Louisa is a high achiever whose home life is dissolving as her parents decide to separate with her remaining at home with her father. When she wins a scholarship to Temple House as a weekly boarder she sees this as a way of escaping her home and redefining herself as something other than merely intelligent.
She soon finds herself drawn into the orbit of Victoria and one of her teachers, Mr Lavelle, and from this moment on her life will never be the same again. Instead of seeking to belong to Temple House she and Victoria to a lesser degree, rage against the restrictions and tradition that complete Temple House and the nuns that run the school.
Twenty years later a journalist is looking into the disappearance of a pupil and a teacher from the school that have never been found. The journalist lived in the same street as Louisa and this proves a catalyst to the unlocking of secrets from twenty years before.
The story is narrated by both Louisa and the journalist which allows both viewpoints to be contrasted as each in their own way tries to make sense of events from twenty years ago.
There is an underlying feeling of other worldliness to the story as the setting provides its own haunting environment to contrast with the complexities of the various characters. There is a sense of fact and reality at times being suspended or being replaced by falsity and unreality. This adds to the tension and the brooding feeling that all will not end well.
A well crafted story.
She soon finds herself drawn into the orbit of Victoria and one of her teachers, Mr Lavelle, and from this moment on her life will never be the same again. Instead of seeking to belong to Temple House she and Victoria to a lesser degree, rage against the restrictions and tradition that complete Temple House and the nuns that run the school.
Twenty years later a journalist is looking into the disappearance of a pupil and a teacher from the school that have never been found. The journalist lived in the same street as Louisa and this proves a catalyst to the unlocking of secrets from twenty years before.
The story is narrated by both Louisa and the journalist which allows both viewpoints to be contrasted as each in their own way tries to make sense of events from twenty years ago.
There is an underlying feeling of other worldliness to the story as the setting provides its own haunting environment to contrast with the complexities of the various characters. There is a sense of fact and reality at times being suspended or being replaced by falsity and unreality. This adds to the tension and the brooding feeling that all will not end well.
A well crafted story.