This starts out as a very dark campus novel heavily focused on classroom discussions and revenge plotting by one student. It feels like this is all leading up to a big exposure or maybe even murder, but this takes a turn in tone and plot towards the end where everything unravels and gets grounded in reality once again. Themes of rape culture, power dynamics, and guys who think they're the good ones (they're not). ( )

The Favorites is the newest novel from Rosemary Hennigan, coming out today from Graydon House.

Jessie Mooney has a plan. She did her research and wrote the perfect essay to be selected to Professor Crane's Law & Literature class. Jessie has never met him, but she knows him and what he did...and she's going to make him pay for it. While at Trinity College in Dublin, Jessie's sister Audrey had taken Crane's course and become his favorite. But being his favorite ended up breaking Audrey to the point that she left school and folded into herself, not letting Jessie or their parents know why. Then one day she leaves to backpack through South America, where she dies, leading Jessie to seek out Professor Crane and prove what he did to her sister.

This is a more literary mystery than I usually read. A lot of the narrative was set inside the classroom, discussing how law, literature, and mythology all intertwine. They discuss Paradise Lost and the trial of Orestes for killing his mother Clytemnestra. As Jessie argues and discusses these topics with him, they become closer and her plan to become his favorite seems to be working. Everything is falling into place after all her planning...then everything falls apart in one critical moment.

Filled with lies and secrets, this is a steadily paced, well written and researched novel of dark academia. The legal arguments discussed in the classroom are fully fleshed out, but are still easy to read and understand for anyone not familiar with law.

All in all, a great novel of revenge and obsession set in a university. It's a game of cat and mouse, but who is chasing who? If you enjoy literary fiction with some suspense, secrets, and stalking, then this is definitely for you.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #GraydonHouseBooks for a digital copy for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own. ( )

Jessie Mooney travels from Ireland to Philadelphia to enroll in a graduate law program at Franklin University. She is thrilled to have been accepted into a very competitive Law and Literature class there not because of its cachet but because of its professor, Jay Crane. She wants to become one of his infamous “favorites” because she blames him for her sister’s death and has a plan.

Set during the 2016 election and the very beginning of the #MeToo movement, there are important issues here: questions of the nature of justice, retribution, right vs legal, male power, consent, sexual predators, injustice, victimization, the inadequacies of the legal system, and is stalking ever justified?. This is a very slow burn…and maybe more a fizzle than a burn. For fans of dark academia, there is much grist for a book group discussion, including the ending.

Thanks to #netgalley and @htpbooks @graydonhousebooks for the ARC. ( )