4 Stars! Imogene finally gets what she wants...to be part of the world of elite prep schools. She accepts a position at Vandenberg School for Boys even though she doesn't have much teaching experience and no experience with boys. She's shy and inexperienced...what could go wrong?

What unfolds from here is deliciously forbidden and taboo and thrilling. I don't want to give too much away, you need to read it yourself!

Often difficult and disturbing content. Unlikable, unreliable, fragile, and flawed narrator - a #metoo movement book.

Fun bit of drama entangled in pretty bad writing.

Lots of repetition. Imogene sounds like the worst. "I can't work at an all-girl's school because they'll tear me apart. I'll go to an all-boy's school where I'll be a doe in headlights and these rich boys will think I'm beautiful, etc., and my life will begin. Have I mentioned the boys and the campus and the teenager masturbating that I walked in on? Does that happen to the other female teachers too?" I can't. I thought it'd be spicy and fantastic based on the summary.

Indecent looked like it would be a very promising novel, but the further I got into it, the less invested I was.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, this story was not for me and I was not able to finish this book.

Now, if Prep’s protag was an awkward teacher lost at an upper-class prep school and not an awkward student lost at an upper class prep school, you’d have Corinne Sullivan’s Indecent. When Imogene Abney lands a teaching position at the all-boys prep academy, she’s delighted. She’s always been charmed by prep school life, despite a solidly working-class background. But her inexperience with teaching, teenage boys, and privilege in general leads to trouble. There is a deeply cringey relationship here (but it’s impossible to look away), when Imogene falls in an all-consuming first love.

I was really excited to read Indecent. The description reminded me a bit of Notes on a Scandal. Imogene is a 22 year old teacher at an all-boys school who has an obsession with her 17 year old student. I didn’t like Imogene, so I couldn’t care about her. This was unfortunately an underwhelming read.

It took a lot of effort for me not to roll my eyes at Imogene's actions. Her previous relationships affected her and there were just many things that she should've done and it was not really the book for me.

This book reminded me of Prep somewhat, in that it was hard to read about the main character. She was so socially awkward that she got herself in terrible situations most of us would never even think about.

*I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and do not represent the publisher or author.*

***3 STARS***
Despite my low star review, I did actually enjoy this book for the most part. It was well paced and the writing was delightfully simple. The plot didn't have too much of a structure - it was kind of a spiraling tumbleweed of the protagonist's bad decision after bad decision - but those cringe-worthy decisions were honestly what made it fun to read! I was not really disturbed by the age gap between Imogen and Kip because I know that these relationships happen in real life. Though I do not condone it, I came to this book from a perspective of seeing what it is like in the eyes of someone in that kind of relationship. And while I did enjoy the exploration of power in this book, I felt as though both Imogen and Kip became almost caricatures at certain points of the book. For example, Imogen's insecurity is so intense that her actions somehow felt humorous because they didn't feel real? Maybe it was just me, but this whole book was an experience in relating to the characters one moment then feeling like I was reading a satire about rich private school affairs. I can definitely see how some people could love it, though.

In Corinne Sullivan’s debut novel, Indecent, young teacher Imogene Abney gets the opportunity of her life when she’s offered a position at the Vandenberg School for Boys, a prestigious prep school in Westchester, NY.

Imogene, who has always been insecure around people, men especially, has been fascinated with the privileged world of prep schools her whole life. She jumps at the chance and, shortly after her arrival, encounters the popular and charming Adam Kipling (Kip to his friends). Unable and perhaps unwilling to withstand Kip’s flirtations, Imogene succumbs to an illicit affair that threatens her job, her career, and everything she’s worked so hard for.

In an email interview, Sullivan discusses her career as a writer and how the lines of consent and power can shift when gender roles are reversed.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I honestly don't remember a time when I didn't want to be a writer. I was lucky to grow up in a home where my parents read to me early and often, and as soon as I was able, I made a desk of my parents' kitchen table to begin writing and illustrating stories of my own.

Tell me about your time at Sarah Lawrence. Was the experience there what you expected?

I applied to the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence because of its proximity to New York City, but I chose the program because of its faculty. At the open house, I still remember David Ryan's dissection of Mary Robison's short gem of a story, “Yours.” He spoke with such incredible passion and insight, a quality I encountered with every professor I got the chance to learn from in the program. I couldn't believe — still can't believe, really — how much my professors and classmates cared about words and the art of putting them together. Despite the size of the program, I received more individual attention than I could have imagined. It wasn't a competition; everyone just wanted to improve and help others improve.

How difficult was it to transition from writing short stories to a novel?

When I started the daunting task of writing my first novel, I tried to imagine it as a series of connected short stories. The six linking short stories I'd written for my college thesis had been 15 pages each. I told myself that a novel was like writing 20 short stories, each its own entity, but a complete story once put together. Twenty stories, 15 pages each, 300 pages together — a novel. I'm starting to learn how to break from this rigidity, but it was essential for this task of creating my first novel-length story. I remember reading Sarah Lawrence MFA director Brian Morton's most recent novel, Florence Gordon, where he often has one-sentence chapters and all sorts of playful structural decisions and thinking, I can't wait until I'm confident enough to be able to do that. Maybe by novel number four.

How did the idea for Indecent come about?

First and foremost, I wanted to write a story about mental illness. I wanted to explore what happens when a young woman predisposed to depression and obsession becomes involved with someone who makes her believe she isn't worthy, a young woman who suffers and shrivels beneath the constraints society has placed on her. One of my best friends from college began working at an all-girl private school shortly after college, and so I began to explore how the dynamics might change if it were an all-male institution. In that way, the objective informed the plot and the story developed from there.

The novel explores positions of power and sexual harassment, among other things, in the academic world. Is power inherently tied to class and money in the novel?

In my experience, money and power are invariably linked, especially in the fictitious world of Vandenberg School for Boys. Money guarantees you a spot at Vandenberg, and if earn your way in with academic prowess rather than class, you're almost inevitably going to feel out of place. Imogene's attraction to wealth isn't so much what money can buy as much as what that monetary power represents: security and belonging. The boys at Vandenberg who come from money have never been denied anything before, and though they are still young, they assume that women are no exception. Power is inherently tied to class and money, yes, but I think also very much to manhood.

Imogene is a young woman filled with insecurities and inexperience. Is this what leads her to ultimately give in to Adam’s advances?

Until she meets Adam “Kip” Kipling, Imogene never believes herself to be desirable. To be pursued by someone with wealth and confidence is a fantasy too alluring for Imogene to deny. It isn't quite Kip himself that Imogene falls for; it's what his pursuit offers her, which is the chance to feel appealing and worthy in the eyes of someone powerful.

Is Imogene in truth powerless despite being in a position of authority in the school?

Imogene is never powerless. She always has the ability to say no to Kip, to command a classroom, to fulfill her obligations. What really prevents her from asserting her rightful authority is the state of her mental health. Imogene doubts herself, and this is only compounded by Kip's games. She allows her confidence to be contingent on Kip's response, and when his interest wanes, so does Imogene's belief that she is able to control anything, much less herself.

If the gender roles were switched around, would the outcome have been different?

Absolutely. There is an undeniable double standard — the older man in such a situation would be a predator and a felon, the younger woman a victim. Whereas in this situation, the younger man is a stud, the older woman just somewhat pathetic. That's not to say that Kip is the victim, Imogene the predator. Neither is excusable, and the situation is complicated by the fact that neither party quite acts their age.

What would you like readers to take away from the book?

I hope for readers to understand that it's not just men who change their mind who can damage a woman's sense of worth; it's the expectations imposed on women (and their perceived inability to live up to them). Though Imogene believes that Kip's attention (and the subsequent loss of it) is what informs her mental wellbeing, to me, it's important for the readers to see that she was never well to begin with. Kip cannot convince Imogene that her waist is skinny enough or her skin clear enough, and no person can convince Imogene that she is capable as a person until she believes it herself.

What future projects are you working on?

I have a draft of a second novel that takes place in Ireland and took me very much out of my comfort zone to write. I hope with each new novel to push myself a little farther and to see just what I'm capable of doing if I allow and trust myself.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I find such a taboo topic like teacher / student relationship so fascinating, but there you have it. Indecent is about such a taboo topic as that. An unstable "apprentice" at a boarding school finds herself entangled in a romantic relationship with a boy in the senior class. The novel takes you on quite an interesting ride where, at the end, you can't help but wonder who pursued who and who is more in the wrong. I wish the end explored more of what happens next for Imogene. I also really wouldn't mind reading something from Kip's side of things. Overall, it's an interesting read and if you too find yourself strangely fascinated by this topic then you may as well give it a read.

Imogene frustrated me a bit, and I was confused why the new female teachers acted more like students than faculty, but I liked a lot of what this book had to offer. I certainly would be interested in reading more books by this author.

This book is twisted and sad all at once. There were moments where I struggled with moving through the book, but it was like watching a bad car accident in terms of the plot of the storyline. You know it can't end well for the main character but you keep reading because you have to see how it all falls apart and how someone can remain unaware that this is the eventual end.

I liked this book a lot. A LOT. I must say it did not start out that way, but as the story developed I found myself wanting to read it all the time.

Highly recommend this book if you are looking for a read that deals with the choices we make and their consequences.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2364998653

Imogene Abney has long been obsessed with the peculiar world of elite prep schools. She's fresh out of college and despite having no teaching experience accepts a position teaching at Vandenberg School for Boys.

She is naive, clueless actually and rather immature making her the perfect prey. She begins an illicit affair with the handsome, charismatic Adam Kipling. A student at the school. She becomes obsessed to the point in which this reader felt uncomfortable and irritated with her. I couldn't decided if I wanted to slap her or hug her.

Her inexperience with the opposite sex shines through and makes your cringe. I actually felt incredibly embarrassed for her actions and then I realized, Imogen is fragile and easily susceptible to the charms of others. Adam is just a young teenager boy who knows he is handsome and uses it to get what he wants until he no longer desires it and discards it (Narcissist, much?).

Adam lures her in and stared for attention and insecure, Imogene jumps at every opportunity to be with him, regardless of the risks. The relationship is sex fueled. Adam sees her as a conquest as a sexual release but Imogene, poor, poor Imogene thinks it's a relationship.

However this book is more complex that that --- as you're never quite sure who is taking advantage of whom. It sorta flip, flops back and forth especially since Imagone is an adult and in a position of authority and should know better.

Sullivan's characters are well developed. This is an excellent debut novel but be prepared to feel some second hand embarrassment and indecent if you read it in a public setting! This is a fast read that explores taboo relationships, sex and more sex.

* I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What can I even say?

Imogene Abney always dreamed of escaping her small town life. At 22 she applies and is accepted as a teacher apprentice at the Vanguard School for Boys which is a very elite boarding school in upstate NY.

Imogene is incredibly naive and suffers from a lack of self confidence and low self esteem. She has always been a follower and socially awkward. She tends to rely on alcohol as a crutch during social situations.

One day while walking back to her residence on campus she spots Adam "Kip" Kipling and his friends horsing around. She keeps her distance watching them and is mesmerized by Kip. His confidence and easy way about him. So natural in his own skin. All things she wishes she could be. Kip spots her and takes an immediate interest in her. From here we follow the evolution of this Indecent relationship.

A lot of reviewers have 1 and 2 starred this novel because they couldn't relate to Imogene and what she did as a person of authority and I can completely see where they're coming from. I was the opposite in the sense that while I would never condone the relationship of a teacher apprentice with a student my heart still broke for Imogene. She was lonely and relatively sexually inexperienced. A strapping young man starts to pay her attention and it became impossible for her to resist. She lacked any self awareness that this relationship was wrong besides the fact that, yes, she was a teachers apprentice and he a student. She so desperately wanted to be loved and she truly believed that this is what this is. I'd be hard pressed to call her a "pedophile". He was 17/18 to her 22 which, to me, isn't really a very big age difference so I didn't really experience the "ICK" factor that so many others had mentioned. I'll be honest and say that it was Kip's face I wanted to punch throughout this novel, he's a privileged little prick.

A special thank you to Brittani @ St. Martin's Press who kindly sent me a widget in exchange for my honest review. You rock!

I had to sit with my thoughts on this book after I finished because it was not what I expected. It was about an inappropriate relationship between a teaching apprentice and a student, but it wasn't as black and white as most of those stories you hear on the news. Imogene always wanted to go to boarding school, or rather, be the type of person that boarding schools churn out: rich, put together, elite. She is none of those things. She takes a job as a teaching assistant at an all boys boarding school and is immediately overwhelmed. She ends up catching the eye of a senior and they begin a "relationship". I just, ick.

I half felt bad for her as she is incredibly insecure, but she is also someone who courts loneliness. She doesn't try to better herself, she wallows in it. She avoids the other teaching apprentices and just gets annoying. She so wants to fit in to the boarding school atmosphere as a student, not a teacher, that she lets a child convince her that they should begin a sexual relationship. She feels lucky that he picked her.

I think a lot of people can relate to Imogene's feelings of insecurity, myself included, but it was over the top. My main issue was that she was not very likable and became less so as the book went on. I can't give a book more than three stars if I can't even like the main character a little.

Indecent, Corinne Sullivan

From the publisher: Shy, introverted Imogene Abney has always been fascinated by the elite world of prep schools, having secretly longed to attend one since she was a girl in Buffalo, New York. So, shortly after her college graduation, when she's offered a teaching position at the Vandenberg School for Boys, an all-boys prep school in Westchester, New York, she immediately accepts, despite having little teaching experience -- and very little experience with boys. | When Imogene meets handsome, popular Adam Kipling a few weeks into her tenure, a student who exudes charm and status and ease, she's immediately drawn to him. Who is this boy who flirts with her without fear of being caught? Who is this boy who seems immune to consequences and worry; a boy for whom the world will always provide? | As an obsessive, illicit affair begins … Imogene is so lost in the haze of first love that she's unable to recognize the danger she's in. The danger of losing her job. The danger of losing herself in the wrong person. The danger of being caught doing something possibly illegal and so indecent. | Exploring issues of class, sex, and gender, this smart, sexy debut by Corinne Sullivan shatters the black-and-white nature of victimhood, taking a close look at blame and moral ambiguity.

While Sullivan’s book is billed as a tale of an illicit “indecent” wholly inappropriate and potentially illegal affair between teacher (albeit in training) and student through strong character development it becomes much more. She turns the stereotypes on their head and questions the power imbalance that typically exists in such relationships. She paints a vivid portrait of Imogene’s naiveté, anxiety, low self esteem and depression so while you can (and should) condemn her actions you can also empathize. It’s a gritty, thought provoking read that became a page turner as Imogene’s world started to fall apart.

Kudos to Corinne Sullivan for a strong debut. And thank you to Net Galley and St Martin Press for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.