As I Descended

by Robin Talley

Overview

From the acclaimed author of Lies We Tell Ourselves, Robin Talley, comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—but one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey. Golden child Delilah is a legend at exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize.

But Delilah doesn’t know that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to unseat Delilah for the scholarship. After all, it would lock in Maria’s attendance at Stanford—and assure her and Lily four more years in a shared dorm room.

Together, Maria and Lily harness the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school. But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what’s imagined, the girls must attempt to put a stop to the chilling series of events they’ve accidentally set in motion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062409249
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Robin Talley is a queer author who grew up in southwest Virginia and now lives in Washington, DC, with her wife and their kids. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels for teen readers: Music from Another World, Pulp, Our Own Private Universe, As I Descended, The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre, What We Left Behind, and Lies We Tell Ourselves. You can find her on the web at www.robintalley.com.

Editorial Reviews

A devastating marriage of the stunningly unexpected with the maddeningly inevitable. This adaptation’s bewitching intrigues and enthralling deceptions will whet the daggers of any reader’s mind.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Talley creates a dark and twisted gothic boarding school setting replete with vengeful spirits, drugs, and suicide in this Shakespeare-inspired tragedy… that lulls readers into a false sense of security while setting them up for the next chilling event.” — Publishers Weekly

“An intriguing, appropriately atmospheric take on one of Shakespeare’s most spine-tingling plays.” — Booklist

“Those familiar with the source material will not be surprised at how the story plays out, but knowing the eventual outcomes does not diminish Talley’s dark tale about fate and ambition… Highly recommended.” — School Library Journal

“Fans of horror will find that Talley comes up with some genuinely creepy scares, and her Shakespeare-inspired story is solid and compelling.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

From the Publisher

An intriguing, appropriately atmospheric take on one of Shakespeare’s most spine-tingling plays.

Booklist

An intriguing, appropriately atmospheric take on one of Shakespeare’s most spine-tingling plays.

Booklist

Fans of horror will find that Talley comes up with some genuinely creepy scares, and her Shakespeare-inspired story is solid and compelling.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

★ 2016-06-01
A group of high school students find themselves caught in a familiar spiral of vaulting ambition and direst cruelty in Talley's 21st-century spin on Shakespeare's bloody tragedy Macbeth.Maria Lyon, a Latina senior at the private Acheron Academy on an old Virginia plantation, is second in her class and the school princess—one step down in success and popularity from its white queen bee, Delilah Dufrey. Lily Boiten, Maria's white, driven girlfriend, who walks with crutches due to a childhood accident, hates that Delilah seems to receive everything Maria rightly deserves—in fact, she hates Delilah, period. The closeted couple desperately wishes to stay together when they graduate and go on to Stanford, a future that can only be assured if Maria wins the prestigious Cawdor Kingsley Award, which means eliminating Delilah. But whether through the influence of maliciously manipulative spirits—the legacy of the school grounds' dark history as a site of enslavement—or that of the students' own misguided aspirations, the fulfillment of Maria and Lily's wish will destroy more than just Delilah, as each previously unthinkable act justifies the next in a frightening and ambition-fueled descent into corruption, betrayal, and death. Talley's intense reimagining seamlessly weaves the contemporary motivations of a diverse teen cast together with classic guilt and mistrust in a devastating marriage of the stunningly unexpected with the maddeningly inevitable. This adaptation's bewitching intrigues and enthralling deceptions will whet the daggers of any reader's mind. (Thriller. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews