cover image Wild Girls

Wild Girls

Mary Stewart Atwell. Scribner, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4516-8327-1

Atwell%E2%80%99s debut novel unfolds in the Appalachian town of Swan River, where Kate Riordan spends her teenage years fearing that she%E2%80%99ll succumb to the supernatural madness that seems to afflict many town girls at random, giving them uncanny abilities and the desire to kill. Though some Swan River neighborhoods are desolate, the village is also home to the posh boarding school where Kate%E2%80%99s mother works as a secretary. Thanks to a tuition discount, Kate and her older sister, Maggie, attend the academy, where they encounter girls from different social stratum. Among them are the beautiful, charismatic Willow Becker%E2%80%94a local girl with nouveau riche, social-climbing parents%E2%80%94and Kate%E2%80%99s best friend Caroline, who has an intense interest in mythology and the history of the region%E2%80%99s Wild Girls in particular. Atwell navigates familiar territory, describing the usual jealousies, ssues of social class, love triangles, and cults-of-personality that crop up in books featuring prep-school settings. But amid such familiar tropes, the paranormal touches are welcome, and Atwell works them into the narrative very well. Agent: Denise Shannon. (Oct. 16)