Elle and her three friends crash a St. Andrew’s party on her sweet
sixteen. She’s used to being able to do whatever she wants, but
this time she gets more than she bargained for. She’s drugged and
raped. No longer the old Elle, she becomes Jade sworn to revenge.
She transfers to St.
Andrew’s and begins the systematic destruction of the boys. Jade
doesn’t just want to humiliate them. She wants to kill them and
with the help of Andrew Mack, who she seduces and manipulates, that
is exactly what she does.
This is a very dark
tale with plenty of violence. The characters are based on
Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Jade is Lady Macbeth. Her three friends are
the three witches, and Andrew Mack is the hapless Macbeth. Duncan is
the leader of the Saint Andrew’s contingent. The writing is crisp,
full of primary colors. There are no lingering descriptions. The
focus is on action. Much as I enjoyed the cleverness of the plot, it
did get rather grim in places. It’s frightening to think of
teenagers deciding to coldbloodedly kill each other.
This is a YA book,
but it’s not for everyone. The themes are very adult, sexual
assault, and murderous manipulation. I enjoyed the book, but care
should be taken in recommending it to a teenager.
I received this book
from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
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