by Catherine Chidgey
I’m not sure, but this might be what they call a “thriller”? Kind of a mysterious shocking story about a creepy teacher. I was drawn to it because it takes place in a Catholic school in the 80s. It’s New Zealand, so it was fun to learn a few of their slang words and a bit of their culture. I had never heard of a “winceyette” or “abseiling”, for example.
Anyway, a beautiful teacher comes to town and makes various girls her “pets.” She drives a wedge between two old friends. Shocking mysterious things happen which I shouldn’t divulge.
I loved how they got Catholic school spot-on! The dwindling number of aging nuns, who “taught” special subjects like singing. The way, if the principal or priest or anyone would walk into the classroom, everyone had to stand up and say in a sing-song voice, “Good afterno-on, Sister So-and-So!” And, “You couldn’t receive Holy Communion if you had eaten in the last hour; you couldn’t allow the body of Christ to slosh around in your stomach with the cornflakes and bacon.” Nobody else seems to have remembered that rule. And how it was easy to follow because it was at least a half hour in church before communion even started, so you really only had to ‘fast’ the last half hour before leaving.
Tytania 