Special : [a novel

From a bestselling author, Special is a chilling and subversive debut novel about adolescent girls forging their identities - at any price. Is it true that girls behave better than boys? Or are their methods of destruction merely more subtle?"Sinister and menacing" - Patricia Duncker, New StatesmanA group of schoolgirls go off with two teachers on a field trip to the English countryside. They soon discover that the nearby town offers alcohol, drugs, and sex, at once tempting and terrifying. In this illicit, raw new world, isolated from the larger society and its familiar rules and repressions, some become more vulnerable, others more vicious. There are the almost casual daily cruelties the girls inflict on one another, the dangerous fault lines of their friendships, their insecurities and little shames, the awful power of the "most popular" girl and of the "in crowd." "A brilliant and disturbing take on under-occupied teenage girls" - Maggie O'Farrell, The ObserverThe sexual and social pressures that can break a girl emotionally and even physically and mark her forever are freshly and chillingly observed. Many readers will be reminded of Lord of the Flies. In Special, too, the shell of civilization is paper-thin, and the looming implosion of a tiny society inspires dread. It is not the unfamiliar countryside but the untried emotional landscape these girls must negotiate that proves difficult and disturbing and leads to a shattering conclusion. This is a spellbinding, haunting novel by a brilliant young writer. MONDAY......Page 10 . . . MONDAY......Page 20 TUESDAY......Page 35 WEDNESDAY......Page 51 . . . WEDNESDAY......Page 72 THURSDAY......Page 90 FRIDAY......Page 125 . . . FRIDAY......Page 139 EARLY SATURDAY......Page 159 SATURDAY......Page 165 SUNDAY......Page 184 . . . SUNDAY......Page 199 MONDAY......Page 221 TUESDAY......Page 232 WEDNESDAY......Page 254 THURSDAY......Page 261 FRIDAY......Page 284 . . . FRIDAY......Page 301 SATURDAY......Page 313 A group of schoolgirls goes off on a field trip to the English countryside in a story that will remind readers of "Lord of the Flies." Put up at a manor house that has seen better days, they discover that the nearby town offers alcohol, drugs, and sex--grown up downfalls that are at once tempting and terrifying