Cry Havoc A Novel

"SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP! Cry Havoc is a fever worth catching, a gloomy and gorgeous pleasure." - Maggie Thrash, author of Rainbow Black

"Wry, compelling, and far funnier than a book about a mysterious contagion has any right to be, CRY HAVOC is an ode to the beautiful and complicated shambles of girlhood and the tender uncertainty of adulthood. With clear-eyed control and a keen wit, Rebecca Wait has created an unforgettable cast of characters so richly drawn you'd swear you went to school with them yourself. At once a mystery, a comedy, and a coming-of-age tale, CRY HAVOC defies easy categorization beyond what it is at its heart: a deft and thoughtful page-turner that will satisfy anyone who appreciates a good story." - Alison Wisdom, author of We Can Only Save Ourselves and The Burning Season

"Wait mines the rich seam of girls' school fiction to delirious and rewarding effect. Yet beneath the comedy lies a distinctly unsettling undertone . . . that edges towards Shirley Jackson territory and gives their hysteria an extra dimension. This, along with a genuine unexpectedness in the characterisation and a lot of very funny dialogue, loosens things up and brings real originality to the game. Combined with excellent pacing, a plot so deliciously thick you could stand a spoon up in it, and the boldness required to splice a darker thread into the narrative, it all adds up to a thoroughly satisfying contribution to a happily capacious genre." - The Guardian

"Rebecca Wait has a gloriouturn of phrase and a dazzling ability to go on peculiar tangents that never detract, but only ever add to a character's experience. . . . Wait's writing is dry and droll, her characters twist, thoughtful and highly specific, and Havoc is a total blast of a read, perfectly pinpointing where tragedy and wryness meet." - The Irish Times

"It's a wonderfully droll English tragicomedy, with darkness and bite." - Bookish

"A master of zippy one-liners." - Sunday Times

"Eerie and utterly absorbing . . . a tragicomic triumph about adolescence, identity and how quickly order can unravel." - Image Magazine

"A biting and savagely funny novel." - Red Magazine

"Tragedy and comedy fuse together perfectly in a labyrinthine mystery of emotional and psychological complexity." - Jo Brand

"Perfectly balances dark humour with a sense of encroaching threat. [Wait's] keen ear for dialogue and astute social observations make for a highly enjoyable and multi-layered novel." - The Observer (UK)

Wait crafts an intriguing and mordantly funny glimpse of life in closed communities where groupthink and gossip thrive. Dark academia fans ought to check this out. - Publishers Weekly