I Have Some Questions for You

Absolutely could not out it down, even on vacation as the family was dragging me out of the hotel to see the sights. Moved fast and made me think a lot about the world since high school.

I loved this book because I’m a feminist who loves murder mysteries with characters I can relate to, and this was the perfect blend of a gripping murder mystery of a woman student at a boarding school with a strong feminist commentary on the societal reality of violence against women by men close to them.

I went to a boarding school 50 years ago, so I could relate to the setting and the students, and also to the narrator, an older woman feminist alumna returning to teach podcasting to this generation.

I had the same biases as the narrator, which… show more.

I was just a bit younger than Monica Lewinsky when that scandal erupted, and the Clinton White House and its allies dragged her through the mud.

At the time, I didn’t understand the significance of her story. Nor did I really make the connection between her experience and mine, as my college professor, and later my supervisor at work—men with a lot of control over my life—hit on me. 

Fast forward 25 years. I’m reading Rebecca Makkai’s pager-turner, which is set in roughly the same time period, and her novel had me revisiting these moments—the power dynamics, the secrets, and… show more.

I love, love, love a book that keeps me engaged from start to finish and makes me think at the same time. I Have Some Questions for You is the rare book that does precisely that.

Deftly moving between eras—the 90s and the 20teens, the former of which was marked by heart-wrenching tragedy in Bodie Kane's life, she perceptively captures the inner world of the “outsider” at a private school, casting a piercing light on women’s victimization while seamlessly weaving in the #Metoo and Black Lives Matter movements. This book has it ALL—it makes you think on every single page… show more.

I loved I Have Some Questions for You because it is a rare combination of thought-provocation and entertainment.

The book is a gripping murder mystery and, at the same time, a critical social commentary on race, privilege, and sexual harassment. Makkai creates a brilliant backdrop for her story at a boarding school in New Hampshire, and her descriptions are so clear that I felt like I was on campus reliving the crime with the narrator.

I loved that Makkai addressed these important social issues through a fictional literary thriller; the book stayed with me for months after I finished it… show more.

I love all of Rebecca Makkai’s work, but this novel, published earlier this year, absolutely blew me away.

Makkai is adept at keeping the pages turning, but it wasn’t just the story of podcaster Bodie Kane and the murder of her high school classmate that drew me in as much as the atmosphere. The novel is set in a New England winter, and Makkai does a fantastic job of using the darkness and isolation of the season to create thematic resonance.

I’ve only been to New England a few times and don’t know it well at all, but this novel… show more.