Date of Review:

Published Work:

Gossip Of The Starlings

Reviewer:

Source:

Library Journal

Review Excerpt:

In fall 1984, best friends Catherine and Skye have quite a few things in common—wealthy New England roots, cocaine habits, and the distinction of being expelled from other boarding schools before meeting at the Esther Percy School for Girls. Catherine is preparing for equestrian championships and juggling a long-distance relationship with John Paul, while Skye maneuvers her very public life as a popular liberal senator's daughter. Various adult supporting characters are well drawn, but the teens and their perspectives remain center stage. Against the usual high school backdrop of boys, angst, and excess, Harvard Extension School writing instructor de Gramont (Of Cats and Men) skillfully sustains a tension that leads to an explosive ending while providing us with characters that go well beyond many recent examples of upper-crust East Coast teenage life. Think Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis with the wisdom of hindsight. Young adults should be a strong audience for this compelling coming-of-age novel, which excels in its honest depiction of the interrelationships among teens and with their families and circumstances. Recommended for all fiction collections.—

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