Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund

There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. Yanagihara ( The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”-deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. The impressive plot earns this project a B, but the banal dialogue and wimpy heroine downgrade it to a C.įour men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions-as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer-and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

This is the first in a series let us hope Peterfreund polishes her prose and educates her heroine before the next installment. The heroine comes off as insecure and out of her league-which would be charming if Amy would ever reveal some prowess as a leader and unleash her intellect. While the plot is a winner, Peterfreund’s writing is thin and the novel feels best suited for teens. Infighting breaks out in the society and Amy has to prove herself worthy of her powerful new friendships. Amy is smitten with her fellow Rose & Grave initiates and the splendid perks of membership. The club’s trust fund hovers in the tens of millions. Rose & Grave is Eli’s most exclusive club, whose members include U.S. For the first time in the group’s storied history, Rose & Grave has decided to tap, or initiate, women. To her surprise, she learns she hasn’t been tapped by the writer’s guild after all, but instead by Rose & Grave. Soon Amy is whisked away to a clandestine location for a ritualistic initiation.

She’s a shoo-in for Eli’s literary society, Quill & Ink.

Her latest achievement, nabbing the editor-in-chief spot at Eli’s literary magazine, leaves Amy feeling optimistic. She studies maniacally and uses her scant spare time to pad her résumé. For Amy, landing a coveted editorial position upon graduation can only be achieved through Herculean efforts. An Ivy League diploma no longer guarantees career success, and Amy can’t rely on influential parents to secure her prosperity. An intimate glimpse at an elite college’s secret clubs.Īmy Haskel, a harried literature student at Eli University (a thinly veiled Yale, the author’s alma mater) is concerned about her future.

Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund