3.5 stars. The prose of this novel really puts you in the overwrought phase of virgin teenagedom where you can feel how everything is SO important. I mean this in a good way - the novel draws you into the atmosphere it is creating. Laura is the shy new student at St. Dunstan's, drawn to the school because of her favorite novel, written by an alum. Laura is longing to experience life as it was then, and so is quickly drawn into the orbit of Virginia, a fanatical and strident student who run the school's chapel choir. Before long, Laura is doing things she never imagined. Laura and Virginia are the most fully realized characters. The boys of the choir exist as almost a Greek chorus to Virginia. A better comparison (than is being given) for this novel would either be The Secret History or the movie Heathers.

"When shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic “prep school prophet” (and St. Dunstan’s alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at nineteen, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss. Virginia is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. She expects nothing short of perfection from herself—and from the members of the choir.

Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster’s novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When it comes to dark academia, The World Cannot Give is an excellent example of the obsessive nature of teens who want nothing more than to be a part of something great. Obsession turns to toxicity turns to the spilling of secrets that once kept an entire group of teens at a girl's beck and call.

I was just as obsessed with this book as the characters were, and I found the religious focus quite interesting as it provided a very real guide into Laura's ultimate devotion to Virginia. The author did a superb job keeping the plot almost hidden until about 70% of the way in where I questioned the direction the book was about to go.

I did find the beginning--and most of the dialogue--to be quite repetitive, but upon finishing the book I wonder if it was intentional all along: Virginia's rhetoric had to be repeated over and over until Laura, and the boys, believed in it, too. In a way I believe the reader is a part of Virginia's inner circle, slowly being indoctrinated until the end.

I was pleasantly surprised by The World Cannot Give and wish I could have read about Laura and Virginia's relationship until I began to question my own reliability as a reader.

Thank you Simon & Schuster, Tara Isabella Burton, and NetGalley for allowing me access this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

TW Suicide

I am not quite sure how to write a review for this book. Did I like? Yeah, I did. Was it fast paced and exciting? Not really but at the same time I couldn't put it down. I loved the writing. It felt different than what I am used to. Another one of the things I liked about this book is that it is written in 3rd person but for one character. A girl named Laura. You have to rely on this character and the conversations she has with others to form your opinions about everyone in this book. The story can kind of be summed up by saying Laura is obsessed with her classmate Virginia. In fact, quite a few people seemed to be love struck by this character.

The story takes place in a religious boarding high school on the east coast. There's a special exclusive choir that everyone wanted to be apart of. The choir was almost cultish. The way some of these characters act and treat others was cruel and unkind but not surprising to me either. The most fascinating thing to me is Virginia's alluring and seductive personality. She could make bend to her will.

I am not sure what else to say without spoiling the story. In short, Virginia makes or convinces people to do things.

**Thank you Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy in exchange for my review. This book comes out March 8th.

I really wanted to like this book. The writing was crisp and synopsis interesting. It turned out to be a major dud for me. I kept getting cruel intentions vibes then it became more like poet society. It was a chore to finish this book. The characters were not well developed and didn’t really attach to anyone. The ending is just a relief to reach it.

This is a sharply written and acerbic tale of high school obsessions gone wrong. I found the focus on christianity, faith, religion, purity, etc quite fascinating when portrayed not only through the eyes of adolescents, but also adolescents who think they are precocious. The friends groups are toxic and the author does a wonderful job of creating an ominous atmosphere throughout, where members of the school clergy and staff seem untrustworthy just as much as the students. She does a wonderful job writing in the voice of her character, who is rather naive but seems to believe in her profundity. Overall, super engaging for anyone looking for a lusty, greedy and petulant dark academia novel.

"The World Cannot Give" will feel like a familiar read for those who read Burton's debut novel, "Social Creature." That's a good thing in this case -- Burton takes the same themes and makes them shine in a whole new light, diving even deeper into the cost of belonging and the queer desire that underpins many female friendships. Burton's ability to take her own background in religious studies and apply them to creating a whole system of morality that makes Virginia's fantastic unique and compelling. While Laura's lack of autonomy can sometimes slow the book down, in general the balance of her desire and voyeurism provides a compelling narrator.

The World Cannot Give gave the classic feel of a boarding school centric story, comparable to The Secret History, and similar to The Girls and Fight Club as the description noted. The modernity of it all was appealing, I loved having the modern aspects of tinder, social media/influencers combined with the classic descriptions of the school and tendencies of some of the characters. I found the characters relatable and likable, Laura’s growth was rewarding to track throughout the book. The beginning was slow, and often left me wanting more. The lack of description of certain aspects was a little disappointing, but the end truly made up for anything I was missing in the end. Virginia’s character could have been established slightly better, and then the end wouldn’t have had to been so spelled out for us. Overall, it was an amazing read, I see this joining the likes of similar dark academia young adult books.

This book is going to be wildly popular, and deservedly so. I put down another book I was reading in order to eagerly start The World Cannot Give when I received the ARC because the early reviews compared it to A Secret History By Donna Tartt and A Separate Peace by John Knowles, two books that really affected me many years ago. In the end, The World Cannot Give did not disappoint, but it was slow going at first.

To me, the first half read pretty slow but the build-up was well worth it. The dynamic among the ensemble of characters was unique and familiar at the same time, making it very believable, despite its absurdity. The story is set at an elite Northeastern prep school and the characters are familiar in that they are believable in the setting. Laura is new to the school, so the other characters are seamlessly introduced to the reader as she meets them. Virginia immediately becomes a larger-than-life idol to both the reader and to Laura simultaneously. The boys whom Virginia has under her spell each play their own important role in the story.

The tension slowly builds, leaving the reader to carefully predict what will happen to each person in the story, yet each turn is surprising.

I strongly recommend The World Cannot Give to all kinds of readers, from YA and up. Book clubs will love this one and I predict it will be made into a limited series for one of the many streaming services. I would definitely watch it. I've already encouraged my many voraciously reading friends and family to get this book when it is published.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of The World Cannot Give.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
Unfortunately, this book was just not for me. I struggled with it and did not finish. The dialogue seemed quite juvenile at times (and I just found myself not caring).

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"It's not that Laura doesn't know she's too sensitive. She knows her parents, her teachers, her school counselor all call her young for her age. (Laura is sixteen. She feels so old.)"

A quick note before we jump in - I won't bother summarizing the plot, because the description does a decent job of that. However, whoever compared this book to Fight Club needs to maybe reread both, because I don't know where the hell that came from.

The World Cannot Give takes several turns and every one of them is a left. I mean that in a good way, but Jesus Christ, this was not what I was expecting. Frankly, I have no idea how to structure this review, so I'm just going to throw out my thoughts and good luck sifting through them.

"Laura takes a quiet pleasure in no longer being impressed by Keats.'"

1) This book is DARK. It's dark academia, so you kind of know that going in, but it ended up being way darker than I expected. I also have not read a ton of contemporary dark academia (being normally more drawn to SF/F works in this sub-genre), so there may be tropes or norms that I didn't have the context to catch.

"But there's got to be more to life than being comfortable and warm. There's got to be something real, right?"

2) This is absolutely NOT a YA novel. The characters are young, but that has more to do with the revolutionary zeal of youth than anything else; they have to be young for the story to work, but the content is very mature. One of the major themes of this novel is examining that revolutionary spirit, the part of us that wants to see the world change and have a hand in its changing. While people of all ages can feel this way, it's stronger in youth, hence the age of the characters. Specifically, this book examines how this drive, which we commonly consider a good thing, can become HIGHLY toxic if left unbalanced by the quieter ambitions of home, family, love, etc.

"'Bonnie - she's sweet; she's fun...She's so easy to be with.' His breath frosts the air. 'She likes me the way I am.' He swallows. 'Problem is: I don't want to be liked the way I am. I don't like me the way I am. Why should I trust anyone else who does? Whereas Strauss - '

'She makes you want to be better.'"

3) Closely tied to the above point, The World Cannot Give also looks at cults of personality and how individuals with sociopathic tendencies can use their personal magnetism to abuse and victimize those around them. The sociopath in this novel has been victimizing their inner circle for months to years under the guise of wanting to make them all "World-Historical," the type of people destined for greater things than happiness, a healthy life, etc.

"Anton - whom Laura can't look at without blushing - no longer breaks in at once at the end of Virginia's sentences, bellowing agreement before she has even gotten to her point."

4) When going into this novel it's important to keep in mind that Burton is asking questions, not giving answers. This is my personal favorite type of social/political/cultural commentary, but you will leave this text with more questions than you started it with. Specifically, every single character in the text is both a victim and a victimizer, though to admittedly varying extents. There is a particularly interesting use of this theme as it relates to revenge porn. Several of the teenage girls in this novel record videos of themselves masturbating, which they then send to one of "the boys," Virginia's inner circle. One of the girls who does this is our primary sociopath, who is then enraged and horrified when the receiver shows the video to the rest of "the boys." Now, we all know revenge porn is bad and I'm hardly defending that behavior. However, in this instance, it's hard to ignore that the girl whose video is shared has been mentally and emotionally abusing these boys for an extended period of time. One of the ways she does so is by cyclically enflaming, weaponizing, and then villainizing their sexual desire, both towards her and towards the other girls in this text. So, in a way, having the rest of the boys view the video could almost be seen as a victim taking the power back from their victimizer. See what I mean about "no clear answers?"

"She knows they will be smart, probably much smarter than she is - God, she hopes they are a million times smarter than she is, so long as they're patient enough and willing to tell her what to read next, and what to think about it, and what it all means."

5) I've seen a lot of other reviewers say the narrator, Laura, is annoying, which she is. It's not fair to her character to only describe her that way though. Laura is many things: overly sensitive, overly romantic, high-strung, desperate to be part of something bigger than herself but without the drive or desire to become that bigger thing. Basically, she's a little lost sheep in search of a shepherd. She's also very realistic and I think we all have varying degrees of these characteristics within ourselves as well. One of the major character arcs of the novel is seeing Laura lose her naivety without losing every other personality trait, which I think Burton did quite well.

"In the biography they will write of Virginia, she thinks, Laura will be a footnote. A whole footnote, just for her."

6) There are several gay and queer characters in this book, which was nice from a representation standpoint but wasn't a major plot point, IMO. How can sexual preferences not be a major plot point in a story about how sexuality can be manipulated, you ask? Because I think this text dives far deeper into what it means for love and desire to fall into obsession than anything else. There are queer and gay characters in the story because there are queer and gay people, but the exploration of those feelings is seen within the heterosexual characters as well. I'm heterosexual myself, so maybe people of different sexual preferences will disagree, but I thought Burton did a good job balancing those plot points.

"He was a mystic - and he wanted to fight for people who still believed in mystics."

7) It wasn't the theme that gripped me the most personally, but this book also deals with the fetishization of higher institutions like prep schools, the Ivy League, etc. In that way, it's kind of a dark academia novel that calls out the concept of dark academia, which the contrarian in me enjoyed. One of the major elements of this theme was in the use of parallels between the current action and the life of a young author who'd attended the same boarding school decades before and written about it, Samuel Webster, known as the Prep School Profit. Our primary characters are all obsessed with his book and the idea of being "World Historical," willing to live and die for an idea. The problem here is that this author, a mystical, seemingly intellectual boy who died at nineteen having gone to war for his beliefs, was actually fighting for Franco in the Spanish Revolution when he died. It's an interesting way to show how the value that comes out of these fetishized institutions walks hand in hand with a lot of toxic history and behavior.

"They're just - bored, rich idiots with a hard-on for anything that predates the Civil Rights Movement."

8) However, because this book doesn't try to answer questions, the girls who are trying to tear down the above-mentioned toxic institutions aren't really much better. One of the two is obsessed with our sociopath and is campaigning against this person's seemingly traditional values mostly as a way to get their attention. The other girl is battling a personal war as she tries to keep her girlfriend from being completely obsessed with someone else. Ultimately, their "fight the power" ideals are manipulated and weaponized just like the more traditional views they're fighting against.

This was a long-ass review, but the TL;DR of it is that The World Cannot Give is a book that will ask you tons of questions without answering any of them, and will probably stay with me for a long time to come.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!


I think I'm a bit past the point for teen stories, so that's why I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would. I do like boarding school stories and Maine so that's what made me want to pick it up!

It was just a bit, off for me? Reminded me of the book Wilder Girls. I liked the writing, but couldn't relate or connect to any characters.

This unfortunately was a DNF for me. I really enjoyed the beginning but once the plot twists started up, I felt it got to be too much. I can see how people would enjoy this book, personally I found it lacking some substance. I was hoping to find something that had the same style as The Secret History, which was a favorite in our book club and at the local library, but I don't think I'll be recommending this one.

This book was a bit strange, and I felt lost a lot of the time. I wasn't always sure where the author was trying to go with things. I couldn't connect with the characters or their obsessions with each other. I'm beyond the teen audience, so perhaps that group would view this differently.

Much joy in writing a school story comes of creating our own little world, giving it a local habitation and a name, and variegating it with distinctive customs and practices; great English Public Schools such as Eaton and Winchester even speak peculiar dialects. Tara Isabella Burton gives St. Dunstan’s, her co-ed prep school in Maine, many features of the traditional English boarding school that survive the transatlantic crossing, including replacing American-style semesters with terms, Michaelmas and Candlemas (the latter inauthentic—I’d prefer a combined Hilary-Easter Term). There are also dormitories called Latimer, Cranmer, and Keble – famous names in the history of the Church of England – as well as Mountbatten, Desmond, and Devonshire – an admiral, an archbishop, and a dukedom.

Burton’s previous novel Social Creature was a fantasia on the theme of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and I am even more delighted with this new novel in the line of succession to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. There, an outsider from California at a small New England college majors in Classics and finds himself emmeshed in an elite undergraduate set who not study Greek tragedy, they live it, with no limits and no regrets. Now in The World Cannot Give (see John 14:27), we have Laura Stearns from Henderson, Nevada, joining a singing group at Saint Dunstan’s school chapel. Their speciality is Anglican liturgical music, especially choral Evensong, under the sway of the strikingly charismatic girl Virginia Strauss, who proceeds to adopt Laura as a protégée and takes over her life. Though the author calls the singers a “choir,” it’s technically an ensemble: five boys, Virginia and Laura

Laura chose to go to St. Dunstan’s drawn the legend of a former student in the 1930s, Sebastian Oliver Webster. He wrote a passionate lyrical novel entitled All Before Them (see Paradise Lost, 12. 645), then left school, converted to Roman Catholicism and died fighting for the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. I cannot think of a real-life model for Webster, but he recalls such English Communists as John Cornford and Christopher Caudwell, whose deaths fighting on the Republican side inspired Kim Philby and the Cambridge spy ring. If we imagine Webster as a Jesus-figure, Virginia takes the role of Saint Paul, eagerly making converts. Webster’s followers, according to Virginia, should despise the “sclerotic modern world” and become “World-Historical” characters whilst eschewing “moral relativism.” For Virginia and her acolyte Laura, that entails Anglican ritual, studying Latin and philosophy, and early-morning long-distance running.

If you appreciate traditional Anglican ritual, you will enjoy the parts devoted to Evensong. This is the sung service of evening prayer, according to the Book of Common Prayer. My own favorite composers of English liturgical music are Thomas Tallis and William Byrd—ironically both were Roman Catholics—and Charles Villiars Stanford’s Magnificat in C – which Laura hears at chapel – was new to me and to my ear sounded a trifle slushy. I loved Laura’s response to hearing it, though. “It’s how they’re all singing different notes, that are also somehow all the same, it’s how they’re at once so grand and exultant, swelling up their chests on for he hath rejoiced, and also so soft when the line of the music dies; it’s how Laura can hear all their voices, irreducibly distinct from one another, and also how what Laura hears is a single sound, unbroken. . . .” I’ve felt the same hearing the Tallis Scholars rendering Byrd’s Magnificat in the Great Service. Throughout the story we find allusions to this anthem that begins “My soul doth magnify the Lord . . .” taken from Luke 1: 46-55, Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel’s news that she will be the mother of the Messiah. I wonder if the phrase “He hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden” should be taken as an ironic commentary on this story.

As Burton has a theology degree from Oxford and writes nonfiction about religious and cultural topics, it is no surprise that her characters’ beliefs are derived from real, albeit somewhat esoteric, political and sociological theory. Virginia Strauss is portrayed as a Catholic Integralist, specifically an Anglo-Catholic Integralist, which is unusual, as most contemporary Integralist thinkers – such as Crean and Fimister, Vermeule, Deneen, Dreher, and the somewhat iintellectually lighter Sohrab Ahmari – are Roman or Orthodox Catholic. Historically, though, their roster includes some real heavy-weights, T. S. Eliot, Jacques Maritain, and I’d include Simone Weil too. Some of the characters’ names – Strauss, Sterns, Anton (Laura’s oafish date for the Mayfair Ball) subliminally suggest rightist commentators, and Virginia’s intended internship at the American Institute of Civic Virtue makes one think of certain conservative think-tanks.

Ironically for an advocate of a Christian society, Virginia is actually Jewish, and is frustrated when the school chaplain, Reverend Tipton (most Anglican clergy hate to be called Reverend, preferring to be addressed as Father – or Mother) ignores her request to be baptized. When Virginia finds out that Reverend Tipton is looking for romance on Tinder, she sets up a clever revenge plot, one that also embarrasses Bonnie, Laura’s influencer roommate with 2000 followers who stole Virginia’s spot as first soprano. It’s a cruel but hilarious surprise for both, cleverly sprung by the author. But it also marks the point in the plot where Virginia’s fortunes turn downward.

Isabel Zhao is Virginia’s polar opposite at Saint Dunstan’s, a political radical and lesbian who organizes the student effort to abolish compulsory Friday evensong and to topple the statue of “the fascist” Sebastian Webster, as well as drowning out evensong by playing Black Sabbath over the school sound system. (Tastes differ; Capleton’s “Leave Babylon” is my epitome of diabolic noise.) When Virginia runs against her for student council president, she sets herself up for a nasty surprise.

As reviewer of a new book, I have to leave the rest to the reader lest I spoil it for the reader. But I shall reveal that the denouement is deftly prepared although quite unexpected, and totally appropriate. It is terrifying, excessive, unjust – yet inevitable and right – the very essence of a tragic ending. How tragically ironic that a story about characters who believe in a Christian social order should be the victims a revenge tragedy, but imagine a twenty-first century schoolgirl as a Marlovian hero. That is how we might view Virginia, an over-reacher determined that nothing stand in the way of her quest to overcome the sclerotic contemporary world. Or is she simply a silly pretentious deluded teenager, without a tincture of common sense? Then Mary’s words respexit humilitatem ancillae form an ironic commentary indeed – Virginia one of the superbos mente cordis sui, the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

On the last page, we discover a passage from the prophet Isaiah, in a note Virginia wrote for Laura.

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. (Isaiah 49:16-18)

It alludes to God’s faithfulness toward Israel, but also to the blood pact Virginia and her followers swore to each other in the school chapel. Does the biblical reference condemn the ultimate blasphemy or is it a message of future hope? How we answer that question will tell us what kind of tragedy we have read. But whichever, I am immensely grateful to Tara Isabella Burton for letting us have a splendid and moving story, worthy to stand on the shelf with The Secret History.

I am most grateful to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC.

This review is now posted on Billkupersmith.blog and at Goodreads. I shall add it to Amazon.com on the day of publication

This book wasn't for me, I struggled with it and did finish it but it was too much dialogue about things I don't care about and too much naivety mixed with over wroughtness . Others might like it of course, her language was beautiful at times

I’ve read a spate of private school set books the last few years so I went into this one cautiously. But I was pleasantly surprised. This book sucked me in with very vivid characters despite those characters being at times naive, hypocritical, self deluded and very manipulative.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Simon & Schuster and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I couldn’t put this one down. It was phenomenal from the beginning to end. The twists and turns kept me engaged throughout.

"The World Cannot Give" is a beautiful, immersive read. It so perfectly captures the infatuation, toxicity and eccentricities of adolescence. It's "The Secret History" meets "Catcher in the Rye" with a little "Looking for Alaska" and "Heathers" thrown in.
Author Tara Isabella Burton does a fantastic job at ensnaring the reader in the New England boarding school, St. Dunstan's right along with Laura Stearns. Laura comes to the school in search of a life worth living, following the steps of alumni Sebastian Oliver, who authored her favorite book. She soon finds a spot in the school's church choir and within the snare of its leader, Virginia Strauss. Laura is a passive witness caught in the whiplash of Virginia's descent. It's a captivating story of obsession — from multiple parties — that takes a dark turn about halfway through the book that I never anticipated. The ending itself is unexpectedly dark, and yet so beautifully fitting.
Thank you to the author, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for sharing this advance copy with me in exchange for my honest review.
4.25/5

So many books are given the dark academia label right now, but this is maybe the first book I've read with that pitch that gives me the feeling I've been chasing since The Secret History. I absolutely flew through this and couldn't put it down--the buildup throughout is great and the ending genuinely surprised me in a way I wasn't expecting. I do think some readers will be put off since this is less "adult" than other dark academia titles, but this is one of the few instances where I feel like the new adult categorization is perfect for this book, and will be enjoyed by teens and adult readers alike. It focuses on teenagers without making them seem unbelievably mature or too sterilized, and I found the characters and the dynamics between them to ring really true. I definitely don't think this is a book for everyone, but I think if elements of cults and religion and unlikable characters and boarding school drama appeal to you, this is definitely worth checking out. I can't wait for this title to come out so I can talk about it more and recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Finally a book similar to The Secret History, but now with more religion and queerness!
Dark academia is one of my favorite subgenres, and I'm loving all the novels coming out recently. Tara Isabella Burton is a theologian as well as an author - who better to write about Christian faith at an insular prep school? This is certainly mostly about the boarding school as if its more than a school but something all its own. Which is the magical in this story. It's really hard to beat a well told boarding school book.

With a mix of lighter YA themes and some serious topics that make you think, this book has a bit of something for everything. I will note that the characters do not seem real so if thats something you're searching for you might want to pass this one up but if, like me, you know the magic that is the boarding school with dark twists this is definitely something to pick up!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-copy for me to read and leave my honest opinion. I'm so grateful I was able to read this book and I honestly urge everyone to pick it up as soon as possible.