Dangerous Education, a review by Di

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DANGEROUS EDUCATION
Megan Chance

Lake Union
February 7, 2023
395 pages

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This book is about a woman (Rosemary) who goes to teach at an alternative school for bad girls. Of course, the term “alternative” is not used because it takes place in 1954. The benchmark for “bad” was much different in 1954 than it is now.

From the start, three of the senior girls chose Rosemary to be their favourite teacher. This is not necessarily the honour that it seems at first glance. Rosemary gets sucked into their vortex very quickly. These three girls take the expression of Mean Girls to a whole new level. Diabolical comes to mind!

Rosemary is not a happy person. She has many problems of her own which reach back to her teen years. The issues from her teen years affect the actions and emotions of her adult life.

From the minute Rosemary enters the school, I could sense a dark and uncomfortable undercurrent. Creepy, in fact. It’s hard to tell if any of the staff are who they seem to be. It’s not so much what is written about them, it’s just sense I had.

Most of this book takes place in 1954. It was the time of the HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee). This was set up to investigate anyone who was suspected of anything deemed “unAmerican”. At the time, any connection to anything remotely related to Communism, abortion, homosexuality and much more was considered UnAmerican and the person could be put on trial. Neighbours would spy on neighbours, coworkers would spy on coworkers. This does not play a large part in the story until close to the end, but it does lurk in the background. But, the school’s curriculum was very strict about what it could teach. It’s something that many of today’s generation are not aware of.

Reading this book is like waiting for a bomb to go explode. This is ironic since there were nuclear bomb tests carried out during the mid-1950s in Nevada, same time period as this book.

And, of course, the bomb explodes!

This book is about a very different time, different social values, different morals. The pages leading up to the conclusion were very dramatic.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was well-written, the plot was well thought out. I did not develop a liking for any of the characters, could not identify with them. Yet, they were very well portrayed. While I like a good suspense story, I’m not a huge fan of something that is dark and creepy and disturbing. This one certainly fits this description, in my mind. There are a lot of interesting historical facts revealed about the time period. Research was well done by the author.

My rating would be 3.5 but because of the writing and plot and the historical facts, I will round it up, not down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

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