Thank you to the publishers for granting me early access to this book! I had seen some hype around this on bookstagram, and I am an avid queer lit reader, so I was really excited to read this but unfortunately it wasn't for me. I hated the fact that there were no chapters, no quotation marks, and in general the layout just wasn't great. I found the story hard to follow and couldn't get into it.

I really wanted to love this. It was a highly anticipated release for me with a premise that should have been enthralling. However, there were several things that just didn’t work for me. the writing, while beautiful in places was also very obtuse. The characters felt very distant which maybe was an artistic choice, but it made it hard for me to connect to what was happening. There is very little description or context, the setting we know is a boarding school in England but other than that it could be anytime or any place. The lack of any punctuation also made it difficult for me to read it.

I do think this book has an audience and I would recommend it still, but for me it sadly didn’t work for me.

2.5 stars. I can’t say that this was a bad book because it was really beautifully written and I loved how gothic it felt. This book is set at an English boarding school and follows an Australian teacher who starts at the school and begins an emotional and physical affair with Mrs S.

The whole idea of the book just fell flat for me and I really didn’t enjoy the relationship or care for any of the bits of tension where there was some. I liked the creepy cult like descriptions of the students floating around in the background and wish I would have had more of that, but the main relationship just did nothing for me and it was this which took up the majority of the book.

I know objectively this novel is good but I just couldn’t fully love it and found it really hard to push through.

Thank you to 4th estate for my copy of this book. I really liked the story here, I liked the characters and the setting and the vagueness of the period and names etc.
the delivery was a little jarring at times with the almost staccato-like sentence structure but I felt that the atmosphere - oppressively hot and tightly knit - was done really well.
I didn’t love the way it ended for a few reasons and I still feel a bit detached from the story as a whole because of the delivery but I loved the way it looked at lesbianism and sexual identity alongside the differences in class and culture.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free eARC!

A sultry and sensuous debut told from the POV of a butch lesbian working as a matron at a prestigious girls boarding school - this is one to add to your summer reading list if you want to read more stories about queer desire (though with a melancholic edge) and aren’t afraid of a little stylistic experimentation.
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Set in an undisclosed location in England, in an undisclosed time period (I was picturing the 90s though), our protagonist arrives at an elite girls boarding school to work as a matron. Presenting as a butch lesbian with an Australian accent, she causes a stir among ‘The Girls’, and eventually catches the eye of the headmaster’s wife, Mrs S., an older, femme woman, and the tension escalates over the course of a summer heatwave.
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The author does a great job with the atmosphere of this one, and that coupled with the anonymity of it all (no one is named properly) gives way to a heady read, as the reader you feel in the grips of the protagonists desire and infatuation with Mrs. S. I did go back and forth between loving the writing and finding it tiring. K Patrick omits a lot of articles and verbs, with mostly short sentences, and so sometimes I found it quite stilted. However, this did also fit well with the feeling of long, sticky, breezeless summer days where time seems to slow to a crawl. I can see this one dividing readers, for sure!
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I loved how the author explored the different power dynamics between all the characters, particularly The Girls and the protagonist. Teenage girls can be so cruel, and Patrick perfectly captures their seemingly casual cruelties aimed at our butch protagonist with merciless precision. Stifled giggles, snide remarks, a look between two girls - it’s excruciating at times but an accurate portrayal of being different in an environment so rigidly controlled by antiquated feminine values and tradition.
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Erotic, brimming with tension, definitely a debut to keep your eye on!

Mrs. S is a hard book to describe. It’s about an Australian butch lesbian taking the job of Matron at an English boarding school and falling for the headmaster’s wife, but that seems somehow like it’s removing half of its depth. At the same time, though, what more can I say about it? It’s one that you have to read to fully get.

The writing style in this is something between stream of consciousness and a more regular style and it takes a little getting used to, not least because speech is neither marked with quotation marks nor a new line. On occasion, that makes it hard to tell who is saying what, but surprisingly still not as much as you might expect.

It also makes it quite easy to find yourself absorbed by this book. It’s set during a hot summer and that headiness makes its way off the page to the reader. It feels as though you’re reading this on a hot summer day, regardless of when you’re actually reading it. And the desire too, of our narrator for Mrs. S, of the Housemistress for something more, all of that is equally real to the reader. No matter that these people don’t get given names really, that the schoolchildren are only ever The Girls, you can feel everything about them so vividly at times.

However, and this is going to sound completely at odds with what I’ve just said, there’s still a sense of being held at arm’s length from everyone. Perhaps this too ties to the lack of names. The narrator is obviously the most fleshed out of the characters, since it’s in her POV, and it makes sense that Mrs. S seems more dreamlike to her, unknowable, because that’s part of her appeal. But I found myself wanting to know a bit more about the other characters, about the Housemistress in particular, and The Girls. The latter definitely felt like one big indiscernible mess, which was probably intentional but I’m not sure if it worked.

In the end, then, this was merely a 3 star read for me. Good, but never something I felt amazed by. An enjoyable use of time, but sadly not much more.

Mrs S is a well-crafted, sparse, sumptuous treat. K Patrick's fine, gorgeous language does a thrilling job of capturing desire, sensuality and longing. The setting is intriguing and atmospheric, and the characters are conjured with startling intimacy. A fantastic, singular addition to the coming-of-age canon. I adored this book and will certainly be reading it again.

A young Australian lesbian takes a job as matron at an exclusive English girls' school and is irresistibly drawn to the Headmaster's wife, the titular Mrs S. Alongside the two main characters are "the girls" with their adolescent rule-breaking and boundary-pushing and the Housemistress, another lesbian staff member in her who befriends her. The unnamed narrator finds herself pulled between these three forces by her youth (she is only 22), her sexuality and her infatuation, struggling to find a stable place for herself within the secluded community of the school.

It's wonderful novel with a fluid, limpid writing style and a gorgeous meditation on bodies and physical attraction. There's a sensual charge that runs through the pose that waxes as the story moves into a warm and humid summer. It's also a moving and insightful portrait of gender with the butch experience of the unnamed narrator contrasting with and the traditional femininity of the nominally hetreosexual Mrs S.

I was unable to read the text comfortably as the lack of quotation marks or any indication of speech made it too much of an effort to bother with. I won’t be sharing this review.

This book featured in the 2023 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney, Rebecca Watson, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, JR Thorp, Bonnie Garmus, Gail Honeyman among many others).

And in future years I may be adding K Patrick to the list of notables, as they (together with Natasha Brown and Yara Rodrigues Fowler and also Tom Crewe from this year’s list) have been included on the prestigious once-a-decade Granta Best of Young British Novelists (for 2023).

The book is set at a Girl’s boarding school in England in the very late 1980s or early 1990s (note that we are never told the dates – but various pieces of information- a biographer who was at the school until 1987, references to 80s music in general and some specific songs, an implicit allusion to the film “Cry in the Dark”, a race which is in its 81st edition but which carried on through World War I – narrows it down).

The school – near a town, surrounded by fells, has an over 200 years history, but is best known for a famous “dead author” who wrote while at school there.

The unnamed narrator – again note that we learn almost nothing of names in the book except for the second initial of the titular character and her husband, this is a book which deliberately resists the conventional fictional trappings of time, place, and character - is a 22-year-old Australian who is taking a one-year placement as a Matron “Each year a new version of me enters the school, sent over from Australia, spoken to only when needed. What was promised to me? A visa, a true English experience, a dead author” – something which gives her very limited duties, other than overseeing “The Girls”.

Her attention quickly fixates on Mrs S – the glamorous, charismatic and slightly enigmatic headmaster’s wife, and the two first come into contact after an incident with a girl who punches a boy at a interschool dance. The two begin a slow burn relationship – which starts with some rose gardening, goes via a wild swim, an encounter at a rehearsal of a Lorca play (which seems integral to the text), the school church where they help pick up fragments of a stained glass window, an annual school hill run and then taking a much deeper turn after they re-meet at the church for flower arranging in an encounter which has echoes of their earlier meetings over roses and the stained glass.

The narrator we find has an unsupportive family life, with a father who is openly hostile to her sexuality and a mother who is in active denial about it – and at the school is effectively mentored by a Housemistress who is a fairly open lesbian – although very disappointed to have found herself apparently alone among the staff until now (the housemistress being genuinely surprised when Mrs S signals her interest in the narrator).

By contrast to the Housemistresses sometimes-supportive, sometimes-directive, sometimes-teasing mentoring, the impression is that Mrs S – notwithstanding all the passion lust she generates with the narrator (and the book becomes increasingly – to use the author’s words, less chaste and more “horny”) – is rather playing at their relationship as something of a distraction – and she is for example somewhere between baffled and intrigued by the narrator’s chest bindings.

This is certainly a different book – what starts as what could be seen as a relatively cliched storyline (lesbian passion at an all girls school – even if with a focus much more on staff than pupils) has some hidden depth from the narrators relationships with parents, Housemistress and Mrs S – and there are some strong set pieces drawing in the main characters and their dynamics (including a dinner party, the discovery of some girls experimenting with mushrooms and various scenes around the Lorca play).

What however I think will make or break the book for most readers is the distinctive writing style. While the dialogue (no speech marks, no “she said” type signifiers) is a relatively common technique these days in literary fiction, what is less so is the long paragraphs of short, sometiomes very short, and often straightforward sentences. The book could be described as fragmentary, but I am not sure that is correct as the sentences are fully formed – its just that in the same way that the book deliberately eschews conventional fictional trappings, the writing similarly eschews much in the way of what is normally scene as “good writing” and flowing or “literary” language. As a result the book can seem rather relentless and lacking in flow.

It is probably easiest to give an example of one of the early encounters with Mrs S

"The Girl doesn’t look up as I leave. The weather is changed again. Sun hits the back of my neck. Wet tarmac releases its scent like a flower. Mrs S walks slowly, back straight. She is always like this. Her elegance is second nature. She follows the wide path past the science block, the main building to her left. Below is the crooked B-road that runs past the school’s entrance to the few farms scattered in the fells’ cradle. Clouds now thinned across the roofs, treetops. I follow her. A spy. She has already opened the book, turning pages, looking up intermittently to stay her course. There she is, a child again."

And I was not sure that this style, particularly when combined with increasingly explicit action really worked at all for me. Although the style may I think be an explicit attempt to capture the way in which the narrator’s attention is focused.

Overall an intriguing debut, if not entirely to my taste.

This word perfect novel takes the reader deep into the heart of a forbidden relationship. The story follows an unnamed young Australian woman, who takes a job in a girls' boarding school, in the 1980s. There, she falls hopelessly in love (and lust) with Mrs S, the wife of the Headmaster. Their passionate, illicit affair is written so cleverly, so beautifully, so realistically. With deft strokes of their pen, K Patrick takes the reader on a passionate journey, but although not much happens plot wise, this doesn't matter. The novel expertly encapsulates and recreates a moment in very recent history, when to be gay was to have to deny your true self. An important book.

The narrative here is mundane. I suppose I should have expected that as it is set in a girls boarding school. Life in a school is routine, it’s the way they function. The stylistic choice to do away with punctuation and flaunt grammatical rules was irritating and made the book hard to follow. The growing passion between 2main characters was well portrayed but you realised at least one party had too much to lose for that relationship. Many will enjoy this book but it was not my cup of tea

I enjoy a minimalist style of writing so Mrs S by K Patrick hit the mark there for me and it also manages to compellingly capture feelings of being an outsider.

I’m afraid I just couldn’t get into the whole no-quotation-marks-for-conversation style. Made the book too difficult to read. I get that writers want to try different forms, but sometimes some things end up excluding some types of readers. This one was too difficult for me to follow. Pity, because I really wanted to read a sapphic tale set In a boarding school!

(Review copy from NetGalley)

After the rejection of her father a young Australian travels to England to take up the role of Matron at an all girls boarding School, she struggles to find her peace but life gets better for her

The rejection of her father over her sexuality cause our heroine to flee to the opposite side of the world may be a little extreme but she's not the 1st and won't be the last. She find a friend in a fellow lesbian and is infatuated with the headmasters wife. A friendship of sorts take shape but for more info you need to read it for yourself. Not being over confident of herself things can be slow moving and that's how life is i guess. The story is well written and builds to a surprising conclusion that week can't say anymore it's for you to read yourself

Firstly the premise for this is incredibly interesting, diverse and unique but I do not think this was a book for me. The writing style was way to convoluted and layout was just continuous with no speech marks and barely any breaks, making the reading feel like a chore and it was really hard to get into the book. I really struggled with this and can’t recommend sadly.

Mrs S is a book that is just shimmering with heat and sexual tension. Set in an all girls British boarding school, our unnamed main protagonist, a 22 year old Australian takes on the role as Matron at the school, and becomes infatuated with the headmasters wife, Mrs S. She’s prim and proper, all silk and pearls, and is a stark contrast to our more butch main character.

This book is very well done. The constant longing and desire is so apparent throughout the whole book, with a summery haze drifting through the all girls school setting. The push and pull of a secret relationship, queer yearning, the repressive feeling of a school atmosphere. Then there’s the almost timeless setting - mobile phones and the internet do not make an appearance. The language used had me feeling like this book is set in the early nineties, however I could be wrong in my assumption.

My one issue with the novel is how it’s written without speech marks, but I don’t feel like it’s fully a mark against it. Most of the time this is a benefit to the book, helping the text to flow and glide almost seamlessly, building the tension wonderfully, but occasionally I would get a little bit lost in the conversations, and would have to back track to double check who was saying what. However, that didn’t happen nearly as much as it could of. I don’t think the curt writing style will be for everyone, but I think it was the right stylistic choice for this novel, and I personally found myself very drawn in to it.

This book does what it sets out to do wonderfully, and I think that it’s a book that will stand the test of time.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the early copy to review.

I hate to give a negative review but in all honesty I struggled to give this book two stars.

The story was incredibly slow with very little happening. The writing style was very disjointed and made for difficult reading. I had to push myself to finish reading it.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC for an honest review

A rather slow read, although it did pick up towards the finish. Slightly difficult writing style with a lack of definition for speech with short sentences and often no paragraphs. I found it quite hard to see where I was and found myself keep having to reread bits to get who said what when so it was quite long to read. Anonymous characters who are known either by their initials i.e. Mrs S, their job title or what they are in the story which is set in an English girl's boarding school of which the pupils are just The Girls. Finding the writing style difficult it just didn't flow for me but others might enjoy it..

An interesting and thought provoking book about feminine relationships in a girls school, between the wife of the Headmaster, a house mistress and a young teaching assistant from Australia
Not my usual read but a mixture of sexuality and conflict.