THE ASH HOUSE

A boy arrives at a new school where he hopes to be healed of a mysterious condition that causes him insufferable pain.

The Ash House isn’t an ordinary school: It is literally made of ash, and the dorm is an old but verdant greenhouse. The Headmaster has been gone for three years, leaving no adults around, yet the children hold on to the hope that he will return. They have no recollection of anything before they arrived at the Ash House, and each has been named after Nicenesses, positive attributes that they are expected to possess such as Concord, Happiness, Temperance, and Liberty. The new boy, who can’t remember his outside name, becomes Solitude. Initially, the students are wary of Sol, but with help from his new friend, Freedom—Dom for short—the others warm to him. Then the Doctor arrives. The Doctor claims he can cure Sol, but the children quickly discover he is pure Nastiness. As the children struggle to free themselves from the Doctor’s tightening grip, they discover that Courage is the only Niceness that matters. Chapter headings helpfully indicate when the third-person narration switches between Sol’s and Dom’s perspectives. Action scenes unfold slowly at times, but when they’re intense, they’re nail-bitingly so, encouraging readers to push through to the satisfyingly ambiguous conclusion. Assume Whiteness for all.

An unexpected—and pleasing—combination of propitious and disquieting.