THE FAVORITES

A law student plots revenge against a professor who took advantage of her sister.

It's 2016. Jessica Mooney-Flynn, an Irish law student, has enrolled at the (fictional) Franklin University in Philadelphia to take courses with Jay Crane, a professor who had a coercive relationship with one of his students—Jessica’s sister, Audrey—while he was a visiting instructor at Trinity College, Dublin. The end of the affair devastated Audrey, who dropped out of school and left to travel around Central America, where she died in a bus crash. After finding Audrey’s journal, Jessica spends years planning how she will entrap Crane to gain evidence of his wrongdoing and avenge her sister by becoming one of his “favorites,” having discovered that he has a pattern of inappropriate relationships with students. But far away from home, among a cohort distracted by the 2016 election, Jessica finds her resolve weakening, and she risks losing herself as well as her own future. Hennigan sets out to use a law school to explore the tension between justice and revenge, particularly against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement. The novel never develops momentum, though; Jessica’s motivations and plans are gradually revealed in a way that feels disjointed and clunky. The narrative is presented as an account Jessica is giving in response to questions from an anonymous journalist, which creates an extra layer of distance, further diluting the tension. Similarly, Jessica’s grief is reported rather than deeply felt, and her sister never becomes a fully developed character who the reader is similarly invested in avenging.

A thematically intriguing novel that doesn't reach the level of thriller.