When We Were Monsters
An elite boarding school with a murder in its past continues with the traditions that caused it. One is called ‘Jan Term’, where eight students are hand picked to
attend a few weeks with a celebrity author, screen writer or other literary figure. They will slowly be eliminated from a competition which will leave the winner with a lucrative cheque, and possible contacts and connections for a bright future.
Effy, her best friend Nessa, wealthy Isaac and a troubled boy named Arlo are among the chosen. In fact, all of them have something in their past that they don’t realise is the reason they’ve been chosen. These problems aren’t exactly secrets but are kept just under the skin, in order to try and protect themselves.
This year’s mentor is Meredith Graffam – an author, a playwright, actor, film maker and a survivor of an attack that left her friend dead in another school tradition called The Hunt, many years before in the forest around the school.
Murton Wood is now nicknamed ‘Murder Wood,’ and the students avoid it, but they know all about Meredith’s past. Meredith Graffam however, is too famous not to be excited about, and they settle into their rooms, ready to learn from her.
Her teachings are a little unusual, and then downright dangerous, as she draws their fears, passions and truths from them all in the name of creativity. She comes and goes from their writing retreat, holds parties for the rich and famous and behaves strangely.
As the eight students are whittled down for all sorts of obscure reasons, the final four begin to question Meredith’s teachings. Effy and Arlo slowly reconnect after a painful parting, Nessa struggles with her all consuming insecurity, and Isaac continues to perform the ‘I’m so rich and life is brilliant’ facade to all.
But Meredith is breaking through their hard shells of protection and starting to poke their raw insides, building them up, pulling them down and beginning to twist what they believe about each other.
When the final four begin to question Meredith’s methods, they discover much more than they ever imagined. Is the famous Meredith Graffam a monster? Is the only way to fight back to become monsters themselves?
From the author of All the Bright Places and Breathless, When We Were Monsters falls into the Dark Academia genre – a genre the author admits to devouring as a teen.
The prose is quite poetic and often flowery, which is beautiful, but took off the edge I enjoy in a psychological novel. The teens are all troubled by their past for different reasons, and this is explored in much depth with Arlo and Effy especially, who warily come back together in the novel after a past relationship.
The teacher, Meredith Graffam is quite bonkers and it’s really interesting how the characters do as she asks for the sake of a competition, and because she’s famous. Many of the requests were exceedingly dangerous, but most of the students never questioned them. The fact that she already knew that they were all so desperate to win, meant she could push them to do anything.
I enjoyed this novel but thought it was a little too drawn out to be thrilling. Cool end though.
Author – Jennifer Niven
Age – 14+
(2025, Penguin UK, Betrayal, School, Conflict, Murder, Family, Grief, Friendship, Love, Mystery, Revenge, Secret, Dark Academia, Teaching Methods, Literary Devices, Poetry, Confusion, Writing)
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