Review: 'The Truants' by Kate Weinberg

A mysterious hearse driving through a forest while the title promises truancy? Sign me up! That was pretty much my first thought when I saw The Truants and I was absolutely drawn in by the blurb as well. This sounded like the modern version of The Secret History I had been looking for.  Unfortunately, I might have set my expectations for Weinberg's novel too high. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 08/08/2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

People disappear when they most want to be seen. 

Jess Walker, middle child of a middle class family, has perfected the art of vanishing in plain sight. But when she arrives at a concrete university campus under flat, grey, East Anglian skies, her world flares with colour. 

Drawn into a tightly-knit group of rule breakers – led by their maverick teacher, Lorna Clay – Jess begins to experiment with a new version of herself. But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken as they share secrets, lovers and finally a tragedy. Soon Jess is thrown up against the question she fears most: what is the true cost of an extraordinary life?

Who doesn't love a story of a tight friendship group that gets bound up too tightly in itself? It is why The Secret History was such a success. We all long back, secretly, to those days in which friendships were forged instantly and strongly, where the smallest anthill was an insurmountable obstacle, but where almost everything was also quickly forgiven. It is a fascinating moment in all of our lives where we have a huge amount of freedom while still having a relative safety net as well. So we all get a bit dumb during those years. Exactly because it is such a fertile ground for novelists, it also becomes quite a tricky time period and subject matter. It has to be handled with care if one wants to avoid over-blowing it.

Something consistently irked me about our main character, Jess Walker. Although many things happen in the novel, she felt consistently passive to me. She hopes for things to happen, and when they do she happily goes along with it, until the inevitable consequences arrive and she then meekly accepts those to. Things happen to her, but each of her reactions feels coached or caused by someone else. Hardly ever did I truly feel like she was making choices herself, leaving me to wonder about the blurb's last lines.

'What is the true cost of an extraordinary life?'

I think this is the question The Truants wants to ask, yet it doesn't seem to have made it's mind up about what an extraordinary life is or who is supposed to be living it. Outrageous lives? Sure! Irresponsible lives?  Absolutely! But extraordinary? I don't know. There should be an element of inspiration there and instead each of the characters felt incredibly sleazy. Sure, it was fascinating and fun to read. But I don't think I liked it.

Kate Weinberg captures the intoxication of that first year at university perfectly. Suddenly there is this newfound freedom you didn't even know you craved and Weinberg lets her characters experience those heights. However, they are driven to rather extreme heights. What worked in The Secret History, the boozing, the trips, the murder, it all works because of the remove Tartt puts in place between her reader and her plot. Her characters aren't people you recognize among your friends; they're also not people you're supposed to like very much. Alongside Donna Tartt, Agatha Christie is also a major influence on this novel. Weinberg's 'maverick teacher', Lorna Clay teaches a course on her and this brings in the mystery element. Again, much of Christie's plot work because of our slight remove from the people it depicts: the wealthy and landed. The Truants feels too grounded in our modern reality, which means that the excesses of the book feel outlandish. The plot twists always felt just one step too far for me. Again, I can't say I didn't enjoy reading The Truants but there were just too many moments where I felt like scratching my head.

I give this novel...

2 Universes.

The Truants is an engaging read that however doesn't entirely satisfy. It's all there, the drama and mystery and suspense, and yet it didn't really work for me. I'd recommend this novel to those looking for a dramatic university novel with some mystery and suspense added to the mix.