At Briarwood School for Girls

by Michael Knight

It's 1994 and Lenore Littlefield is a junior at Briarwood School for Girls. She plays basketball. She hates her roommate. History is her favorite subject. She has told no one that she's pregnant. Everything, in other words, is under control.

Meanwhile, Disney has announced plans to build a new theme park just up the road, a "Technicolor simulacrum of American History" right in the middle of one of the most history-rich regions of the country. If successful, the development will forever alter the character of Prince William County, VA, and have unforeseeable consequences for the school.

When the threat of the theme park begins to intrude on the lives of the faculty and students at Briarwood, secrets will be revealed and unexpected alliances will form. Lenore must decide whom she can trust--will it be a middle-aged history teacher struggling to find purpose in his humdrum life? A lonely basketball coach tasked with directing the school play? A reclusive playwright still grappling with her own Briarwood legacy? Or a teenage ghost equally adept at communicating with the living via telephone or Ouija board?

Following a cast of memorable characters as they reckon with questions about fate, history, and the possibility of happiness, At Briarwood School for Girls is a stunning and inventive new work from a master storyteller.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Young Adult, Paranormal, Magical Realism, Novels

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2019

About the author

Michael Knight is the author of the novels The Typist and Divining Rod, the short story collections Eveningland, Goodnight, Nobody, and Dogfight and Other Stories, and the book of novellas The Holiday Season. His novel, The Typist, was selected as a Best Book of the Year by The Huffington Post and The Kansas City Star, among other places, and appeared on Oprah’s Summer Reading List in 2011. His short stories have appeared in magazines and journals like The New Yorker, Oxford American, Paris Review and The Southern Review and have been anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories, 2004 and New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2009. Knight teaches creative writing at the University of Tennessee and lives in Knoxville with his family.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea what this book was going to be about. I was on another book site...
God forbid...ha!......as we all know Goodreads is really the ‘only’ book site for many of us....
.....when I saw the title “At Briarwood School for Girls”. Written by MICHAEL KNIGHT....
“Wow, I thought....I like Michael Knight”. I especially loved “Goodnight Nobody”. I also enjoyed his stories in “Eveningland”. .....but I had never even heard of this new release. Then I saw one of Knight’s other book of stories on sale for $1.99...”The Typist”... I made a quick choice to buy both books - Not having read a single review. Were there any? .....I mean, how did I miss seeing a book about a school for girls? The topic was right up my alley. I figured I’d at least be reading about snotty girls, cat fights, and rebellious teens. I dived right in.
Going in blind was great!

I’m going to share what I liked....AND I LIKED IT ALL!

Right off the bat I was INTRIGUED by a QUOTE.....and a QUESTION. Both puzzled me - as in what am I about to read.

First the Quote:
“We have no obligation to make history.
We have no obligation to make art.
We have no obligation to make a statement
To make money is our only object”. —-Michael Eisner, former CEO, Walt Disney Company, internal memo

Next the Question... “Question 1” .......which took me right to Google to do some research before beginning chapter 1.

“In November 1993, hoping to capitalize on the existing base for historical tourism in the area around Washington, DC, the Walt Disney Company announced it’s intention to build a theme park called Disney’s America in rural Prince William Country, Virginia. Which of the following was/were among the proposed attractions in the original plan?”

A) A native American encounter area, featuring a white water rapids ride modeled on the journey of Louis and Clark.

B) A turn-of-the-century town highlighted by a roller coaster that would plunge guests on a harrowing Journey through a replica blast furnace

C) A virtual-reality experience in which guests would be pursued by baying hounds and armed slave hunters during a thrilling underground railroad escape.

D) All of the above.

After looking up detailed true facts about Walt Disney Company’s PLANS TO BUILD A THEME PARK IN VIRGINIA in 1993, A sprawling American history theme park .....
and other details about all the politics and controversies- I began chapter 1 totally fascinated.
It was a surprise treat to learn history that I had never heard of. This wasn’t only a coming of age girls chatterbox book afterall. Note.... the chatty girls were already ok with me....
So I figure I got a double whammy present!

The theme park was going to be built near this site of the First Battle of Bull Run, the first big conflict of the Civil War, and a region that contained many battle sites from that war.
There were opponents. Some people said it was not the project itself they opposed but the location which would cause too much traffic.
Other opponents- some historians and writers - questioned Disney’s ability to address the darker issues of American history in a realistic or sensitive fashion.
“I have doubts whether the technical wizardry that so entrances children and grown-ups at other Disney parks can do anything but mock a theme as momentous as slavery”.....(by novelist, William Styron).
Styron also wrote: “To present even the most squalid sights would be to cheaply romanticize suffering”.

The history was eye-opening. I had never heard of this.
And.......
Michael Knight’s storytelling was fun/ really enjoyable. I enjoyed all the drama.

We meet all the girls ....the key characters ( Lenore Littlefield being one of them)....at the Boarding school. We also meet the the faculty: Headmistress, Mackey, administrators, History teacher, Mr. Bishop, and Coach Fink. Fink not only teaches basketball and is the gym coach, but took over the drama Dept. when the main drama teacher had to leave suddenly due to a sick mother.

The dialogue between the students - and faculty was fresh- visual - often snotty & sarcastic in ways that felt real.

We’re taken into the dorms and learn who rooms with who....which girls get along - and which ones don’t. We learn which girls come from money - and which girls are on scholarship.
The Ouija board brings girls together in the dorm rooms.
Juliet Demarinis, is on scholarship and rooms with rich girl Lenore. They have nothing in common. However, one night stuck in their room together, Juliet pulls out her Ouiji board. Lenore rolls her eyes...but joins in. Lenore is creeped-out because the Ouiji board spelled out the word BABY. YEP.... she’s pregnant and she hasn’t told a soul.

Briarwood - a Girls Boarding School - has its own history. I laughed at the first sentence: “All Boarding Schools are haunted”. Ha....knowing of a few myself....I’d say that’s pretty accurate.
Well.....haunted or not, the history at Briarwood keeps repeating itself. A famous alumna - Pulitzer Playwright - named Eugenia Marsh, wrote a played - in 1962- called “The Phantom of Thornton Hall”.
Its now the 20th anniversary of the first Broadway performance, but the play had never been performed by the students at Briarwood. The play itself was set on a boarding school campus much like Briarwood.
And because it deals with sensitive topics, teenage pregnancy and suicide, the administration had originally rejected the go-ahead to perform the famous alumni’s play.
Somehow - the play was finally allowed. Much of the story is centered around the play.....
But it’s the drama off stage that’s really juicy.

I like these type of stories. I’m a sucker for stories in schools. The added history lesson was a bonus!

Michael Knight is a terrific writer. I’ve not been disappointed yet.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was initially drawn to this novel because of the premise - it sounded like a nostalgic kind of story, the kind I would have liked years ago when I was a teenager. When I was younger, I loved reading books about girls who were away at school and who lived what seemed like a much more interesting life than me. Perhaps it is because I am no longer a schoolgirl myself, but I did not enjoy Knight's novel like I thought that I would. The idea is good - an old country school, a young girl with a secret, the prospect of Disney building on (invading) the surrounding land, and remnants of the past haunting the present. However, there was a little too much happening at once, especially with Mr. Bishop and Coach Fink, who didn't seem like they were necessary at all. The narrative jumped from one character to another so quickly that it was difficult to become invested in any of them. I wish that the narrative had primarily focused on Lenore and her story, and been less fragmented.

I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but I did give it extra nostalgia points for having as a background the failed Disney project for which I was a junior archaeologist at that time. Ah, memories.

[Kaitie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who read this book and didn't like it must have been going in with very odd expectations - because you need to understand that this is NOT a coming-of-age, YA ghost story. This is a literary fiction about a pregnant teenager, her depression, and how the adults in her life both affect her for the better and worse - how their own experiences shape their reactions to her situation, whether that means protectiveness, or lending a gentle ear. This is a story about history rippling outward in every aspect, about the impact one person can have on the world around them. And it is a damn good story, if that's what you go in expecting.

My review, which I submitted to IndieNext:

"At Briarwood School for Girls" elicits the feeling of an early-spring chilly wind, of the disturbing liminal sensation of sitting in a hospital waiting room, of the incredible burning cruelty teenage girls carry with them always. Lenore Littlefield, a pregnant girl at a small-town boarding school, is starring in a play where she portrays a pregnant girl at a small-town boarding school, and she's just trying to keep herself together. What ensues is a story that shows how the past informs the future, how history can be both so foreign and so familiar to us. Michael Knight does not shy away from the difficult topics and feelings in this novel that will be a favorite of those who like quiet, effective stories they can clutch to their chest.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
"We’ll ask the Ouija board,” she said. “You’re kidding.”

“Do not mock that which you do not understand.”

If all boarding schools are haunted, well it seems fitting characters in the novel will channel them with a Ouija board. Lenore Littlefield, one in a line of steadfast Briarwood girls, is shocked the ‘spirit’ knows her secret, that she is carrying a child. Nothing surprises her, nor history teacher Mr. Bishop more than when she blurts it to him. Basketball player turned actress as punishment for being late for curfew, she takes to the stage in the school play being directed by Coach Fink, her basketball coach. The play, The Phantom of Thornton Hall having been written by former student Eugenia Marsh seems to mirror Littlefield’s situation. Then there is Disney’s plan to build their new theme park “America” nearby, which fires up history teacher Mr. Bishop. After all, what is Disney, builders of fantasy, creators of weak female characters, manipulators of historical truth doing building a ‘theme park’ about our rich history? Maybe Eugenia can save them all, though a recluse the playwright does dash off a letter breaking her silence to denounce the theme park. With her own painful past and failures, is it possible the Pulitzer Playwright and alumni will come out of her seclusion, draw attention to the school, Mr. Bishop hopes so.

He is too involved with Lenore, but what other choice is there? Lenore’s life takes interesting turns during the play and forever after. Fink gives her the part of Jenny, much to the dismay and anger of classmate Thessaly. Naturally there are little dramas throughout, nothing as big as what Lenore is facing. Does the spirit of Elizabeth really communicate with her? What do they have in common? History seems to chase its own tail, repeating… repeating…repeating. How much of Eugenia’s play is true, maybe the biggest scandals are left unsaid, or with creative license were changed in the play? Just how many girls does the ghost visit through time?

Coach Fink finds herself enjoying being the stand-in director, managing the students just as enthusiastically and encouragingly as she does during big games. Yet, she misses so much about Lenore, until she overhears the truth between she and Bishop. Everyone is entangled needing different things from each other. It’s not thwarting Disney’s plan that Eugenia is most vital to, but Lenore’s life.

This isn’t hauntingly terrifying, it’s more a story about being a young woman trapped by circumstances, handled differently through the decades. It is misunderstandings and plans, even for Mr. Bishop and how he thinks Eugenia can bring Disney down. Disney and it’s theme park is a catalyst for Eugenia to have a part. It was a decently written novel, but I think I wanted to feel more for all the characters. I felt a little detached from the females, pregnancy is an emotional time and downright terrifying when you’re a teenager. I needed to connect more with Lenore. I would have loved more time devoted to Eugenia as well.

Publication Date: April 12, 2019

Grove Atlantic

Atlantic Monthly Press

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

When described as an all girl boarding school with a resident ghost on premises, the book has a certain gothic promise. But it doesn’t play out that way. It’s more of a straight forward drama featuring the students of Briarwood (past and present) and their teachers set against the backdrop of a peculiar business snafu. The latter is actually a very interesting story. Apparently in the mid 1990s Disney has the idea of creating a themed park in Virginia dedicated to America as in dedicated to simplifying, dumbing down, dressing up in glitter and otherwise disneyfying American tragic turbulent past. How do you like them apples? Good thing this was set during a more reasonable time where terrible ideas didn’t get just greenlighted because they might create jobs and other considerations were present and given significance. (Even though in the end it was probably money talking, it’s nice to fantasize about a saner world. Nostalgia and all that). So that was actually fascinating in that stranger than fiction way. The plot narrative otherwise was less fascinating or really fascinating just isn’t an appropriate word. The book drew heavily on parallels between the girls throughout time, the way their lives echoed each other, all centered around a Pulitzer winning play by Briarwood’s own alumna, and relied mainly on the characters themselves to do all the heavy lifting as it were. It was a fairly mild story, realistic, well written, very enjoyable and such a quick read too. In a word…nice. Although nice can have negative connotations such as too bland, not especially distinguished or interesting, this isn’t the case here. Literally, I mean it was nice in the best possible definition of nice. A pleasant read. There, that’s presumably more complimentary than nice. A very likeable read. Another good one. Ok, you get the idea. Thanks Netgalley.

[Megan Leprich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was immediately drawn to this story as I love any book with a boarding school as its location and add in the creepy ghost aspect, I was sold. Even though the story is really not about a haunted boarding school, it's about a pregnant teenager and her depression, I will got drawn in. I have never read anything by Michael Knight before but I've heard great things and I honestly really enjoyed this book.

Set in 1994, this story revolves around an all girls boarding school in Virginia. This story is told from multiple points of view and one main character is Lenore, a pregnant and depressed teen that is trying to hide it from her fellow classmates and her teachers. Her history teacher Mr. Bishop is the first to find out about the pregnancy and is also another main speaking voice in this novel. While all of this is going on a Disney theme park is being constructed that would use history attractions to hopefully bring more people into the rural area.

I loved the literary and historical aspect of this book which surprised me as I'm not known for reading those types of genres. As I said going into it, I first assumed it was about a haunted boarding school and ghosts but it was so much more than that. I loved all of the characters (especially Coach Fink, she cracked me up) and I loved all of the dialogue between the characters. The way the author portrayed them you could just imagine an angry Mr. Bishop in your head and feel the true depression from Lenore.

Very great book and honestly one I could probably read again!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

*thank you to Netgalley, Michael Knight and Grove Atlantic for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


2 stars

I made it to the end!!!! Phew because I didn't think I could manage it. I should have loved this! It sounded exactly like what I'd enjoy but from the very beginning I couldn't settle into the story. I didn't really like the characters and the way they spoke so that threw the whole flow overboard to me. This clearly wasn't for me unfortunately so I was rather disappointed.

[Stacy Wolfe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok for me. It was like a weird mix of “A Separate Peace” and “Dead Poet’s Society” with a ghost. This book lacked a point. I felt like the author was trying to get me to understand some deeper meaning that simply wasn’t there. There wasn’t a climax, per se, and the book just kind of...ended. Abruptly. I did like the quizzes interspersed through the book; those were more interesting than the actual plot.

[Melissa Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Knight writes a very good story. In several voices, ranging from a teen-aged boarding school girl, to her middle-aged history teacher and coach, Knight tells a (lightly haunted) tale of individuals striving to find themselves, and then to be true to that self. The young women of Briarwood are carefully drawn individuals, and Knight steers clear of mean girl clichés. Their teachers are likable characters, with endearing vulnerabilities.

“At Briarwood” is set in Virginia in the early 90’s, and the Disney Corporation is making plans to build an oddly conceived “American History” theme park in a part of the country rich in actual history. I was fascinated by this bit of documentary woven into the background of the novel.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slow, meandering, and unfulfilling read.

Knight certainly writes prettily, and the book has moments of subtle, wry humor, but its mostly populated by long, dragging stretches of dull expository paragraphs and flat, undynamic characters.

I'm a pretty easy sell for books on ghosts and boarding schools, but this one really didn't land. Essentially, nothing happens, no one changes, everything just...exists.

I can see what Knight was *trying* to do, but the content of the book falls short. A few points for the fact that Knight certainly knows his way around a well-crafted sentence, but otherwise I was bored and unmoved.

*i received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on a girls boarding school in 1994. Would things be different in 2019? Well, maybe, maybe not. In this case, Knight sets the stage for a tale about a ghost and Lenore, a teen who is pregnant and then throws in the ill-conceived plan by Disney to create an amusement park in what was rural and is now suburban Virginia. Whew. Much of the action at the school is centered around a play written by an alumna. Lenore is well written and I could hear Mr. Bishop, the angry history teacher's voice. Thanks to edelweiss for the ARC. How you feel about this will depend on whether you're a fan of the school novel genre.

[Katy Alice]

Honestly, this was a DNF at pg. 100. I loved the idea of exploring the Disney's America plotline, it's unique and not often talked about, and I LOVE boarding school books, plus an element of thearte and supernatural? Sounds great.

It wasn't. It's another book mostly about women by a man, that reads like a book by man. This isn't inherently a problem for me... but the interior lives of the women Knight commits to the page are shallow, and feel inauthentic. I would much rather have a read a book about a US History teacher dealing with the proposed Disney park, than whatever this book and its too many plotlines had to offer.

Very disappointed.

[HollyLovesBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love books about elite boarding schools, or school settings in general really so this drew me in and then a drama production on top of this seemed great. This was a good read but to me felt like it could have done a lot more. It could have stepped things up with using more complex characters and less reliance on typical "boarding school" or "high school" tropes. That lessened the impact of what the author was trying to do in my opinion. Overall, I enjoyed it but it really could have been even better.

#AtBriarwoodSchoolForGirls #NetGalley

[Jo Dervan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Briarwood School for Girls was a prep school in Prince William County VA, an area filled with historical sites and battlefields. In the early 90s the Disney Corporation decided to build a theme park called Disney’s America that would use real historical events to create attractions to entertain guests. The theme park would change the rural character of the area and possible force the Briarwood School to close.

Many in the area decided that a history themed park would not be good for their area. So those folks started protesting. One of them was Eugenia March who wrote an eloquent letter to the Washington Post. Eugenia was a recluse who had written a Pulitzer Prize winning play about tragic events at Briarwood school. She had attended the school many years earlier.

The play, The Phantom of Thornton Hall, was the annual Drama Club offering at the school in 1994. The drama teacher was forced to take a leave to care for a sick parent. In her place, Coach Fink, the gym teacher and also a former student, was asked to direct the play. One of the performers was Lenore Littlefield, a junior who had discovered that she was pregnant. She wanted to share her dilemma with an adult but was not sure whether it should be her male history teacher or Coach Fink or even the reclusive writer. She also found herself communicating with a teenaged ghost who had attended the school previously.

I enjoyed the book and noted that Disney actually had planned the theme park in that area but withdrew after the protests and negative publicity. However the Briarwood School is a fictional institution.

[Mme Forte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short novel intertwines a school play, its reclusive author, a troubled teenage girl, and the relationships between various students and staff at a small boarding school in the Virginia countryside. Outside the gates, the school's future may be endangered by the impending arrival of Disney, which plans to build a theme park based on American history.

Everyone's problems come together -- a student unburdens herself to a teacher; another teacher is thrust into an unaccustomed role; the playwright might show up for opening night.

We get inside the heads of the characters, and they emerge pretty fully formed. The dialogue is realistic and easy, not forced, and the author does a good job of showing how small events can loom large in the lives of those who live through them.

[Sunny Carito · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't bowled over by this book, it's a decent literary fiction read, not as successfully lofty as I think it's trying to be but not bad. It had a lot of good bones- a battlefield in threat of being turned in to a theme park, a haunted school where history keeps repeating, a wry attitude about these things, but it just didn't quite live up to its potential.
I do have to admit to being thrown off a bit by being just a few years younger than the teens in the story when the events occurred, growing up about ten minutes from their fictional school, so the minor inconsistencies about the area stuck out to me, though they don't really impact the book much. And his handling of the Disney fiasco was mostly on point, though I think the local protest was a bit bigger than he (and media) suggest.
I would like to point out that the reviewers who seem to think the book is set in the same part of Virginia as Sweet Briar are pretty far off, do they really remember being less than an hour from DC? There is a small part of the book set in that vicinity, but not the titular school. As the author says in the acknowledgments, there have been a number of single-sex schools in Virginia, both as high school boarding schools and colleges (including the two named by the author that he was actually involved with), so assuming Sweet Briar was the only reference and getting bent out of shape about it is kind of ridiculous.

[Tess · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unusual book, not what I was expecting and I’m not sure what the purpose or thesis of the story was. Full disclosure - I was a student at a school with a very similar name, in the same part of VA, that has the same school colors and mascot as the boarding school in the story. I was intrigued by the book mostly due to this, of course, and also considering my love of Disney Parks. However, I’m not sure how the true story of Disney planning on building a theme park near this school was important to the plot or the characters of this book. I also wish the author had acknowledged the many similarities to Sweet Briar College, my alma mater, in his acknowledgements. A fine book, but not one I would immediately recommend.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel had no redeeming features. I resented the fact that the writer took Sweet Briar College, now known for its victory over trustees to close it, into a high school boarding school. A well-known writer such as Knight could have done much better.

[Elyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

NetGalley ARC.

What even was this? It was a whole lot of nothing. Did not enjoy. I didn't quite hate it so it gets 2 stars instead of 1 but it could really be called 1.5. It was gross and just not good writing.

[Marli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. A bit ambiguous for my taste but very well written and set very near my home in Virginia. Set in 1993, the main characters are a pregnant student, a middle aged history professor, and a basketball coach who is recruited to head the drama dept. Throw in a ghost and a reclusive Pulitzer winning playwright, and stir it up with a plan for Disney to build and open a theme park called Disney America right smack dab in the middle of historic Manassas battleground and you have a inventive tale that has a very satisfactory ending.

[Sandym24 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing and held my interest but as other reviewers have said, I kept waiting for there to be more to the story.

[Kaitlyn Redwine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun, quick read! Kinda all over the place because of how short it is, but I enjoyed it for the most part. Trying to remember to read for fun as reading becomes my job this week HA

[Alyson Hagy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It's one of the best, and most subtle, portraits of a teen protagonist I've read in a while. Knight avoids melodrama...and he's wise and edgy with his humor when it comes to the "adults" at Briarwood School. His command of the nuances of Virginia, American history, and the wacky commercialism of Disney is impressive. Best of all, he doesn't offer easy answers--not about being a young adult, or pregnancy, or teaching young people, or managing privilege in the prep school world. Good stuff. And Knight writes so very well. His dialogue is just wonderful.

[Jama Pyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was waiting for a certain ending. But it didn't happen😂 However, the last sentence in the book had me pumping my fist and shouting "Good for Poppy!!"

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one and how it incorporated multiple inspirations (Disney, ghosts, boarding school drama), but still had questions at the end. However, I think that was also the point given some of the parallel stories throughout the novel. It’s a fluid piece of literary fiction, so enjoy!

[Claire H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth shattering. Easy read. Felt like I kept waiting for something big to happen. The thing with Lenore talking to the ghost was strange because I thought that was going to be a bigger part of the story. Would have like to have that playa bigger part in the story. Liked the characters.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this. But I like books about teenagers. It’s a fascinating age. Quick read.....but enjoyed it a lot.

[Margaret Adams]

Listened to Michael Knight read a chapter from the middle of this novel at Sewanee and had to finish it. I think I liked the part he read the best but was glad to have taken in the whole novel.

[Dakotah Ady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a nice easy read that reminded me a little of Alice Hoffman in that it had a touch of supernatural added to it. I also really liked that it had a historical aspect to it that was partially true.