I love lgbt fiction, and a lesbian affair at boarding school is right up my street but sadly this just didn't work for me. The writing style of the book is all over the place. It changes from past to present situations and settings in the same paragraph, and in conversation who said what isn't always noted, making its such a confusing read. It's fragmented and such an effort trying to work out what's what that the story gets lost. Based on the plot this should have been so much better than it was but sadly the writing let it down. Thanks to K. Patrick, Fourth Estate and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a slow burn of a novel surrounding an unnamed narrator, who takes up the job of matron at a boarding school, and her increasing fascination with Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife.

The writing at times was really brilliant and wonderfully descriptive, I enjoyed the boarding school setting and simmering tension between the characters.

I did find this one somewhat difficult to get into and some of the dialogue was hard to follow due to lack of line breaks and speech marks. I don’t usually have an issue with this but seemed to struggle here, maybe it was the format of the ebook.

Content Warnings: homophobia, cheating/adultery, violence, alcohol and drug use

A young Australian woman takes on the role of matron at an all girls boarding school, where her fascination with Mrs. S, the headmaster's wife, becomes a passionate affair.

This was SO my kinda book, I loved it. The writing style is very unique and stylistic - I can totally see this not being for everyone, especially with the lack of speech marks for dialogue - but it just really worked for me. It made everything feel very atmospheric and enticing. I totally had the feeling of being in the protagonist's head, experiencing the story with her. I don't know how to elaborate on this, but it reminded me of watching Fleabag, so that's something.

I feel like butch representation is very lacking, and I loved reading about a butch protagonist. I thought the explorations of sexuality and gender here were really fascinating and felt very genuine. I just really enjoyed this reading experience!

Thanks to NetGalley, K Patrick, and 4th Estate for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't get into this book and the way it was written. I had high hopes of it as its usually a genre I enjoy and then with the will they, won't they. But did not enjoy this read.

A spare, compelling account of a queer love affair, set in a girls' boarding school.. Mrs S, the object of our narrator's desire is the headmaster's wife. She is beautiful, self assured, adored by the pupils and seemingly perfect in her role. Our narrator is younger, away from home and not sure at first if her passion is reciprocated.. It seems at first impossible that anything will happen in the goldfish bowl of the school, with eyes everywhere and no privacy. The pared back writing contributes to the tension of this erotic story. The plot is simple and the incidents that occur take on a weight that they might not in a more complex narrative - a girl punches a boy at a dance organised with a neighbouring school; our narrator and the confident butch housemistress take a taxi and go to the one gay bar in the nearest big town; a rock is thrown through the stained glass window of the church. This is a powerful novel about desire, but also about friendship and queer camaraderie. Recommended.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be dazzling, for both its definitions. It was beautifully written but also blinding, overwhelming at times. The process of reading this was like being submerged and only being able to come up for small, insufficient gasps of air. That is to say, it was entirely gripping.

Perhaps this is due to a lack of diverse reading on my part, but this was the first book in which I encountered the exploration of butch lesbian identity. Our protagonist is a young Australian woman who grapples with her desire to belong, to find a home: geographically, socially and internally - as she feels at odds in her own body. There’s also the age-old desire to love and be loved, which is explored through an intense affair with an older married woman (my favourite sub-genre btw).

Though the writing was beautiful in its words and the story it told, the prose itself was very disjointed, an attempt at stream-of-consciousness, but it took away from the story in how incohesive it often ended up being. Lack of speech marks has become a common element in the contemporary novel, and usually I don’t mind it, but conversations were just thrown into the text which made them difficult to follow and, at times, near impossible to tell who was actually talking.

Still a brilliant debut and an excellent Pride month choice. If you enjoyed Michelle Hart’s We Do What We Do in the Dark, this is definitely one for you!

There has been much hype about Mrs S and it’s always interesting to see if the actual novel matches that hype.
I can happily report that it did, a burning affair between two women, the headmasters wife and the young Australian matron.
You were never sure of the matrons role as she floated between The Girls, their classes and leisure activities. She did a lot of lingering in the shadows just out of sight, watching Mrs S noticing her dress, her mannerisms, imagining her life.
Their meetings became more frequent, their desire more apparent. Snatches of time maximised to satisfy that desire literally sizzled from the pages. Patrick’s narrative was intense, it buried deep into the matrons thoughts, hints of a difficult past, of an escape from disapproving parents.
Patrick dropped hints as to the location of the school, the dead author, her father who founded the school, the surrounding fells all pointed to Haworth but you were never sure. A question I would quite like to ask!
I enjoyed Mrs S for its descriptive narrative for the authors skill and ability to pull its reader, hold them until the end.

My rating is more of a 2.5, and it's that low because I struggle to connect to stream-of-conciousness narratives. I see its literary merit but, on a personal level, always find it to be an exhausting reading experience. On top of that, the book aims to capture the oppressive atmosphere of an English boarding school during a stiflingly hot summer with all the sweaty British awkwardness, and it succeeds in that maybe a little too well. I desperately needed a moment of fresh air here or there and found myself dreading picking up the book again. In some ways, I'd say this is a strength, because I felt what the author was trying to make the reader feel, but at the same time, it did not make reading the book any less exhausting. Between the subject matter and the writing style, it was a perfect storm to create a very heavy read.

Still, I think the author achieved what they set out to achieve with this work, regardless of whether or not the outcome was a pleasant one to read. I think this might resonate more with readers who get along with this style of writing better than me.

An unnamed English private school serves as the perfect setting for this tale of desire and obsession set across one stifling hot summer. So tightly written it's hard to believe this is a debut. Excellent.

Mrs S is a fiction story which follows the main character who is granted a space to work at an all girls boarding school in the countryside thanks to the school's original founder. Whilst working at the school the main character becomes infatuated with Mrs S, and the story explores that along with their relationship and the main character's friendship with the housemistress of the school.

This novel's description suggested a summery, romantic story with academic vibes however I unfortunately did not enjoy it as I had hoped. The writing is quite jarring and written in mostly short statements which make the reading experience lengthy and drab. Rather than exploring in an active voice it comes across as tired and just stating facts and from this I got lost in the text and didn't feel very involved.

I struggled to place the exact role that the main character had and the figure she was to the girls as she often faded into the background and didn't really interact much with them. One example of this was when she saw the girls kissing and didn't really interact- this could have been a show of support or acknowledgement but she just tells them to go back to their rooms and the event becomes fearful. This really made me loose the setting of the book and threw me off as it was like the main character and the girls were two separate narratives. We don't even get to explore the intricacies of the girl's own constructed rules and behaviours aside from brief statements.

On the subject of the girls, I wished that their schooling and personalities had more exploration as I feel like the setting with two gay figureheads (MC and the housemistress) could have been a really nice and wholesome story in itself. Contrary to this I really loved the friendship between the two women outside of work and that they came together and struck up a friendship and supported each other's identities.

The relationship between our main character and Mrs S comes about as she meets Mrs S- the headmaster's wife at the school grounds. They talk a few times, the main character mostly laments and then they strike up a situationship which comes to a broil what with Mrs S being a married, straight presenting woman who "loves" the main character but hasn't suggested anything as to whether her current marriage is to end. I found Mrs S a bit too mysterious and lacking character from this which made it difficult following their entanglement.

Despite this I really enjoyed the details of the main characters thoughts when thinking about Mrs S- the author identifies attraction through the methods of recording inner dialogue and the random things we think about when we like someone. We get to see the main character become nervous, worry about her image, fantasise about Mrs S and coming clean to Mr S. She wonders and pines and is awkward and that was entertaining and refreshing to read.

Overall, I didn't enjoy reading this as much as I had predicted, but the elements I did enjoy earned the stars that I have and I thought that the concept is still interesting and I think that those who read a lot of classical literature may enjoy this book moreso than myself.

Mrs S has a the elements for the ultimate summer read. Set in an English boarding school, Mrs S is a story of queer lust, longing and desire set in an English boarding school during one heady summer.

K Patrick captures the mundanity and restlessness of an all girls boarding school very well, particularly the pack mentality of the amorphous ‘The Girls’.

The tension in the novel was palpable and started to gain pace in the second half. I think for me, it was a touch too long without any action.

Stylistically, the novel was interesting. The story was told through short, dense sentences. It worked to make the novel feel claustrophobic and interior. For this reason, I felt it worked better some places than others - it suited the fast paced tense scenes best.

It bodes well for K Patrick that there is no single novel I would compare Mrs S to. For readers to get a sense of whether this is for them, consider this venn diagram of vibes:
- The Milkman, characters identified by their relationships to others and to place, style similarities
- The Manningtree Witches, poetic and ominous
- Call me by your name, lusty and longing

Pick up this book up if: you’re after something tense, lusty and literary for your summer read

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this from #netgalley a while ago as the author was named on Granta‘s Best Young British Novelists list. I didn‘t get it until the week before publication and I think that could be as it‘s had such poor reviews on NG, so they‘re hoping for better, but not from me. 😬

The book is described as ‘powerfully sensual‘ but at 30% in I haven‘t seen a scintilla of sensuality. It‘s also written without any quotation marks, hardly any paragraphs and no chapters. It's just not doing it for me at all, and I'm skim-reading so I'm bailing at 30%.

Mrs S
by K Patrick

A queer story of identity and desire set in an elite English boarding school. With it's sultry summer atmosphere, the heat is palpable as the newly arrived Australian matron struggles with a consuming attraction to the Headmasters wife.

The overriding mood in this book is of tension and longing. The unnamed matron is not a natural fit in this privileged environment, full of flirty, nubile young students with cut glass accents and promising futures. She is ill at ease among the graceful femininity and awkwardly conscious of her own butchness but she begins to forge a friendship with Mrs. S which slowly, very slowly turns into an illicit love affair.

This should have been perfect for me. After a promising beginning I found the pace was off. It certainly matches the languid mood the author, no doubt, was trying to achieve, but for me there was not enough meat on the bone. I appreciate the devilment of the girls and I love the creepy, stalky nature of the protagonist but I found the writing to be basic and it pushed me out of the story too much to enjoy the seduction and intensity promised.

Publication date: 8th June 2023
Thanks to #netgalley and #4thestate and #wmcollinsbooks for the ARC

Fresh, original writing which was very enjoyable to read. It takes some getting used to at the beginning, with the fragmentation. It’s difficult to keep track of who’s talking but the description is beautiful. So well-written. Each chapter is like a short vignette and altogether they’re both tragic but serene. Really enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of the most interesting things about this novel is the setting: a historic girl’s boarding school in England, the atmosphere was Gothic and imbued with the intensity of girlhood. This same intensity permeated the entire novel and leaked into the protagonist’s crush on the Headmaster’s wife, Mrs. S (although ‘crush’ feels like too juvenile a word).

In her early twenties, and working as a matron at the school, the protagonist is still grappling with her own adolescence and coming out, she is adrift in the space between the students and the staff, often aligning herself with ‘The Girls’. In her feelings towards Mrs S. she is caught between who she thinks Mrs S. wants her to be and who she actually is, while her friendship with another queer member of staff offers a way to properly see herself.

The men who feature in the novel are all portrayed as clueless and immature, grappling with power which they feel entitled to rather than having earned. There is something ridiculous about the men, excluded from the depth and weight of girlhood and womanhood, but they also present a dangerous threat in their attempts to exert control.

Although the novel is not without plot, the vibes definitely take centre stage. The refusal to give any of the characters proper names, and to instead refer to them by their role, only emphasises the way in which this is a transient time and a liminal space, one in which the same stories and emotions have been repeating within the boundaries of the school across the centuries. It managed to convey the drama of adolescence, but also the mundanity and the way in which it fails to live up to its own idea. The story felt timeless and haunting, and I know I will want to pick it up again soon.

This is a strange, wild and erotic first novel about a butch young Australian lesbian who comes to work as the ‘matron’ in a weird public school for girls in England, and then starts a relationship with the headmaster’s wife.

The school, named after an unnamed dead authoress and geographically isolated, is an intense hothouse as is the narrator – honest about her desires, struggling with self-esteem and never quite managing to do things right!

The headmaster’s wife is smart, sassy and sophisticated but also playing the part rather too easily. Then, there’s the housemistress a strange survivor in this weird community. The girls with a capital G are just a little too knowing for their own good!

The book is written as a stream of consciousness interrupted by conversation. It’s fast moving and visceral, seriously erotic in places if you like that sort of thing and there’s an unexpected sting in the tail.

It’s a very different read and very entertaining!

I really wanted to love this but I couldn’t. I found it too difficult to read. There are .no paragraphs. Speech is neither marked with quotation marks nor by a new line. It was a chore to read. A DNF for me, I don’t like to give up on a book but I just couldn’t bear trying to read it anymore.

Thanks to Net Galley and 4th Estate for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review..
I found this book difficult to read, there was no punctuation. no paragraphs, difficult to follow who was speaking, random change of topics. The characters nameless apart from Mr & Mrs S. I felt there was more unsaid than said.
As I was finding it such a chore to read, I am afraid I gave up at just over halfway, I just couldn’t battle on with it anymore.
Some may enjoy this book but this one wasn’t for me.

I feel very guilty to be doing this but as publication day approaches, I'm aware that there is no way I am going to be able to finish this book so it's probably best to review what I have read so far and then hope I'm able to finish this at my own pace sometime in the future.

I am stuck a quarter of the way in and the way the book is formatted is very hostile. I understand that these are stylistic choices, but I feel like it must have been two decades since I last came across a book with no direct dialogue or punctuation, and for good reason. This causes such detachment towards the characters, and so very little has happened in the 25% that I've read. It doesn't seem to be the slow burn romance I was promised, it seems very much one-sided for the time being.

The time period that this is set in is left deliberately ambiguous and I'm not sure why that is, because how are readers supposed to know if this is an accurate representation of queerness for the times, when we don't know what decade we should be looking at?

I’m half away through after a week of reading this and I’ve had to accept this is a DNF for me. Could be my concentration levels are shot but I’m finding myself skimming and because of the nature of the writing with no paragraph breaks or speech marks, skimming makes it very hard to know what’s going on!

This seemed like very much my vibe but upon reading it feels so detached and I can’t connect with it at all. I love the bits about the school but as it progresses more into the characters I’m losing interest.

Not ruling out revisiting this in the future but it’s a DNF for me at the moment