3.0
The World Cannot Give
ByPublisher Description
“The Secret History meets The Price of Salt” (Vogue) in this “equal parts dangerous and delicious” (Entertainment Weekly) dark academia novel about queer desire, religious zealotry, and the hunger for transcendence among the members of a cultic chapel choir at a prestegious Maine boarding school—and the ambitious, terrifyingly charismatic girl that rules over them.
When shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic “prep school prophet” (and St. Dunstan’s alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at nineteen, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss. Virginia is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. She expects nothing short of perfection from herself—and from the member of the choir.
Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent choral music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster’s novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go.
The World Cannot Give is a “hypnotic and intense” (Shondaland) meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more from the world.
When shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic “prep school prophet” (and St. Dunstan’s alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at nineteen, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss. Virginia is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. She expects nothing short of perfection from herself—and from the member of the choir.
Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent choral music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster’s novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go.
The World Cannot Give is a “hypnotic and intense” (Shondaland) meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more from the world.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe World Cannot Give Reviews
3.0
“Honestly, this was almost a 5 for me, but not quite perfect. I really enjoyed this book. The plot is really interesting and the setting grabbed me right away. This was my first time reading something described as “dark academia” and I loved it.
If you any knowledge about cultish behavior you’ll most likely know what’s happening early on like I did. I knew Virginia was a terrible person throughout the book. Laura not having a backbone to stand up for herself or go against Virginia was definitely frustrating, but then again, she’s an impressionable teenager. People like Virginia make you feel special, which makes you want to please them.
This book really surprised me, especially at the end. I thought the other was actually setting up some sort of character change for Virginia, but nope. I do think it’s strange how quickly Laura went from worshipping Virginia to “now she’s dead which is good cause she’s a terrible person and I hope she burns.” Or maybe now that Virginia was gone, the effects of her brainwashing were gone as well and Laura could see who she truly was?
Anyways I did not expect to love this book but it was so good and it was hard to put down!! It’s a book that will definitely make you think.”
About Tara Isabella Burton
Tara Isabella Burton is the author of the novels Here in Avalon, The World Cannot Give, and Social Creature, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Vulture, and The Guardian. She is also the author of the nonfiction books Strange Rites and Self-Made. She has written on religion, culture, and place for The New York Times, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and more. She received a doctorate in theology from Trinity College, Oxford.
Other books by Tara Isabella Burton
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