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camille_caterpillar 's review for:
Flashout
by Alexis Soloski
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This searing début is a promising addition to the 'dark academia' canon, with echoes of Donna Tartt, Mona Awad, and Tara Isabella Burton.
FLASHOUT is a taut, slow-burn thriller following Allison, a theatre teacher whose complicate past with a cultish travelling theatre company comes back to haunt her.
Some elements are reminiscent of Awad’s darkly seductive satire of cultish academia, with its intoxicating blend of intellectual ambition and psychological unraveling. Set partly in the gritty New York City of the 1970s—a backdrop that evokes the raw energy of Astrid Sees All and the desperat hedonism, with its exuberant and sordid sexuality, of Social Creature—the novel captures a time and place of fraught transition and dangerous opportunity.
Allison is a quintessential dark academia protagonist, à la Richard Papen: her studious exterior masks a violent nature, her intellectual promise is warped by a provincial upbringing, her eagerness to fulfill her potential flirts with a superiority complex, and, of course, she aggressively represses her bisexuality.
Like most dark academia thrillers, Flashout is also a coming-of-age story. The story is told in two alternating timelines: 1970s, 19 year old Allison's time with the theatre company; and 1991, when an older Allison trying to escape her past, is sent an anonymous email by a fellow member of the theatre company.
The narrative structure is particularly effective. Soloski uses first-person narration for Allison’s past, lending urgency and intimacy to her formative years. In contrast, the third-person perspective of her adult life underscores her emotional detachment and self-protective distance. Both timelines are set during periods of societal transition, reinforcing the novel’s themes of identity, ambition, and consequence.
A VERY SMALL reproach: Like many works about turning points of American history, it can occasionall be a bit obsessed with a perception of uniqueness. The 1960s in the UK were not nearly as buttoned up as in the US. The idea that the UK is inherently more buttoned up than the US is a bit ridiculous. While I can believe university authorities and the police might oppose the riotous wildness of Theatre Negative's performances, this would also have been the case in the US.
I received an audio ARC from NetGalley, narrated by Mia Barron. The narrator did an excellent job at illustrating the exalted urgency of the story. However, her English accent was a tad cartoonish.
FLASHOUT is a taut, slow-burn thriller following Allison, a theatre teacher whose complicate past with a cultish travelling theatre company comes back to haunt her.
Some elements are reminiscent of Awad’s darkly seductive satire of cultish academia, with its intoxicating blend of intellectual ambition and psychological unraveling. Set partly in the gritty New York City of the 1970s—a backdrop that evokes the raw energy of Astrid Sees All and the desperat hedonism, with its exuberant and sordid sexuality, of Social Creature—the novel captures a time and place of fraught transition and dangerous opportunity.
Allison is a quintessential dark academia protagonist, à la Richard Papen: her studious exterior masks a violent nature, her intellectual promise is warped by a provincial upbringing, her eagerness to fulfill her potential flirts with a superiority complex, and, of course, she aggressively represses her bisexuality.
Like most dark academia thrillers, Flashout is also a coming-of-age story. The story is told in two alternating timelines: 1970s, 19 year old Allison's time with the theatre company; and 1991, when an older Allison trying to escape her past, is sent an anonymous email by a fellow member of the theatre company.
The narrative structure is particularly effective. Soloski uses first-person narration for Allison’s past, lending urgency and intimacy to her formative years. In contrast, the third-person perspective of her adult life underscores her emotional detachment and self-protective distance. Both timelines are set during periods of societal transition, reinforcing the novel’s themes of identity, ambition, and consequence.
A VERY SMALL reproach: Like many works about turning points of American history, it can occasionall be a bit obsessed with a perception of uniqueness. The 1960s in the UK were not nearly as buttoned up as in the US. The idea that the UK is inherently more buttoned up than the US is a bit ridiculous. While I can believe university authorities and the police might oppose the riotous wildness of Theatre Negative's performances, this would also have been the case in the US.
I received an audio ARC from NetGalley, narrated by Mia Barron. The narrator did an excellent job at illustrating the exalted urgency of the story. However, her English accent was a tad cartoonish.