School's Out

By Christophe Dufossé

Book Overview

A vertiginous black comedy by one of France's most exciting new novelists Winner of France's most prestigious prize for a first novel, School's Out is a gripping re-imagining of Lord of the Flies, at once scarier and funnier than its prototype. When high school teacher ?ric Capadis is found dead, an apparent suicide, his friend Pierre Hoffman takes over his class. The students in 9F are well behaved yet oddly menacing. Hoffman's colleagues warn him to watch out for them. But it's only when he agrees to accompany his charges on a school trip to the Normandy coast that he begins to understand the reason for their bizarre solidarity. School's Out is a triumph of nihilism and surreal wit.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143038117
• ISBN13: 9780143038115
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 6.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.2" x 0.6" x 5.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Philosophic thriller

The cover blurbs lead one to expect a thriller of some sort - think Class Trip. If this is your expectation expect to be disappointed. One can be a third of the way through the book and still have little tension causing you to read until 3 a.m. - my test for a good thriller or mystery. And unlike The Class Trip, School's Out will not lead you towards understanding of an individual's aberrant behavior. Rather the strength of School's Out is philosophical and group oriented. Through the rather detailed exploration of the personalities of individuals who must deal with middle school class, the book explore how individuals and groups cope with "reality" - especially the adult coping through becoming an observer, the middle school class coping through uniform compliance. Suicide, physical assault, and other "thriller" plot elements counterbalance the philosophic bent to create a very enjoyable read. On the down side, the translation is at times awkward. I would like to explain the difficulties away by claiming British usage but phrase such as "two crew" rather than "two crew members" disrupt one's reading more than simple British-isms. The book could be improved by a bit of editing - in the early part of the book the scene setting is overly long for its narrative function. But Dufosse is definitely an author worth watching - entertaining and thought-provoking.

A truly creepy thriller!

School's Out is a really intelligent, dark, and weirdly funny thriller. The students in Pierre Hoffman's classroom are out to get him, but he's not sure why, and the disturbing messages he keeps receiving aren't helping. I couldn't put this book down! Definitely for fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History.