Lisa Lutz

This book is amazing, disturbing, frightening and makes me very glad I was a teenager in the 80s. Before cell phones. Before the internet. Before the fragile core of humanity, dignity, bravery and kindness was stripped out of practically everyone. If you’re a prude or squeamish about teenagers talking about and having a lot of sexual encounters, steer clear. The adults do it, too, but it’s actual sex, not oral which is all the kids do and basically it’s girl on boy. No pleasure for the show more girl. She thinks she has power, but she doesn’t. None of them do and it’s about revenge and getting some of it back. Too little, too late though and it makes me wonder.

Can boy who thinks like this ever be a decent adult? Callous doesn’t even begin to describe how they regard and talk about girls. It’s sick. Demented. Granted it isn’t all boys, but the ones who don’t think of girls as sex machines who are there to just perform for the gratification of any boy who wants it, don’t rock the boat. They’re afraid of losing face, getting beaten up, having their stuff stolen or destroyed or worse. Same with the teachers. The ones who knew and tried to do something were all forced to leave because of accusations of inappropriate behavior, drug possession and whatever else the boys could to do to frame them and keep their power base. Nothing will change if all men are cowards. If they continue to let the behavior pass unremarked, unchallenged. Not just getting pissed off if it happens to a wife, sister or daughter. We do not need rescuers or payback - we need allies.

What I wonder about is if boys raised to feel this way about girls - conditioned to think of them as on-demand blow-job machines, can ever see women as human. As an individual with rights and a will and a mind? I kind of doubt it given our president and general shitty society. Do their mothers know they have these kids out in the world? Do they care? In the end when the ringleader is unmasked and comes to a bad end, one girl remarks that she doesn’t feel bad about it; just think about what kind of man he would have become. It’s sickening in the extreme. And makes me glad I never had kids.

The events, actions and attitudes in the story are all harsh and negative. Some as a result of basically being a twisted human being, some as a result of being on the receiving end of the savagery of a twisted human being. No one comes out looking well, even the girls who I did root for most of the time.

Which brings me to the point that this isn’t a downer of a novel despite what I just said. It’s full of clever insights, interesting characters, personal epiphanies, and great inner strength. I think young people need to read it, or something like it. Both genders. Before they lose their capacity to care about anything except themselves. show less

The Spellmans are one messed up family. They run a private eye business, but their biggest activity seems to be spying on one another. Fortunately for us, their antics are hilarious! Curse of the Spellmans is one of the few sequels that was actually better than the first of the series. I loved the mix of mysteries, spy antics and dysfunction in the plot. The characters are complex and believable, not cartoon-ish like they would be in the hands of lesser talent. All-in-all, great fun!

In my favorite book in the series thus far, Izzy is finally making some positive progress in life. That said, the Spellmans are all up to their usual antics, which include deception (open communication is just not in their repertoire), coercion, outright blackmail, and more than one incident of illegal imprisonment. Multiple cases/storylines keep Izzy occupied and moving forward. Highly entertaining & hilarious, I'm looking forward to the last two books in the series.

whoa, this was a wild ride. i was not expecting the feminist revenge story that i got from this book. it's a rape culture, #metoo lesson with some badass women who choose to be warriors rather than victims.

it was hard to remember, at times, that this takes place at a high school boarding school. both the amount of sexual activity and the general content of the story made all the students seem older to me. but this is really well written and a fast read as the chapters (each told by one of show more maybe 4 protagonists) are short and quick. sometimes the chapters overlapped a bit in content, so we would get the same event from a different perspective. i thought this worked really well, and that she differentiated the voices well.

the issues she brings up are also really important and nuanced. the way the girls are talked about belittled, how they're diminished to their sexual prowess, the specific reduction of sexual activity just to blowjobs so only the boys are getting satisfaction, but also the power dynamic between the upper and lower classmen, the teachers and the students. mr ford is totally skeezy but she leaves the relationship between the student adam and the librarian claudine ("The adults can debate that one.") less clear (she was still the adult there, even though he manipulated her).

this was great, on so many levels. i didn't expect such a powerhouse feminist read, and i hope her other books are more of the same because i'll definitely read her again. show less