Episode 7.6: ‘I Have Some Questions for You’ by Rebecca Makkai
Can you believe it’s already the season seven finale of ‘The Dark Academicals’? We can’t!
For this final episode we’ve got a dark academia thriller set between the 1990s and current day that we think is going to be a surefire hit, and possibly pose some real connections to ‘The Secret History’.
The riveting new novel from the author of The Great Believers, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award
A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past: the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the 1995 murder of a classmate, Thalia Keith. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletics coach, Omar Evans, are the subject of intense fascination online, Bodie prefers-needs-to let sleeping dogs lie.
But when The Granby School invites her back to teach a two-week course, Bodie finds herself inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought-if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
One of the most acclaimed contemporary American writers, Rebecca Makkai reinvents herself with each of her brilliant novels. Both a transfixing mystery and a deeply felt examination of one woman's reckoning with her past, I Have Some Questions for You is her finest achievement yet.
Historically, thrillers haven’t hit the right notes for us on ‘The Dark Academicals’, but we have high hopes for this one!
In this episode we discuss:
When books try to take on too many big topics, to its detriment
The power of an early 90s setting for on campus novels
We announce the titles for season 8!
You can listen to it here:
TEXTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘I Have Some Questions for You’ by Rebecca Makkai
‘The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson’ by Louise Rennison
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘My Dark Vanessa’ by Kate Elizabeth Russell
‘Morning Star’ by Pierce Brown
OTHER MEDIA AND POP CULTURE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘Dirty Dancing’ (1987)
If you fancy taking a chance on ‘I Have Some Questions for You’, we’d love it if you considered using our bookshop.org link below to purchase your copy of the book which helps us fund ‘The Dark Academicals’ and gives back to independent bookshops at no extra cost to you.
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