An Unclean Place
An Unclean Place
by Barbara Barrow
“A worthy cousin to Donna Tartt's The Secret History.”
—Jen Michalski, author of You'll Be Fine and The Company of Strangers
Dawn and her best friend Amber are students at Stillwater School, an experimental academy that’s the laughingstock of Atlanta. When Ms. Ella arrives to teach the eighth grade, she shakes up the school with her radical ideas and violent discipline, building an enthusiastic following and even winning the loyalty of rebellious Dawn.
The imprint she leaves on her students is both profound and damaging, long after scandal shuts down the school and leads to Ms. Ella’s arrest. Dawn pursues a destructive path into Ms. Ella’s family, while Amber embraces a solitary, bookish life. Years later, after Dawn’s mysterious death, Amber sets off to find her estranged former teacher. In the process, she uncovers a shocking story of narcissism, art, betrayal, and murder.
Prasie for An Unclean Place
“In crisp, riveting prose, Barbara Barrow explores the fluid boundaries between love and obsession. An Unclean Place is a simmering, sinister backyard thriller: trust shape-shifts into malevolence, those most familiar to us become monsters—and reflect back to us how easy, how quick the descent.”
—Melanie Finn, author of The Hare and The Gloaming
“With confident prose and vivid characterization, Barrow unravels a world of secrets that turn fascination to obsession, love to dread. A worthy cousin to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, An Unclean Place affirms that monsters hide in the most ordinary places, people.”
—Jen Michalski, author of You'll Be Fine and The Company of Strangers
