Dark Like Under

Description

AnIndependentBest Book to Look Out For in 2025At an elite secondary school in the English countryside, students and teachers cope with a sudden loss.In the aftermath of a surprising death, students and teachers at an English school grapple with their grief. Yet the bell continues to ring, and normal lifelessons, arguments, flirtationsgoes on. As the heat of the late spring day intensifies, allegiances strain and rivalries escalate, and old secrets start to surface. Set against a backdrop of strikes, economic unrest, and the stratified milieus of a small town in the 1980s,Dark Like Underthrums with the richly detailed inner lives of its varied cast of characters. Alice Chadwicks luminous debut captures the promise and risk of late adolescence in a profound exploration of resilience and connection, frustration and grief, renewal and the legacies we leave.Praise forDark Like UnderDark Like Underis a wholly engrossing, multi-layered story told with a slow burn.Zilla Jones,Winnipeg Free Press[Dark Like Under] is richly described and pulls the reader into the world of the school set on a sweltering spring day . . . This was a novel that stayed with me long after I finished reading it, and I recommend it to anyone who loves rich descriptions, stories within an academic setting, and is looking for a trip back in time to the 1980s.Pamela Sinclair,Seaboard Review[Dark Like Underis] character-driven, intensely engaging at the sentence level, and disorienting as the story moves between characters, deep into their minds, their pasts, into their homes, class distinctions usually unspoken, but ever-defining. Its a deep dive into a dark sea, and beautifully spellbinding.Kerry Clare,Pickle Me ThisChadwicks distinctive style vividly captures the multiple levels of stress and anxiety experienced by adolescents as they labour under the weight of academics, seek peer approval, and try to cope with the expectations of their parents and teachers for their future.Ottawa Review of Books[Dark Like Under] explores friendship and connection and legacy in a really meaningful way.Meghan Desjardins, CBC WindsorEven in the face of tragedy, for those in the heady days of late adolescence, lessons go on, friendships falter and flirtations simmer, as Chadwick shows in her unique, evocative take on the coming-of-age novel.Vogue UKA slow and absorbing piece of literary fiction . . . Chadwicks prose is delicate, precise and not without a little humour . . . Just lovely.Marie Claire UKChadwicks prose is rich and poetic, containing surprising images and gorgeous complexities . . . The result is an impressive display of Chadwicks depth of feeling and observation, leaving the reader hungry to see what the author will do next.Sally Rudolf,Necessary FictionEvery character is so richly depicted, so expertly drawn with emotional depth and intelligence that we understand not only the individual, but the way each person influences the others and how the townand the countryhas evolved.Pamela Hensley,The Miramichi Reader[T]here are moments of real beauty in this book: sentences so well written, so balanced and satisfying, I went back to enjoy them again.Leaf Arbuthnot,The TelegraphThis hypnotically written debut unfolds over a single day at a secondary school in the Eighties. A group of pupils are left reeling when they learn of the sudden death of a beloved teacher, tragic news that only exacerbates the tensions in the teenagers fraught friendships and tentative romantic relationships. Its the sort of haunting novel that sticks in your mind long after youve put it down.The Independent[Chadwicks] descriptive powers are remarkable . . . The period details are wonderfully accurate . . . But Chadwick is not just good at surfaces: she is also capable of brilliant characterization.TLSDark Like Underis impressively subtle, sensual and sympathetic. For the reader, it is a day well spent.The GuardianA strange, unsettling, but rather brilliant novel. The school comes across like a tinderbox, one that requires only a single tragedy to spark the flame that sets it alight.Irish TimesChadwick is adept at finding the lesser tragedies bursting at the seams, amounting to a clever and compassionate debut.The ObserverAn unpretentiously elegiac novel, it hymns natures solace and the power of human connection with memorable grace.Daily MailA hypnotically immersive book that pulled me into its spell so much that I half expected my name to be called out during the pupils English class.The Crack MagazineIntricate and subtle; an equally weighted attention to the richness of each characters interior life, as they are shaped by the forces of personality, circumstance, culture and class. [Chadwick] really captures the intense intimacies and loneliness of adolescence, the complexity of people coming into being; and the teachers helplessness, exasperation, and tenderness. As the day draws to a close it leaves us on the cusp of all these imbricated, unfolding narratives even as we circle back to a devastating ending.Amy Sackville, author ofOrkneyFull of breathtaking passages and invisible dramas of everyday lives and selves . . . this is a quiet, understated book but one of bottled magic.The Bookseller(Editors Choice)So specifically good on the emotional life of teenagers and the adults who interact with them,Dark Like Underis generous, deeply immersive and occasionally startlingly close to the bone.Lizzy Stewart, author ofAlison