I read my husband the description of this book and he asked if it was written specifically for me. Maybe it was! I loved all of the elements in it, Virginia was very recognizable, love a good Maine boarding school and the drama around was basically a meaningless club was spot on. My only quibble was that I didn't get a huge sense of Laura. Her obsession and naivete, yes but not a lot about why she was so easily swayed by this clearly disturbed young woman. I get the attraction and confusion over sexuality angle but I wish we had a tiny bit more of a peek into before she went to school. Why was she the type of kid who would get so obsessed with a book that she'd leave her home to go to the same school the author did? That points to something going on before the book begins.

Another great book about obsession and women's friendship by the author.

I also loved the punny names on the menu at the diner.

I enjoyed this read. It kept my attention and I really found myself connecting with the characters. Make sure you read this one!

Excellent story! Totally engrossing!. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Could not put this down!

This book nails all of the horrors and ecstasies of adolescence. The toxic groups of friends who buoy while they drown, the new-found certainties that lead to rigidity masquerading as resolve, the inability to imagine a world beyond the insular campus, deeply disappointing teenage boys, all this and more are explored at length. There is a little bit of Laura and a little bit of Virginia in us all.

"But Laura knows she will do whatever Virginia asks. She no longer remembers how to do anything else."

I got it, but I didn't. The World Cannot Give did remind me of The Secret History, but it's not really comparable, other than the premise. Maybe if Burton had told us more about Laura in the beginning, I would've understood WHY she was so obsessed with Virginia (other than the Sebastian Webster connection), who seemed completely unlikable and tiring to me. I think Reverend Tipton explains it best: "She annoyed me...She was posh, irritating, and stuck-up...nobody else, in her whole life, had ever put her in her place".

That said, I read the book in less than a day! Easy to read, with evocative language, and I did want to know how it would all end, certain it would not be good. From Freddy "adding freckles to Bonnie's cheeks" for an Instagram story to Evensong and Candlemas, and the destruction in Virginia's wake, I can only hope that Laura learns to be her OWN person, as she acknowledges "there is no such thing, not really, as a 'shipwreck of the soul', except the ones where you drown."

P.S. Thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for the ARC.

Genre: new adult, dark academia
Pub date: March 8, 2022

In one sentence: Laura's obsession with prep school classmate Virginia changes her life, and she has to decide how far she''ll go for her friend.

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 book combines teenage drama with deep questions about life, and I was hooked from the beginning. There are echoes of books like The Secret History here, and I'd recommend this book to fans of that one. Laura was a great set of eyes for the reader to explore this environments and get to know the enigmatic Virginia. There were plenty of plot twists to keep me interested, and I did not see the ending coming.

This book is somewhat in between a slow burn and a fast-paced thriller - I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy dark academia and coming of age stories.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review posted to Goodreads 9/19/21; to be posted to Instagram closer to pub date.

I didn’t know what to think about this book. In some ways, I loved it. The characters, the twists, the confusion, and surprise all won me over. I really don’t know how to feel about the ending though. It made sense, yet didn’t. It was fitting but not. This book made me think about contradictions, as that’s exactly how I felt about this story! I felt so much in the course of the book and felt like the ending was abrupt. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc in exchange for my honest opinion. I’m still trying to puzzle out how I feel about it!

I never read A SEPERATE PEACE, and I know that I don't have to to have enjoyed this. I just wondered if I had been forced in the past to read A SEPERATE PEACE I'd fux with this book more. But no, this book did not make me at all want to read A SEPERATE PEACE. Thank you for reading this book review of a book I have read that is actually a book review of that book about another book I've never read.

What a gripping, raw novel about queerness, identity, and acceptance. This is A LITTLE LIFE meets CATCHER IN THE RYE. Burton has created a novel of such emotion, such captivation that pulls at your heart and mind. Thank you for the e-arc.

One of my favorite writers I loved her book the social creature. I couldn’t wait to read this one and this didn’t disappoint. This book is about an insular society. It’s also a book about obsession. I absolutely loved it.