in a nicely done way.

That being said, it's a very solid 3.5 stars for me- definitely worth your time if the subject matter appeals to you, or you just happen to enjoy dramatic fiction with a ton of view points. Too many view points aside, I really like the way Lutz wrote. I've had her recommended to me many times and while this was my first foray into her books, I can honestly say I'm planning to grab some of the others and see what else she can do.

Books about spoiled, rich kids at boarding school are a dime a dozen. I was hoping that with her whip-smart writing and dark humor Lisa Lutz would provide a new take on this familiar setting. While entertaining, "The Swallows" didn't quite deliver the way it should have.

The crux of the plot revolves around prep school boys compiling a database of their female peers' sexual aptitude, and said girls' retaliation upcoming discovering the database. While the book seems like it was set up to be suspenseful, there was not really anything suspenseful about it. The book also lacked a "big reveal." Too many characters and a plot devolvement to the insipid kept this from being a better book.

3 stars

Thank you to Ballantine Books for a copy of this galley in exchange for an honest review.

I was delighted to receive an ARC of Lisa Lutz’s The Swallows from NetGalley! I adored her earlier book series, The Spellmans, which are wacky, witty and caper driven tales of a (far from normal) family of private investigators. I was not disappointed.

The Swallows is a departure on a more serious note, featuring a young teacher of hormonally challenged adolescents in a private east coast boarding school. Gender wars are incited, and havoc ensues, shrouded in mystery and outrage. Thoughtfully narrated by several of the characters, including our protagonist, teacher Alex Witt and several of her students. The Swallows is a page turner, with a family size (school cafeteria size) portion of wit. The Swallows covers timely subject matter, particularly in light of the #metoo movement. The material is dark, but so important and written with grace. Highly recommended.

Thank you NetGalley, Lisa Lutz, and Ballentine Books for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.

Ughh. Did I really just spend time reading an entire novel about blow jobs and a secret school club? The characters were shallow, the storyline was chaotic and the ending was careless. Yuck.
Two stars simply for originality (though I genuinely hope it's the last of it's kind).

There is something about a book set at a boarding school that I just can’t resist. I loved the setting and the overall feeling of this book. I think some aspects of the plot make it not for everyone but I enjoyed it. I can see it being appealing to older teens too.

I really liked that this book not only made a statement, but told a story. I liked that the book was told from different pov's that help mesh the book into cohesiveness. This boarding school is in shambles and the students must fight for their rights. I like that the teacher is a strong character and that she helps assist in righting the wrongs of the school. I would love to read more from this author and will be recommending to others.

The Swallows is the high school version of the #MeToo Movement. Set in a low tier New England prep school, the plot is both ridiculous and righteous. Lisa Lutz is a very talented and creative writer-she uses both of these skills in a novel that is highly graphic and hard to fathom. English teacher Alex Witt comes to Stonebridge Academy after an embarrassing incident at the elite school where she previously taught, but picks up right where she left off-becoming too chummy with both her students and fellow teachers. One of the most fascinating (and frustrating) things about The Swallows is the adults behave just as badly (sometimes worse) than the kids. And while the emphasis at Stonebridge is on grades, it's not the "3 R's" that matter- the boys have turned a certain sexual activity into a competitive sport-complete with scores on (mostly) unsuspecting females (the book's title should give you a clue as to what gets the highest points). Stonebridge's culture of sexually deviant behavior comes to a boiling point when Miss Witt helps uncover this disturbing ritual that administrators have turned a blind eye to for decades. Here The Swallows becomes about "girl power" as they seek revenge on their assailants. But there's no winners in The Swallows, just degrees of loss, humiliation and regret. Miss Lutz is best known for her laugh out loud The Spellman Files Series, and while The Swallows has plenty of sarcasm, there's nothing funny about it. It's a sad reflection on the world we live in, where even fourteen year old girls can say "it happened to me too."

I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I picked up The Swallows. The synopsis kind of gave me If We Were Villains vibes, which I just couldn’t resist. And it was worth it. Because I loved this book. I think the story was just so relevant – I was actually describing it to a coworker the other day and she asked if it was a true story, because we could both imagine this actually happening (unfortunately). It is a pretty extreme example of letting boys and men get away with insane and totally unacceptable behavior, because “boys will be boys”. But I think we’ve all seen this to some degree. And I got so much satisfaction from seeing the girls fight back. If only I’d had the guts to take an axe (literal or metaphoric, either one works) to those expectations as a teenager.

The characters themselves were so good. Every single one of them felt human and flawed, but there was also a distinct line between who was on the right side in this issue, and who wasn’t. Because there is no gray area when it comes to sexual abuse. There just isn’t. And I think The Swallows illustrates that perfectly. I so badly wanted to punch a few of these idiots in the face

This was a really great thriller, and I loved every second of it. I seriously could not put it down. I thought the story was brilliant, but also extremely well-crafted. One note I made while reading is that Lisa Lutz really trusts her readers, which I appreciated so much. I think it’s rare for an author of a thriller to let her readers follow the mystery and come to their own conclusions without overly explaining anything, and I really liked that. It made for a more interesting story, and a better reading experience.

The Swallows
Book Review | 📚📚📚 1/2 3.5/5
Lisa Lutz (author) | Ballantine (Random House) Books

The Swallows is a book about a high school prep school with a secret society, a badass teacher whose past troubles follow, and a growing group of renegade students. What could possibly go wrong?

Why I was interested in this book:
I read a lot of grit lit and literature with social messages. I needed something that sounded like it was a bit underground, a bit wild, a bit extreme.

My assessment:
Ready for a wild trip riddled with high schoolers being high schoolers, quirky faculty and a secret that could ruin the academy if exposed? I needed to read a book like this. Biting situations, academy faculty behaving almost as bad as their students, and a wee bit of sex. Ok, more than a wee bit. But it’s ok. You can handle it.

This is the first book I’ve read by Lisa Lutz, and I’m intrigued to read more.

Stories of the human condition:
Well, this book addresses some social issues: peer pressure, rampant sexual activity amid a high school academy, elitism & privilege – for both the students and the faculty. The issues could frighten a parent, but the dark-yet-light writing makes it a page-turner. Why do kids have to grow up so quickly these days?

Note:
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review. I chose to read this book because I thought the blurb was intriguing. I was not disappointed.

TAGS:
#TheSwallows #review-book #book review #LisaLutz #Ballentine Books #NetGalley #TuggleGrassBlues #Tuggle Grass Reviews #TuggleGrassReviews

Goes on my shelf with The Power and A Gate to Women's Country. The reader will love it or hate it and throw it against the wall. There are a LOT of important characters and until the book is on Kindle with X ray it would be a good idea to make yourself a list - of everyone. The story is straightforward and suspenseful but with humor - not an easy trick to pull off in the time of me too. Not chick lit - maybe dick lit with a twist.

If you are looking for a book to lull you to sleep, this is not the one. In fact I stayed up all night reading it and finally reached the satisfying conclusion as the sun came up. Lisa Lutz is a keen observer of people. Here, for example, is an introduction to a secondary character:
“Martha Primm was like a human strobe light. There was just too much to take in. She wore her long, highlighted hair in perfect ringlets. Her kelly-green wrap dress was cinched at the waist with a sparkling gold rope belt. There were bracelets clanking and synthetic fabrics rustling. Her perfume seemed to camp out inside my nostrils. Even her footwear—blue clogs adorned with daisies—was aggressively cheery.”
The setting is about ten years ago at a well-established boarding school with the usual assortment of bullies, nerds, mean girls, and rebels. The faculty is also represented by a variety of dysfunctional men and women with checkered pasts. The element that takes this story out of the land of A Separate Peace is the contemporary take on sex scandals. Think back a few years to Choate, Exeter and Horace Mann and the time before the #MeToo movement. The insular nature of an elite private school means power resides in the hands of a few dominant students, and the adults prefer to turn a blind eye. This dynamic is challenged by a new teacher who arrives on campus with issues of her own and a strong desire to upset the status quo. What a great character she is! I loved every chapter focusing on Alex Witt. She is a wonderful blend of strength and vulnerability. We discover along with Alex that a group of guys are controlling the social order of the school through an online scoring system rating girls’ proficiency at oral sex. Even those who don’t participate are cowed into submission, and the secret society is deeply entrenched in the fabric of the school.
The other primary characters are also interesting but it was a little more difficult to tell their voices apart. I would be reading a chapter thinking it was about one student and then come upon a detail that would alert me I was wrong..
Even with the confusion of characters, I loved the escalating danger as Alex encourages a small group of girls to take control of their lives. What happens when they do and repercussions spin out of control makes a very taut and fast-paced story.
Be warned, as you can imagine, this is definitely R rated, due to sex, profanity, alcohol, and violence.

I’m coming to realize that adult realistic fiction is so touch and go with me. I rarely end up liking a book in this genre. So a book has to be exceptionally good or moving for me to like it. I didn’t exactly care for the writing in this book, but the worst part was all the sexual content.

Thus, I couldn’t finish this book. I stopped at 40%. It sounded interesting, but from the synopsis, I didn’t know that sexual references would be such a vital part to the plot. The story is supposed to evolve into a girl vs boy war at a prep school, but the actual conflict is over boys scoring girls on their *ahem* sex performances. When a new teacher asks students to anonymously answer “what do they hate,” many of the girls answer they hate this sex aspect of the school. So I applaud the girls for finally sticking up for themselves, but a different reason for the war, or at least not so explicitly detailed, would have been more appealing to me.

Even besides the sex plot point, there were teachers thinking about sex, excessive use of the f-word, and mentions of genitalia. Not my type of book. I know this doesn’t bother lots of people, so if that’s you, and you like adult realistic fiction, and snarky characters, this might be a book for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an e-arc to review.