The Favorites
A Campus Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
An outsider graduate student forges her way into an exclusive Law and Literature cohort and plots a takedown of its popular professor in this provocative campus novel about privilege, power, and obsession
“A standout dark academia thriller, with shades of Donna Tartt’s modern classic The Secret History and Emerald Fennell’s revenge fantasy film Promising Young Woman.” —BookPage
Most students would kill to be selected for the prestigious Law and Literature course at Franklin University. But for Jessie Mooney, admittance into this campus inner circle is about more than social cachet and access to distinguished alumni: It’s her chance to get close to charismatic professor Jay Crane. Since the moment she discovered their secret relationship, Jessie’s been convinced Crane is to blame for the events leading to her sister’s death, and she’ll do anything to hold him accountable.
Between off-campus parties and intense classroom debates, Jessie carefully plots her every move with one goal in mind—to earn the coveted position as Crane’s “favorite.” But when she finally gains his trust, attracting the other students’ envy and suspicion, the truth becomes darkly twisted. Is it justice Jessie craves, or revenge? And what does she stand to lose if she gets her way?
Shimmering with tension, The Favorites explores the ways that love, desire, and anger reveal the best, and worst, of us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Irish writer Hennigan's riveting debut, a woman avenges her late sister by attempting to entrap a law professor. Jessie Mooney's older sister, Audrey, dropped out of Trinity College in Dublin and left for Central America, where she dies in a bus accident. Jessie soon finds out Audrey had been sleeping with her professor, Jay Crane, and Jay had sexually assaulted her. Believing Crane's abuse is to blame for Audrey's ill-fated move, Jessie enrolls in Franklin University in Philadelphia, where Crane has tenure, and manages to be selected for his exclusive six-person law seminar. Known for playing favorites, Crane chooses Jessie and Charlie Duke, the reluctant scion of a prominent political family, to be his research assistants. Jessie plans to have sex with Crane, then charge him with rape, and she seeds gossip about her relationship with Crane among her classmates to build the potential case. Despite her objective, however, Jessie finds herself charmed by the professor, whose apparently sincere passion for the law makes him popular with students. Jessica's plan gains momentum after she finds an ally in Charlie, but before it's all over, things spill out of her control. Hennigan's law degree is evident in her eloquent depictions of classroom discussions and her thoughtful meditations on justice. Readers will devour this satisfying tale of vengeance.
