Cry Havoc

British writer Wait (I’m Sorry You Feel That Way) spins the zany tale of a run-down boarding school. In 1984, 16-year-old Ida is desperate to leave her Scottish hometown, where she’s mercilessly bullied for an initially unspecified scandal involving her mother. She lands a scholarship at St. Anne’s in Southeast England, where she rooms with and befriends Louise, a feisty girl who has a bad reputation for setting a classmate’s skirt on fire. Meanwhile, suspicions begin to swirl about the new history teacher, Matthew Langfield, who claims to have come from a more upscale school but may have lied about his previous work experience. After a classmate of Ida’s has a seizure in Matthew’s class, other girls at the school follow suit with seizures of their own, leading to rumors that they have been poisoned or are suffering from a mystery illness. While the resolution feels too pat and rushed, particularly in its explanation of what’s making the girls ill, Waits crafts an intriguing and mordantly funny glimpse of life in closed communities where groupthink and gossip thrive. Dark academia fans ought to check this out. Agent: Caroline Hardman, Hardman & Swainson. (Jan.)