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Debutante Hill
Lois Duncan's 1958 young adult classic tells the story of what happens when the debutante tradition comes to one small town: the parties, the ball gowns, as well as one girl's growing sense of right and wrong.
Lynn Chambers is popular, wealthy, and going (almost) steady with a handsome college boy. But when she decides not to be a debutante, Lynn finds herself on the outside, which leads her to a side of her town she barely knew existed. There she meets Anna, an artist overlooked by the debutante crowd, and bad boy Dirk Masters, who has a fast car, a quick temper, and a dark secret involving Lynn.
Lois Duncan was a young wife and mother of two when she decided to write a novel to pay the bills. The result was Debutante Hill. The novel was originally rejected for consideration in the Dodd, Mead and Company's Seventeenth Summer Literary contest due to one character drinking a beer, but after Duncan swapped in a soft drink, she won the prize, which paid the down payment on her first house.
Since then, Duncan has written over fifty novels, receiving worldwide acclaim for her young adult fiction. She pioneered the teen suspense novel, and is a regular nominee for the Edgar Allen Poe award. In 1992, Duncan was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award For a Distinguished Body of Work for Young Adults. Her novels I Know What You Did Last Summer and Hotel for Dogs have been adapted into popular films.
Lynn Chambers is popular, wealthy, and going (almost) steady with a handsome college boy. But when she decides not to be a debutante, Lynn finds herself on the outside, which leads her to a side of her town she barely knew existed. There she meets Anna, an artist overlooked by the debutante crowd, and bad boy Dirk Masters, who has a fast car, a quick temper, and a dark secret involving Lynn.
Lois Duncan was a young wife and mother of two when she decided to write a novel to pay the bills. The result was Debutante Hill. The novel was originally rejected for consideration in the Dodd, Mead and Company's Seventeenth Summer Literary contest due to one character drinking a beer, but after Duncan swapped in a soft drink, she won the prize, which paid the down payment on her first house.
Since then, Duncan has written over fifty novels, receiving worldwide acclaim for her young adult fiction. She pioneered the teen suspense novel, and is a regular nominee for the Edgar Allen Poe award. In 1992, Duncan was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award For a Distinguished Body of Work for Young Adults. Her novels I Know What You Did Last Summer and Hotel for Dogs have been adapted into popular films.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
7 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
Lois Duncan
68 books2,003 followersLois Duncan (born Lois Duncan Steinmetz) was an American writer and novelist, known primarily for her books for children and young adults, in particular (and some times controversially considering her young readership) crime thrillers. Duncan's parents were the noted magazine photographers Lois Steinmetz and Joseph Janney Steinmetz. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Sarasota, Florida. Duncan started writing and submitting manuscripts to magazines at the age of ten, and when she was thirteen succeeded in selling her first story.
Duncan attended Duke University from 1952 to 1953 but dropped out, married, and started a family. During this time, she continued to write and publish magazine articles; over the course of her career, she has published more than 300 articles, in magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest. After her first marriage, which produced three children, ended in divorce, Duncan moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to teach journalism at the University of New Mexico, where she also earned a BA in English in 1977. In 1965 she married Don Arquette, and had two more children with him.
Duncan was best known for her novels of suspense for teenagers. Some of her works have been adapted for the screen, the most famous example being the 1997 film I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted from her novel of the same title. Other made-for-TV movies include Stranger with My Face, Killing Mr. Griffin, Don't Look Behind You, Summer of Fear and Gallows Hill.
In 1989 the youngest of Duncan's children, Kaitlyn Arquette, was murdered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, under suspicious circumstances. Who Killed My Daughter? relates the facts and conjecture about the still unsolved case.
Duncan's second book about her daughter's murder, ONE TO THE WOLVES: ON THE TRAIL OF A KILLER, picks up where the first book leaves off and contains all the new information Kait's family has uncovered from private investigation.
The 1971 children's book Hotel for Dogs was released as a theatrical movie in 2009, starring Emma Roberts. That book has now been republished by Scholastic along with two sequels, News for Dogs (2009) and Movie for Dogs (2010).
Duncan's Gothic suspense novel, DOWN A DARK HALL, is being filmed for the Big Screen and will probably be released in 2016.
Follow Lois on Twitter: http://twitter.com/duncanauthor
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?i...
http://www.kaitarquette.arquettes.com
Duncan attended Duke University from 1952 to 1953 but dropped out, married, and started a family. During this time, she continued to write and publish magazine articles; over the course of her career, she has published more than 300 articles, in magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest. After her first marriage, which produced three children, ended in divorce, Duncan moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to teach journalism at the University of New Mexico, where she also earned a BA in English in 1977. In 1965 she married Don Arquette, and had two more children with him.
Duncan was best known for her novels of suspense for teenagers. Some of her works have been adapted for the screen, the most famous example being the 1997 film I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted from her novel of the same title. Other made-for-TV movies include Stranger with My Face, Killing Mr. Griffin, Don't Look Behind You, Summer of Fear and Gallows Hill.
In 1989 the youngest of Duncan's children, Kaitlyn Arquette, was murdered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, under suspicious circumstances. Who Killed My Daughter? relates the facts and conjecture about the still unsolved case.
Duncan's second book about her daughter's murder, ONE TO THE WOLVES: ON THE TRAIL OF A KILLER, picks up where the first book leaves off and contains all the new information Kait's family has uncovered from private investigation.
The 1971 children's book Hotel for Dogs was released as a theatrical movie in 2009, starring Emma Roberts. That book has now been republished by Scholastic along with two sequels, News for Dogs (2009) and Movie for Dogs (2010).
Duncan's Gothic suspense novel, DOWN A DARK HALL, is being filmed for the Big Screen and will probably be released in 2016.
Follow Lois on Twitter: http://twitter.com/duncanauthor
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?i...
http://www.kaitarquette.arquettes.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
January 9, 2014
A 1958 reprint of a coming of age novel about a wealthy young girl who spends her senior year with her well-to-do "Hill" friends and waiting for letters from her handsome college boyfriend, until the tradition of debutantes descends on her small town and her father forbids her to participate. Lynn is suddenly aware of her peers in other social classes, and begins to form strong opinions about prejudices in her town and rethinks the relationships with everyone she's known all her life.
While a bit preachy in places, Lois Duncan's (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hotel For Dogs) first novel has characters that ring true and enough action and romance to move it along. I can see why it sold well in its day, but I have to confess that what brought this novel to four stars for me was how (unintentionally) hilarious melodramatic 1950s teens are (How thrilling that my feminine charms might wield enough power over bad-boy Dirk Masters to turn him from his rough crowd!), and how interesting the social mores of the 1950s are (If you have a fellow's class ring, you're apparently still not exactly going steady, and it's totally acceptable to chat with him about other boys you're dating while he's out of town. And remember, girls, a real lady is always kind to the less attractive debutantes, otherwise know as "the less fortunate".) I giggled and cackled my way through the story and enjoyed myself thoroughly.
Don't skip the intro. Lois Duncan was clearly the most fantastic child ever.
Also: Holy typo, Batman! There are a disproportionate number of errors in this text. Like ten that I found without looking.
While a bit preachy in places, Lois Duncan's (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hotel For Dogs) first novel has characters that ring true and enough action and romance to move it along. I can see why it sold well in its day, but I have to confess that what brought this novel to four stars for me was how (unintentionally) hilarious melodramatic 1950s teens are (How thrilling that my feminine charms might wield enough power over bad-boy Dirk Masters to turn him from his rough crowd!), and how interesting the social mores of the 1950s are (If you have a fellow's class ring, you're apparently still not exactly going steady, and it's totally acceptable to chat with him about other boys you're dating while he's out of town. And remember, girls, a real lady is always kind to the less attractive debutantes, otherwise know as "the less fortunate".) I giggled and cackled my way through the story and enjoyed myself thoroughly.
Don't skip the intro. Lois Duncan was clearly the most fantastic child ever.
Also: Holy typo, Batman! There are a disproportionate number of errors in this text. Like ten that I found without looking.
December 14, 2020
I used to read all of Lois Duncan's books back in the day, but this one either hadn't been published in some time or the library didn't stock it, so it completely slipped past me. This was her very first book and the one that won an award and launched her into a very successful, long-lasting writing career. There is an extensive Author's Foreword included in the version I read that I really liked--because Lois Duncan wasn't the sort of author to put an unnecessary Author's Note at the end or beginning of every single book. I still remember that one nonfiction book that was prefaced by the author's extensive listing of his credentials (which we all know already from the biography on the back but he still felt inclined to speak at length about it in the first chapter) as well as that of his son's, which was completely irrelevant to the subject of the book, though I gather the author really wanted to tell everyone.
In any event, some of the other reviews discuss the synopsis of the book pretty well, but I was also interested to know that this book originally started from a short story that Duncan had written and submitted multiple times to a slew of rejections. She finally, on the advice of one rejection letter, turned it into a novel, and I do think that the book worked really well, even to this grand old day in 2020, despite originally published in 1958. It doesn't feel dated at all, and all the same situations still apply.
One of the best things in the entire book is the characterization of everyone, and the development of Lynn, the main character in particular. It's the kind of book that used to be popular back before everyone and anyone could write a YA novel (cough, yes, Stephanie Meyer), by which I mean that there had to be something redeeming about it. There has to be a change that affects our protagonist, a conflict she undergoes, and how she grows as a result of it.
The thing about Lynn was that it was easy to sympathize with her on a superficial level, being left out of your friendship circle in your senior year when everything had been going so swimmingly for her, and the setup was fast in developing--at the end of the first chapter, I already wanted to know how it would resolve itself. At the end of the second chapter, I thoroughly liked both her parents. They were both rich and lived on the Hill (which is the equivalent of being rich and snobby) but the background was laid out quickly and sympathetically. Her father was a good man, and her mother, though originally being one of those rich debutantes before, had chosen him over the objections of her parents. They stood together, but they were not unloving. And Lynn, despite herself, promised her father not to attend even when he was on the cusp of caving.
Nobody is the villain in this story. No other woman (despite there being an obvious other woman who actually does accuse Lynn of aiding and abetting a robbery) is a terrible person. It's a case of misunderstanding, of growing up, of learning more about your younger sister than you originally had. I enjoyed the relationships that Lynn had with her younger sister, who was more textured and layered and complicated than her short screen time demanded, and her boyfriend, Paul, the most popular boy in town (despite that the bad boy calls him wishy-washy), is also not without his depth.
I was most interested in the appearance of the bad boy OM, Dirk Masters, because of how he suddenly appears in the book, and I contrast the way Duncan dealt with his character versus in her later book, Stranger with My Face, in which the protagonist does end up with the OM instead of her original boyfriend. Maybe it was the time (1958) or that it was her first book. Nowadays the lines between bad and good are more blurred, and there's been a shift towards romanticizing the antihero that I'm fully behind. Regardless, I was fascinated by how Dirk Masters leapt off the page and I have to admit that his revelation of his pining for her was very squeal-worthy. It wasn't even that Paul was a bad person; he wasn't, and his ensuing actions showed that he deserved his reputation as the most popular boy in town. It disappointed me slightly that Dirk didn't end up being the hero of the piece, but this all was very realistic given that he had had a fairly sad background.
In the end, it's Lynn who thoroughly wins over the audience, because she takes responsibility for her own actions, in realizing that she'd made a muck of her own school year because of her own moping, and realizing that she knew how to sympathize with the OM rather than blaming her for her own troubles. Lynn then realizes that her worth doesn't lay in what she'd always been rather proud of, of belonging to the Hill, but that there were other people and other things that had more value.
A solid book. Definitely recommend as a YA novel.
In any event, some of the other reviews discuss the synopsis of the book pretty well, but I was also interested to know that this book originally started from a short story that Duncan had written and submitted multiple times to a slew of rejections. She finally, on the advice of one rejection letter, turned it into a novel, and I do think that the book worked really well, even to this grand old day in 2020, despite originally published in 1958. It doesn't feel dated at all, and all the same situations still apply.
One of the best things in the entire book is the characterization of everyone, and the development of Lynn, the main character in particular. It's the kind of book that used to be popular back before everyone and anyone could write a YA novel (cough, yes, Stephanie Meyer), by which I mean that there had to be something redeeming about it. There has to be a change that affects our protagonist, a conflict she undergoes, and how she grows as a result of it.
The thing about Lynn was that it was easy to sympathize with her on a superficial level, being left out of your friendship circle in your senior year when everything had been going so swimmingly for her, and the setup was fast in developing--at the end of the first chapter, I already wanted to know how it would resolve itself. At the end of the second chapter, I thoroughly liked both her parents. They were both rich and lived on the Hill (which is the equivalent of being rich and snobby) but the background was laid out quickly and sympathetically. Her father was a good man, and her mother, though originally being one of those rich debutantes before, had chosen him over the objections of her parents. They stood together, but they were not unloving. And Lynn, despite herself, promised her father not to attend even when he was on the cusp of caving.
Nobody is the villain in this story. No other woman (despite there being an obvious other woman who actually does accuse Lynn of aiding and abetting a robbery) is a terrible person. It's a case of misunderstanding, of growing up, of learning more about your younger sister than you originally had. I enjoyed the relationships that Lynn had with her younger sister, who was more textured and layered and complicated than her short screen time demanded, and her boyfriend, Paul, the most popular boy in town (despite that the bad boy calls him wishy-washy), is also not without his depth.
I was most interested in the appearance of the bad boy OM, Dirk Masters, because of how he suddenly appears in the book, and I contrast the way Duncan dealt with his character versus in her later book, Stranger with My Face, in which the protagonist does end up with the OM instead of her original boyfriend. Maybe it was the time (1958) or that it was her first book. Nowadays the lines between bad and good are more blurred, and there's been a shift towards romanticizing the antihero that I'm fully behind. Regardless, I was fascinated by how Dirk Masters leapt off the page and I have to admit that his revelation of his pining for her was very squeal-worthy. It wasn't even that Paul was a bad person; he wasn't, and his ensuing actions showed that he deserved his reputation as the most popular boy in town. It disappointed me slightly that Dirk didn't end up being the hero of the piece, but this all was very realistic given that he had had a fairly sad background.
In the end, it's Lynn who thoroughly wins over the audience, because she takes responsibility for her own actions, in realizing that she'd made a muck of her own school year because of her own moping, and realizing that she knew how to sympathize with the OM rather than blaming her for her own troubles. Lynn then realizes that her worth doesn't lay in what she'd always been rather proud of, of belonging to the Hill, but that there were other people and other things that had more value.
A solid book. Definitely recommend as a YA novel.
October 5, 2013
Huzzah! Lois Duncan's first novel is back in print, thanks to Lizzie Skurnick books! Duncan's regular readers might be surprised; no dead teachers make an appearance, no ghosts, no evil ghosts lurking about the fringes. However, something else is lurking: the structure of class, and the difference between haves and have nots.
Lynn Chambers is a girl of her times: she has good friends, an irritating little sister, a boyfriend who just went to college but she gets to wear his ring around her neck. At the start of her senior year, she finds out that a woman has decided to have a debutante season in Rivertown. All the upper class girls in Lynn's circle are thrilled. Lynn is beyond excited. However, her father puts his foot down: no daughter of his will be a deb. For the first time in her life, Lynn is an outsider.
However, being an outsider isn't that bad. She gets to know Annie Masters, a wonderful artist who is on the wrong side of the tracks; Annie's brother Dirk, who is crushing on Lynn. Lynn finds out her senior year that there are all types of people, and there's a difference in how they are treated by social class. This is a fantastic debut for Lizzie Skurnick books!!!
Lynn Chambers is a girl of her times: she has good friends, an irritating little sister, a boyfriend who just went to college but she gets to wear his ring around her neck. At the start of her senior year, she finds out that a woman has decided to have a debutante season in Rivertown. All the upper class girls in Lynn's circle are thrilled. Lynn is beyond excited. However, her father puts his foot down: no daughter of his will be a deb. For the first time in her life, Lynn is an outsider.
However, being an outsider isn't that bad. She gets to know Annie Masters, a wonderful artist who is on the wrong side of the tracks; Annie's brother Dirk, who is crushing on Lynn. Lynn finds out her senior year that there are all types of people, and there's a difference in how they are treated by social class. This is a fantastic debut for Lizzie Skurnick books!!!
April 14, 2016
As I was reading this, I was constantly reminded of NICE GIRL FROM GOOD HOME (Fran Arrick) which I had read first although it had been published much later. How many of you who have read both would agree?
What did I actually think of DEBUTANTE HILL? I liked it. It was interesting to read a nonthriller from a thriller author.
Thanks for reading.
What did I actually think of DEBUTANTE HILL? I liked it. It was interesting to read a nonthriller from a thriller author.
Thanks for reading.
July 2, 2016
I grew up on Lois Duncan’s horror books from the 80’s and 90’s, and have always been a big fan of hers. I’ve had Debutante Hill on my TBR list for a while now, and decided to finally read it after hearing of her recent passing.
I really enjoyed this first novel of hers. Written and set in the 1950’s, it was a nice look into the lives of teens and social classes of that time period. The characters all felt real, and even though the story was authentic to the 1950’s, the message of the book wasn’t dated and is still meaningful in the world we live in today.
I really enjoyed this first novel of hers. Written and set in the 1950’s, it was a nice look into the lives of teens and social classes of that time period. The characters all felt real, and even though the story was authentic to the 1950’s, the message of the book wasn’t dated and is still meaningful in the world we live in today.
September 23, 2019
It was an enjoyable quick read for a middle aged woman. If I had read this when I was a teenager I would have felt shame about how my life was and that my thoughts weren’t as clean or as tidy as Lynn’s. But maybe I would have been tried to be more like her if I had read it.
January 17, 2019
First published in 1957, this was reprinted a few years ago. It's Duncan's first book, and she notes in a foreword that she originally wrote it as a short story: she turned it into a book after an editor told her that it was too much story for a short story. For readers who grew up with Duncan's I Know What You Did Last Summer, this is quite the change of pace. No murder, nothing supernatural...just a relatively quiet story about a girl from a 'good' family who must learn a lesson about class and perception.
I'm giving this four stars because I found it so fascinating. It's not without its problems, though. Modern readers will notice that 'diversity' in the book extends only as far as how much money the white characters have (note that the modern cover includes a few black men, all of whom are clearly in blue-collar-worker roles); there's something of a rich-white-saviour aspect to one of the book's conflicts; there's never really any suggestion that Lynn (the girl from the 'right side of the tracks') might actually end up with Dirk (the boy from the 'wrong side of the tracks'), because that would be a bridge too far. It's a reflection partly of the times, I think, and partly of Duncan's youth and relative inexperience at the time of writing. To Lynn, the protagonist, it's genuinely mind-blowing to realise that people outside her narrow, privileged social circle can also be good people, smart people, people worth knowing. It feels realistic that there's a limit to how far Lynn's changes, over the course of the year, can stretch, and I appreciate that she grows aware of her privilege throughout the story: that even though all her friends are 'coming out' as debutantes and she's not (her father doesn't approve of coming out, as he thinks debutante activities are classist), she has access to privileges that lower-class girls don't. Among other things, Lynn is never ostracised: her friends are sorry she can't participate, and Lynn often does end up feeling left out, but it's not intentional. In a contemporary story, I'm not sure this would be the case; I think it's likely that a lot of the plot would revolve around a 'mean girl' from either side of the tracks.
But as a historical piece of reading, it's fascinating. I'm really only sorry that the reprint didn't include Duncan's original short story!
I'm giving this four stars because I found it so fascinating. It's not without its problems, though. Modern readers will notice that 'diversity' in the book extends only as far as how much money the white characters have (note that the modern cover includes a few black men, all of whom are clearly in blue-collar-worker roles); there's something of a rich-white-saviour aspect to one of the book's conflicts; there's never really any suggestion that Lynn (the girl from the 'right side of the tracks') might actually end up with Dirk (the boy from the 'wrong side of the tracks'), because that would be a bridge too far. It's a reflection partly of the times, I think, and partly of Duncan's youth and relative inexperience at the time of writing. To Lynn, the protagonist, it's genuinely mind-blowing to realise that people outside her narrow, privileged social circle can also be good people, smart people, people worth knowing. It feels realistic that there's a limit to how far Lynn's changes, over the course of the year, can stretch, and I appreciate that she grows aware of her privilege throughout the story: that even though all her friends are 'coming out' as debutantes and she's not (her father doesn't approve of coming out, as he thinks debutante activities are classist), she has access to privileges that lower-class girls don't. Among other things, Lynn is never ostracised: her friends are sorry she can't participate, and Lynn often does end up feeling left out, but it's not intentional. In a contemporary story, I'm not sure this would be the case; I think it's likely that a lot of the plot would revolve around a 'mean girl' from either side of the tracks.
But as a historical piece of reading, it's fascinating. I'm really only sorry that the reprint didn't include Duncan's original short story!
November 21, 2014
it's only been a few days since I read this novel, but I've already forgotten most of what it was like to read. I think it was batty enough to be some fun (especially in the beginning before Lynn [possibly not even the correct name] realizes that it is no coincidence that the Hill (read: rich) kids are at the center of everything worth doing at old Calvin Coolidge High [most certainly not the correct name].
my expectations have been ruining my reading all year, but I just can't let them go. going into this novel, I knew there'd be nobody clairvoyant or practicing astral projection, but I thought there might be at least one description of a dress. perhaps I am guilty of generalizing the past, of having a narrow understanding of the type of fiction young women were writing for even younger women in the '50s...that said, seems like there'd be plenty of clothes and food to describe up on DEBUTANTEfuckingHILL.
my expectations have been ruining my reading all year, but I just can't let them go. going into this novel, I knew there'd be nobody clairvoyant or practicing astral projection, but I thought there might be at least one description of a dress. perhaps I am guilty of generalizing the past, of having a narrow understanding of the type of fiction young women were writing for even younger women in the '50s...that said, seems like there'd be plenty of clothes and food to describe up on DEBUTANTEfuckingHILL.
Read
October 16, 2013In a time when people like to lampoon the dilemmas of well-off people with lists and hashtags like #richgirlproblems, Lizzie Skurnick Books re-issues Lois Duncan’s first novel about a wealthy girl whose eyes are opened to the class divides she’d never considered in her hometown. While she was somewhat aware of the stratified nature of her high school, the bigger implications of this don’t dawn on our heroine until she finds herself on the outside of the popular crowd. For this edition, Duncan (of I Know What You Did Last Summer fame) wrote a wonderful introduction, detailing the process of writing the book and the beginnings of her publishing career.
Read more on my booksploitation blog
Read more on my booksploitation blog
January 10, 2014
Oh, gosh, I loved this. I am a sucker for malt shop books, and I was so excited when Lois Duncan's first novel got republished this fall by Lizzie Skurnick. Lynn is from the wealthy part of town and while all her friends are invited to be part of the town's first deb season, her father opposes it and doesn't want her to join. Her senior year changes drastically when all her friends are busy with their parties and she's left on her own to find new friends. It was so entirely 1958, but the core of all her experiences definitely still resonate now - being left out, wanting to help the "bad boy" with the heart of gold, etc. It was just plain fun.
August 8, 2017
Lois Duncan's first book (reissued by Lizzie Skurnick Books) was such a fun reading experience. Dating in the 1950s sounded bizarre and confusing and I LOVED reading about it. There was a kind, helpful rich boy and a down-on-his-luck bad boy (named DIRK!) and they were both cute (duh). At one point, a character unironically said "see you in the funny papers." Now I want to read all of Lois Duncan's early works. I'm sad that Lizzie Skurnick Books isn't acquiring new titles anymore, but at least all the old ones are still available to read.
September 29, 2018
Lois Duncan is my all-time fave, so when I found this on audio book I had to give it a try, even though I knew it would be different from most of her other books and very dated. It was. Dated. I wanted to scream at these characters at times. For example, the main girl is forbidden to be a debutante by her father, because it is snobbish. But then her older brother is allowed to go to the debutante parties with his girlfriend and no one says a thing! The main girl doesn't even have a single thought about how unfair that is. What a double standard!!
March 18, 2015
Another in the Lizzie Skurnick series-this is the first book Lois Duncan ever wrote, and it's an impressive debut. Yes, totally dated, but the sort of thing I love.
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October 25, 2023
Originally Published On cassandrastinger.com
High school hasn’t changed much in the past sixty years. There’s still division between social groups, the drive to fit in, and the thrill of first love.
All of these form the basis of Lois Duncan’s 1958 debut novel, Debutante Hill.
Overview
Genre: YA, Classics
Debutante Hill follows high school senior Lynn Chambers, who is the most popular girl at Rivertown High and the princess of The Hill, the town’s richest neighborhood. But when debutante season comes to her small town, her father forbids her from joining in because he believes it divides the rich from the poor.
Though Lynn is heartbroken and angry at her father’s decision, it causes her to look outside of her own friend group where she finds that just because other people didn’t grow up on The Hill, doesn’t mean they aren’t good people.
My Thoughts On Debutante Hill
Despite the fact that this book was first published 65 years ago, many of the issues and themes in Debutante Hill are still relevant today.
The most prominent theme in Debutante Hill is how people often divide themselves by social status, wealth, and pretty much any perceived differences. At the start of the book, Lynn is almost the stereotypical definition of a popular princess. However, she is quickly excluded when all her friends become debutantes and she does not.
I think that this is important to note because even all these years later, high school is still like this for many teens.
I love it however, that when Lynn’s friends reject her for not doing what they do, Lynn makes an effort to search out new relationships beyond the popular crowd. When she does this, the world within the story blooms.
Lynn breaks out of her rich girl mindset and begins to have compassion on those around her.
This book also introduced one of the first love triangles in YA literature between Lynn and her two suitors Paul and Dirk.
Paul is from The Hill just like Lynn. He’s a college freshman who gives to everyone which means that sometimes there isn’t enough left for Lynn.
Dirk is a bad boy from the other side of town who underneath his attitude, almost has a heart of gold.
Personally, the whole time I was reading this, I liked Dirk better than Paul.
I feel like Paul was so busy helping everyone else that he often didn’t put his relationship with Lynn first. This often causes issues between the two of them. Especially when he commits to escorting one of the debutantes to an event instead of spending time with Lynn.
However, Dirk wanted to put Lynn first and did so. When they first started spending time together, Dirk was a little bit of a jerk. But later on, he actually went back and apologized to Lynn for the way he acted and started being a terrific gentleman.
All of that made for a great story, but ultimately the ending wasn’t my favorite.
Final Thoughts And Rating
Duncan seamlessly put together a beautiful story that both teens and adults will enjoy. Debutante Hill is truly a masterpiece of YA literature.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Would I Recommend This Book: Yes!
High school hasn’t changed much in the past sixty years. There’s still division between social groups, the drive to fit in, and the thrill of first love.
All of these form the basis of Lois Duncan’s 1958 debut novel, Debutante Hill.
Overview
Genre: YA, Classics
Debutante Hill follows high school senior Lynn Chambers, who is the most popular girl at Rivertown High and the princess of The Hill, the town’s richest neighborhood. But when debutante season comes to her small town, her father forbids her from joining in because he believes it divides the rich from the poor.
Though Lynn is heartbroken and angry at her father’s decision, it causes her to look outside of her own friend group where she finds that just because other people didn’t grow up on The Hill, doesn’t mean they aren’t good people.
My Thoughts On Debutante Hill
Despite the fact that this book was first published 65 years ago, many of the issues and themes in Debutante Hill are still relevant today.
The most prominent theme in Debutante Hill is how people often divide themselves by social status, wealth, and pretty much any perceived differences. At the start of the book, Lynn is almost the stereotypical definition of a popular princess. However, she is quickly excluded when all her friends become debutantes and she does not.
I think that this is important to note because even all these years later, high school is still like this for many teens.
I love it however, that when Lynn’s friends reject her for not doing what they do, Lynn makes an effort to search out new relationships beyond the popular crowd. When she does this, the world within the story blooms.
Lynn breaks out of her rich girl mindset and begins to have compassion on those around her.
This book also introduced one of the first love triangles in YA literature between Lynn and her two suitors Paul and Dirk.
Paul is from The Hill just like Lynn. He’s a college freshman who gives to everyone which means that sometimes there isn’t enough left for Lynn.
Dirk is a bad boy from the other side of town who underneath his attitude, almost has a heart of gold.
Personally, the whole time I was reading this, I liked Dirk better than Paul.
I feel like Paul was so busy helping everyone else that he often didn’t put his relationship with Lynn first. This often causes issues between the two of them. Especially when he commits to escorting one of the debutantes to an event instead of spending time with Lynn.
However, Dirk wanted to put Lynn first and did so. When they first started spending time together, Dirk was a little bit of a jerk. But later on, he actually went back and apologized to Lynn for the way he acted and started being a terrific gentleman.
All of that made for a great story, but ultimately the ending wasn’t my favorite.
Final Thoughts And Rating
Duncan seamlessly put together a beautiful story that both teens and adults will enjoy. Debutante Hill is truly a masterpiece of YA literature.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Would I Recommend This Book: Yes!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2020
A fun book and one that's been languishing on my tbr for far too long.
Lynn Chambers is THE girl to know at the school, she lives on The Hill and is called by some kids at school "The Princess of the Hill".
Now you might think that with such a title, Lynn would be an unsufferable brat, but thankfully she is not and is actually very pleasant as a person. Sure she's not perfect, she gets jealous and is stubborn at times, but ultimately she's a nice, if somewhat blind to the entire WORLD around her person.
Now throw in the news that a local busy body mother is planning on starting a Debutante season for girls from The Hill and it seems obvious that Lynn will be there, the centre of the new Debutante world, right?
WRONG because Lynn's Dad thinks the whole thing stinks of class and he doesn't want his daughter being involved with it.
Thus follows a year in which Lynn learns a lot of things and opens her eyes and mind to the fact that there is indeed a world outside of The Hill and the families who live there.
A few spoiler thoughts*
Lynn Chambers is THE girl to know at the school, she lives on The Hill and is called by some kids at school "The Princess of the Hill".
Now you might think that with such a title, Lynn would be an unsufferable brat, but thankfully she is not and is actually very pleasant as a person. Sure she's not perfect, she gets jealous and is stubborn at times, but ultimately she's a nice, if somewhat blind to the entire WORLD around her person.
Now throw in the news that a local busy body mother is planning on starting a Debutante season for girls from The Hill and it seems obvious that Lynn will be there, the centre of the new Debutante world, right?
WRONG because Lynn's Dad thinks the whole thing stinks of class and he doesn't want his daughter being involved with it.
Thus follows a year in which Lynn learns a lot of things and opens her eyes and mind to the fact that there is indeed a world outside of The Hill and the families who live there.
A few spoiler thoughts*
October 24, 2017
Lois Duncan's first novel. Clearly already trying to balance her own tendencies toward the violent and sordid with the genre expectations of '50s teen romance, though inclining toward the latter. I guess she got that out of her system (after The Middle Sister and the Joyce books), because she gave up that effort entirely a few years later. This reads like a Cleary or du Jardin with a dash more realism. The 2013 intro by the author almost makes up for the glut of OCR errors in the text.
July 20, 2019
Where do I even begin with this book? I hated all the characters barring Anne and maybe Dirk. The narrator is an annoying girl who is either too goody goody or downright petty. Paul is a pushover who seems to care more about some other girl than his own girlfriend. Nancy was a disloyal bitch who definitely would never be someone I would stay friends with. Anne was nice but we barely got to see much of her, and Dirk was relatable in some ways but could also get annoying at times. Pretty much the only person with any goddamn sense was Dodie.
November 29, 2022
Excellent vintage YA fiction by an author know for her mystery and suspense books for young adults. This was Lois Duncan's first novel for teens. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Lois Duncan successfully married the malt shop book with realistic fiction as the book deals with class distinction so prevalent in the '50s. She was actually ahead of her time. The Outsiders is considered to be the first book in real YA fiction, but Debutante Hill was knocking on the door. I couldn't put it down. So glad it has been reprinted and readily available.
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March 7, 2021This is... not a suspenseful or supernatural book, and it was written 60+ years ago. Although I'm also American and finished HS 40 years after this book was written... the times had changed so much that I had a hard time understanding the dynamic between the main character and her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
But Duncan did a good job of exploring snobbery and class tension. Kind of like a precursor to The Breakfast Club, with a more realistic ending.
But Duncan did a good job of exploring snobbery and class tension. Kind of like a precursor to The Breakfast Club, with a more realistic ending.
March 3, 2023
This was a fun, clean , feel good story about a girl growing up and learning about relationships with boys and girls. I enjoy Ms Duncan’s older stories as they are always so simple and just plain old fashioned in a good way. This was a nice little story that any teenage girl could learn a few lessons about life .
I listened to it on Audible because they were pulling it from the Audible plus library at the end of the month, and I’m glad I did!
I listened to it on Audible because they were pulling it from the Audible plus library at the end of the month, and I’m glad I did!
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May 28, 2025Debutante ball dramaaa and class conflict
A light love triangle with a good girl/good boy/and a bad boy who actually shows growth and yet Lynn chooses the good boy who was going out with another girl as a ~favor, really?
A light love triangle with a good girl/good boy/and a bad boy who actually shows growth and yet Lynn chooses the good boy who was going out with another girl as a ~favor, really?
June 29, 2019
Sweet, 3.5 stars. Reminded me of Rosamund Du Jardin.
May 22, 2020
nothing much happens in this book, tbh. but i have such a soft spot for lo dunc, and i can't say i was ever bored reading this.
debutante hill is such a gentle, peaceful, cozy read. just what i needed to take my mind off our current hellscape.
debutante hill is such a gentle, peaceful, cozy read. just what i needed to take my mind off our current hellscape.
June 1, 2020
I enjoyed this novel, I always have liked Lois Duncan's work. There a "simpler time" tone of it being the 50s, but there was a message that still resonates today.
January 31, 2023
A sweet book about class differences from the 1950s. An easy read for an afternoon
June 22, 2024
Makes me nostalgic for a time I'll never live in.
February 9, 2014
I decided a while ago to read all of the Lizzie Skurnick Books titles, because Lizzie Skurnick has excellent taste and I love what she's doing, bringing back older YA books that have fallen out of print. This one, for example, was published in 1958. 1958! I didn't even know Lois Duncan was writing back then. I grew up loving her paranormal thrillers published in the 70s and 80s, and while this book contains no magic or psychic powers, it's every bit as good as those.
The themes in this book hold up surprisingly well for being half a century old. Lynn is part of a group of popular rich kids, and the girls all want to be debutantes. Lynn's father says no, though, because he doesn't want Lynn to be part of something that divides people along class lines. Lynn is upset at first, but when she can't go to the debutante events, she starts talking to people outside her social circle, and discovers there's more to them than she's always thought.
When Lynn starts dating bad-boy Dirk, I was expecting this to turn into a romance between rich girl and poor boy, but the direction it did take instead surprised and pleased me. Lynn had thoughts of being able to reform Dirk and put him on the straight and narrow, but she eventually realized that that wasn't up to her, it was up to him. Nobody in this book is condemned for being who they are, and most of them, even the "villain," are given sympathetic reasons for what they do. The relationships between characters evolve realistically throughout the book. I especially liked the relationship between Lynn and her sister, Dodie, who starts out as the bratty little sister but ends up a fiercely loyal ally who actually has some things to teach Lynn. Dodie deserves her own novel.
This is a story about a rich white girl learning about her privilege, which I understand is not a story everyone wants to read, but I really liked it.
A couple of notes about this version: I love Lizzie Skurnick Books's cover designs, and the font is delicious, but there were a lot of typos. Like, a lot. Missing punctuation, a couple of misspelled words, and even a 1 instead of a capital I at one point. Step up your game, dudes.
This edition also contains an introduction by Lois Duncan herself about how she came to be a published author, which is both cute and inspirational. So: A for content, B- for copyediting.
The themes in this book hold up surprisingly well for being half a century old. Lynn is part of a group of popular rich kids, and the girls all want to be debutantes. Lynn's father says no, though, because he doesn't want Lynn to be part of something that divides people along class lines. Lynn is upset at first, but when she can't go to the debutante events, she starts talking to people outside her social circle, and discovers there's more to them than she's always thought.
When Lynn starts dating bad-boy Dirk, I was expecting this to turn into a romance between rich girl and poor boy, but the direction it did take instead surprised and pleased me. Lynn had thoughts of being able to reform Dirk and put him on the straight and narrow, but she eventually realized that that wasn't up to her, it was up to him. Nobody in this book is condemned for being who they are, and most of them, even the "villain," are given sympathetic reasons for what they do. The relationships between characters evolve realistically throughout the book. I especially liked the relationship between Lynn and her sister, Dodie, who starts out as the bratty little sister but ends up a fiercely loyal ally who actually has some things to teach Lynn. Dodie deserves her own novel.
This is a story about a rich white girl learning about her privilege, which I understand is not a story everyone wants to read, but I really liked it.
A couple of notes about this version: I love Lizzie Skurnick Books's cover designs, and the font is delicious, but there were a lot of typos. Like, a lot. Missing punctuation, a couple of misspelled words, and even a 1 instead of a capital I at one point. Step up your game, dudes.
This edition also contains an introduction by Lois Duncan herself about how she came to be a published author, which is both cute and inspirational. So: A for content, B- for copyediting.
December 27, 2016
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
Debutante Hill was the first book to be reissued by Lizzie Skurnick Books. Though Lois Duncan is best known to people of my generation and younger as a writer of teen thrillers, this book does not fall into that genre. Published in 1957, it is the story of high school senior Lynn Chambers who is at the center of the popular crowd of kids who live on the Hill. When it is announced that the mother of one of the less-popular girls has decided to organize a debutante program in order to help her daughter improve her social life, it is just assumed that Lynn will participate along with her friends. To her great surprise, though, her father, Dr. Chambers, does not approve of his daughter making her debut. Suddenly, Lynn finds herself left out of everything. While at first it seems like a major disappointment, over time, Lynn's exclusion from the debutante events leads her to make a series of important discoveries about herself, her boyfriend, her friends, and some of her classmates who don't live on the Hill.
I really love this book. I like its old-fashioned sensibility, which reminds me of Beverly Cleary's First Love books and the later books in the Betsy-Tacy series. I like that it takes a superficial experience - girls wearing gowns and attending parties in order to mark their entry in society - and turns it into a commentary on class distinctions, stereotypes, and popularity. The main character is not perfect, but she is open to change and willing to compromise, which makes her a worthy and believable role model. Even the romance storylines are handled with a heavy dose of realism - Lynn briefly dates a "bad boy" but the story resists the "good girl reforms bad boy" trope, and ultimately, Lynn is able to resolve her issues with her boyfriend in a calm and rational way, without the hysterics or drama so common in more contemporary YA novels.
High school students would probably find the writing and plot of this book too simplistic, but for grades 6 to 8, it might be just right. It's also a must-read for adults who grew up reading books by Lois Duncan - there's nothing more interesting than looking back on the early works of a favorite author. As a bonus, also read Publisher's Weekly's Q & A with Lois Duncan.
Debutante Hill was the first book to be reissued by Lizzie Skurnick Books. Though Lois Duncan is best known to people of my generation and younger as a writer of teen thrillers, this book does not fall into that genre. Published in 1957, it is the story of high school senior Lynn Chambers who is at the center of the popular crowd of kids who live on the Hill. When it is announced that the mother of one of the less-popular girls has decided to organize a debutante program in order to help her daughter improve her social life, it is just assumed that Lynn will participate along with her friends. To her great surprise, though, her father, Dr. Chambers, does not approve of his daughter making her debut. Suddenly, Lynn finds herself left out of everything. While at first it seems like a major disappointment, over time, Lynn's exclusion from the debutante events leads her to make a series of important discoveries about herself, her boyfriend, her friends, and some of her classmates who don't live on the Hill.
I really love this book. I like its old-fashioned sensibility, which reminds me of Beverly Cleary's First Love books and the later books in the Betsy-Tacy series. I like that it takes a superficial experience - girls wearing gowns and attending parties in order to mark their entry in society - and turns it into a commentary on class distinctions, stereotypes, and popularity. The main character is not perfect, but she is open to change and willing to compromise, which makes her a worthy and believable role model. Even the romance storylines are handled with a heavy dose of realism - Lynn briefly dates a "bad boy" but the story resists the "good girl reforms bad boy" trope, and ultimately, Lynn is able to resolve her issues with her boyfriend in a calm and rational way, without the hysterics or drama so common in more contemporary YA novels.
High school students would probably find the writing and plot of this book too simplistic, but for grades 6 to 8, it might be just right. It's also a must-read for adults who grew up reading books by Lois Duncan - there's nothing more interesting than looking back on the early works of a favorite author. As a bonus, also read Publisher's Weekly's Q & A with Lois Duncan.
Read
December 8, 2023An early Lois Duncan novel with a lot of her hallmark features, but none of the thriller and suspense and supernatural things. Instead we’re in a small town looking forward to the debutante season, and our protagonist, not a debutante, finds out that her boyfriend who is in college has been convinced to take out a friend of the family. This creates a rift not because he was planning on cheating, but because of the hurt feelings. He thought he was doing a solid for a friend (and a poor unfortunate girl with no date), and so these hurt feelings leads our protagonist to getting closer to the sarcastic kid who has a record but is also sweet????!!!
Her mom warns her she can’t fix a boy, but she’s going to try! So there’s still a little “suspense” here when the boy is accused of stealing a wallet, but it’s mostly teen drama stuff, while hitting a lot of those other Lois Duncan signatures. I also found out looking this one up that she was a teen model and this story probably has a lot of little personal biographical touches to it as well.
Her mom warns her she can’t fix a boy, but she’s going to try! So there’s still a little “suspense” here when the boy is accused of stealing a wallet, but it’s mostly teen drama stuff, while hitting a lot of those other Lois Duncan signatures. I also found out looking this one up that she was a teen model and this story probably has a lot of little personal biographical touches to it as well.
January 12, 2015
Duncan's first novel does not contain the suspense and supernatural found in her later novels. It's a coming of age story about a girl who's not allowed to be a debutante with the rest of her friends. Despite their stilted conversations, the characters have some level of depth. The story was not predictable, though not particularly intriguing, either. It really bothered me that Lynn couldn't participate in the debutante activities but her brother could escort another debutante??? And the narrator didn't have much to say about that; it's like Duncan recognized the double standard of her day but wouldn't fully expose it. All in all, I'd say this was an interesting look at the 1950s but that Duncan became a better author as time went on.
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