Three friends are forever bonded by something terrible that happened fifteen years earlier at boarding school - something which is destined to come back to haunt them in the present day. So far, so standard psychological thriller territory.
Except Georgia, Nancy and Lila aren’t bonded at all, or at least not in any kind of remotely positive way - in fact, they seem to thoroughly hate each other. Their “friendship” is about as dysfunctional as it’s possible to get, characterised by passive-aggressive oneupmanship, barbed remarks and carefully crafted put-downs.
(“Were all friendships like this?” Georgia ponders at one point. “Were all failings and confessions seen as weaknesses to be exploited? Or were there actually people who could tell their friends something embarrassing or sad without knowing it was bringing them joy?”)
These three appalling women gather for dinner at Georgia’s house, accompanied by their equally horrible husbands. Only Brett, Nancy’s new man, seems to bear any relation to an acceptable human being (and is clearly far too good for Nancy).
Despite - or perhaps because of - the irredeemable awfulness and apparent moral emptiness of nearly all the characters, I loved this book and found it a brilliant read. Yes, the “gradually revealed awful thing in past” plot is a standard, but here it feels fresh and very well executed.
The story alternates between “now” (the dinner party from hell) and “then”, with the girls still being evil, but hating each other slightly less, at their pricey boarding school, where Lila and Nancy kindly overlook scholarship girl Georgia’s terrible handicap of not being rich. Rebecca Reid excels in portraying the rarefied world of these girls, who never step outside their own privileged bubble and seem to see anyone not like them as literally another species. (“Working-class women always got big after they had children, apparently”, observes present-day Lila.) Their present-day husbands are no better, their unreconstructed, unquestioned and unquestioning attitudes forensically laid out for our perusal... it’s all quite alarming, but also sadly believable.
As the toxic trio tangle with a new teacher and a vulnerable classmate, it’s clear that it will somehow end in tragedy, but how, why and when?
I really can’t find much negative to say about this book. Well, maybe the cover. I’m so sick of back views of women in brightly coloured trenchcoats. It seems like the only thing women on book covers ever wear. But that’s it.
Hugely compelling, darkly enjoyable and an all round great read.
