They Never Learn Review
- Mars Taylor
- Apr 3, 2022
- 4 min read
I discovered this book as I have many other books: through Book Lovers Club on Discord (link: here). I was sitting in a hospital waiting room for the second day in a row and thought “Huh, maybe this could be prime reading time.” Lo and behold, it was.
Warning: the following review may contain spoilers for They Never Learn by Layne Fargo.
Additionally, there several violent themes in this book such as murder, sexual assault, and other heavy topics. To find out more check out Book Trigger Warnings, a community run wiki (link here).
Summary:
Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.
Every year, Dr. Clark searches for the worst man at Gorman University—professor, student, or otherwise—and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself...but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Dr. Clark insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge. Everything’s going according to her master plan...until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.
Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident—everything Carly wishes she could be—and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay...and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.
My Review:
I really loved Layne’s writing style! It took me around five hours to read this book and I couldn’t put it down. It feels like she always had a firm grip on her words. Even when I didn’t know where she was going with something, I was willing to keep with it because I knew it was going to be good.
The character parallels in this story were crazy. Scarlett-Carly stood out right away. Mina-Allison and Jasper-Wes came shortly after that for me, but I didn’t make the Kinnear-Alex connection until a few chapters after the big Scarlett is Carly reveal. A couple of times I wondered how much Scarlett differentiated people and how many of them blurred together (Mina into Allison, the men she killed, herself with the worst parts of her parents and the younger part of herself with her students).
One of the main criticisms of the book that I saw was that it comes off as misandrist, but I think that’s part of what makes it good. It makes us want to sympathize with Scarlett, it shows us why she does what she does, and also in the case of Stright, shows us how she’s become hyper vigilant. She recognizes it in herself when she says she’s a monster just like those men.
I think Wes and Jasper being monsters was kind of balanced out by Stright *not* being the monster Scarlett thought he was. To me, it showed both how seemingly ordinary people can be evil and how warped Scarlett’s trauma has made her perception. One thing that really interested me and set up the ending is how often she commented on Jasper being cold and wishing she could “rely” on him. The fact that she did the same to Mina at first was another fascinating parallel.
I’ve been looking for another “murder couple” piece of media since NBC’s Hannibal ended. I found it in this book, which is recommended for fans of Killing Eve. Overall, the twists kept me reading and the pages practically turned themselves. It’s really got me thinking I should expand my reading into more thrillers!
Favorite Lines(s):
CH 7: “They’re not looking for a culprit, only for data patterns, and data can be manipulated. Just like people.” A very early and incomplete insight to Scarlett’s thought progress, snippets like this kept me hooked to the end.
CH 15: “‘Men like him don’t want a relationship, they want a fan club. The more members the better.’” Mina was also a fascinating character from the beginning, even before I realized she would be the love interest. I love sharp, well written characters!
CH 19: “I smile like a razor blade buried in a candy apple.” Whew, what a line. This is the start of me feeling like I should be reading thrillers more often.
CH 24: “I don’t look awful at all. The corset tugs my waist narrow, emphasizing my breasts and hips, turning my body into a perfect hourglass. My gaze traces each curve—all the parts of myself I usually cover up, hunch over to hide. I’ve never seen myself like this before.” Oh boy. There’s almost nothing I like better than when sensuality and sexuality is well written.
CH 55: “I want to look her in the eyes and say: It’s me, I’m the one, and I did it all to protect women like us. I did it, and I’d do it again. But I can’t tell her any of that. So I swallow my secrets and kiss her instead.” By this point, I was really rooting for Scarlett and Mina. This line had me squealing!
CH 57: “Her body makes me think of classical statues, the wide hips and small breasts like ripe apples, the rounded stomach. She’s even more beautiful than I’d imagined.” Well. Written. Sapphic. Women. This is everything I’ve been hoping for!!
CH 71: “Her eyes stay steady and unblinking, but her voice transforms entirely. She sounds genuinely panicked, her breathing shallow and gasping like she’s running for her life. Her grip tightens around the knife, flicking more of Jasper’s blood off the tip onto the floor tiles.” The vivid descriptions, quick thinking, and brilliantly psychotic characters who seem so lovely and normal. This is what pushed the book from four to five star territory for me.
EPILOGUE: “While I work at the Women’s Academy, Mina’s making progress on a research project of her own involving statistical analysis of domestic abuse reports to predict future offenses.” I was obsessed with this entire epilogue: the hairstyle, the alibi, the banter at the end. I really hope this gets a TV adaptation someday!
About the Author:
You can find out more about Layne Fargo through her Goodreads profile (here) or through her website (here).
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