Girls with Bright Futures

Starred review from November 23, 2020
Dobmeier and Katzman’s suspenseful debut, a shrewd comedy of manners, focuses on three women whose daughters attend Seattle’s Elliott Bay Academy, a prep school “positioned as a pipeline to elite colleges.” Imperious Alicia Stone, “a millionaire many hundreds of times over,” is one of the most powerful women in the tech industry. Kelly Vernon makes up for her lower financial status with manic, malice-tinged zeal, which includes posting erroneous information on Twitter. Capable, low-key single-mom Maren Pressley, Alicia’s long-time personal assistant, has an academically gifted daughter, Winnie, who’s aiming for Stanford, much to the chagrin of the more competitive mothers, whose daughters are also applying to Stanford. When Winnie is seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver, the police refuse to believe Maren’s suggestion that the incident might be connected to the aggressive race for acceptance to a top university. After years of silent subservience, Maren decides to tell the police a big lie as part of her campaign to ensure Winnie’s safety and her future. The exhilarating narrative speeds along to a satisfying conclusion. This is an unputdownable morality tale for our times. Agent: Carly Watters, P.S. Literary.