THE ELIOT GIRLS by Krista Bridge (Douglas & McIntyre), 331 pages, $22.95 paper. Rating: NNN
I have a thing for all pop culture offerings private-school-related. As a teen I was obsessed with Lindsay Anderson’s pic If…. Every time something new streets, I gobble it up, fascinated by an environment totally unlike my own very coed public school.
In The Eliot Girls, Audrey has finally been admitted to George Eliot Academy after three cracks at the application process. But once in, it doesn’t take long for her to fall hopelessly behind in her classes and get drawn into a group of girls determined to hound suck-up Seeta out of the school. Complicating matters is the fact that Audrey’s mother, Ruth, is on the faculty.
First-time novelist Krista Bridge conveys the atmosphere and characters at an exclusive private school in delicious detail: the snobby headmistress who’s built the institution to feed her own ego, the cliques of mean girls, and the students who will go to any lengths to fit in.
At a time when the topic of bullying is high in the public consciousness, Bridge offers valuable insight into what turns an innocuous teenager into a perpetrator. Audrey just wants to be liked by the pretty, cruel girls, and when the charismatic Arabella asks her to put threatening notes in Seeta’s locker, she complies. Audrey’s moral collapse is wholly believable.
As effective is Bridge’s study of a mother-daughter relationship in which Ruth imposes her desires and expectations in ways that set Audrey up for failure. It’s Ruth who has a huge stake in getting Audrey into Eliot. Audrey couldn’t care less and is more terrified than excited about changing schools.
Bridge’s prose is a bit too florid – she loves to pile on the adjectives – and there are some holes in the story. She never solves the mystery of why former U of T prof Henry has made the downwardly mobile move to Eliot, and the ending is way too tidy.
But as the kids head back to class, read this and be glad your high school days are over.
Bridge appears at the 2013 edition of the International Festival Of Authors. readings.org.
susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole
