The Other Lives of Miss Emily White, A J Elwood

This may well be my book of the year. I know it's only April, but I was captivated by Ivy's tale set in an all girl's school. Maybe like the other girls at the school, I fell under Miss White's spell. 

Here's the blurb:

1864. Banished from her parents’ farm to a boarding school for young ladies, Ivy feels utterly alone. In a crumbling and isolated seminary that has seen better days, she is shunned by the other pupils for her working-class origins, and mourns for her sister, who died not long after she was sent away.

Hope comes in the form of a new teacher, Miss Emily White, but almost immediately, suspicions are raised that she is not all she should be. Ivy is captivated, yet as her devotion grows, odd reports begin to circulate that Miss White has been glimpsed in the garden picking flowers whilst also teaching a class, leaving the school but stalking the halls at the same time.

As increasingly strange rumours abound, Ivy’s obsession spins out of control, and with Emily White’s future at stake, she will do anything to keep her only friend.

I read this book in a matter of days. Had life not been in the way, I'm sure it would have been a one-sitting read. Ivy finds a new friend with shared passions when Miss White joins the school, but soon unusual things start to happen, with students saying they have seen the teacher in multiple places at the same time. It seems Miss White has a doppelganger. Ivy remains close and tries to defend her teacher and friend when the other girls close in and decide she is a harbinger of death and evil. There were moments in this book that reminded me of reading The Crucible back in my school years. 

I admire the author for not only the storytelling but also the underlying elements of obsession and loneliness and the impact of not meeting societal expectations that unravel as the book draws to a close. These had me in tears. I would be proud to have written this book and would love to hear some discussion about how it was written and the history behind it. It also takes talent to write a book that has an uncanny feel to it. This is hard to capture in a short story, but to maintain this throughout an entire novel is to be applauded.

I'll be recommending this everywhere. 5 stars.