This review first appeared in Booklist on May 1, 2026.

Faye Fitzgerald has been unceremoniously sent off by an apprehensive aunt and her ailing father to a boarding school located on a remote, seemingly barren Scottish island, for, she is told, her wicked behavior—only Faye can’t exactly remember the wicked things she’s supposed to have done. At this reform school, she quickly discovers that the students are treated more like prisoners than pupils, and after learning of the sinister acts of her fellow classmates (window expulsions and sibling slayings not least among them), she can only assume she has done something equally monstrous to deserve such punishment. But when a supposedly deceased student finds her in the middle of the night with news of the faculty’s own nefarious misdeeds, Faye realizes that if nothing on the island is what it seems, then perhaps their proclaimed wicked, wild natures are also more complex than they first appear. Using strong and sympathetic characters, Strange skillfully explores themes of moral complexity, found family, and people’s inherently deep-rooted connection to nature in this stirring and atmospheric gothic mystery.