Different Class: A Novel

A great intellectual thriller. Went into it hoping it was as good as her Gentlemen and Players (a very underappreciated book) and it didn't disappoint. It's not a mass market book, and not for everyone, but it's in a setting I love - an English boys' school.The twists and turns and especially pernicious poison of academia. The book is written in several different voices, almost diary entries over several key years, and there's great suspense and surprise in who these unreliable narrators are. Beautifully poetic and eloquent, a mediatation on growing old. Harris is brilliant at teasting out little bits on information - Val McDermid called this a "masterclass in misdirection" -- and she's write. And then the rug is completely pulled out from under you. Can't wait for the next one in this series.

Unique story line - unlike any other private school story I have read. I thought it was a little slow and frustrating at some points. Very ingesting take on the dirty little private part of private schools. Definitely exposed a different class. Wrongdoers were never punished - much like real life. A lot of moral and ethical questions in this read.

A great example of a mystery set in a British school. The narrator is appealing.

There were parts of the book that I enjoyed--like the tensions produced in a English boys' school as a new head seeks to transform his alma mater (and its faculty) from fusty and traditional to new and "progressive"--but on the whole I found Different Class to be a bit of a muddle. Although it's designed to reveal its mystery in the manner of Russian nesting dolls, the pace is slow and the shifting narratives are at times more confusing than revelatory. The author seems especially enamored of the phrase "chalk dust" as a descriptive term, as it appears countless times throughout the book. Had I consumed a shot of bourbon each time it was used, I'd have been dead drunk.

PSA: For all of those who have read Gentlemen and Players, this is the third book in a loose series. I loved that book and bought this one when I stumbled upon it and realized it was set in the boys' school of Gentlemen and Players. It can stand alone, but it's better if you've read GaP and then gotten your hands on Blue-eyed Boy. If only I'd realized that, I would have read them in order, if only for my own sense of cohesion.Awesome book, well done, as all of Joanne Harris' books are (well, not the Choclat books, which are a breed of their own), and anyone who is a fan should grab it, but grab Blue-eyed Boy first.

I have read several of her books and have enjoyed each one. This is an excellent read with several twists and turns in plot.

It was a great story, well- written and with several twists. Highly recommend it.

Writers are told to write what you know, and this is/was Joann Harris' life when she was teaching French at a boys school. Her books are always wonderful and different. I even loved her cook book, too!