Dear Reader,

Psychological thriller, family drama, intelligent romance—the deft blend of these disparate literary genres made Susan Richards Shreve's A Student of Living Things of my most oddly satisfying reads of the year. From the moment I picked it up, the beautiful prose and the immediacy of the story entangled me completely. Shreve’s tale begins, as most thrillers do, with a murder: Graduate student Claire Frayn (oddly naive for all her intelligence) is talking with her charismatic, activist brother Steven when he is gunned down on the university library steps.
        In the aftermath of this traumatic, unforeseeable event, Claire’s tight-knit family begins to disintegrate. Her mother moves out, her aunt loses her job due to controversy surrounding Steven’s death, and Claire retreats deep into herself. It’s only when she’s approached by Viktor, an enigmatic classmate of Steven’s, that she sees a way forward: revenge. Her desperate, unquestioning belief in Viktor’s story leads her to play femme fatale with his chosen suspect, but when she realizes her love is no longer an act, Claire’s world begins to unravel. Whom should she trust, and will she learn the truth before the secret that killed her brother destroys her family?

Alaya Johnson
Editorial Assistant, QPB