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The all-girls boarding school. It’s an evocative setting for a lesbian romance, isn’t it? I’m sure you can think of several examples of stories that take place in this setting. There are classics like Mädchen in Uniform (1931) or Olivia (1951). There are more recent additions like Lost & Delirious (2001), Loving Annabelle (2006), and the Chilean soap Perdona Nuestros Pecados. I can think of several ‘Clexa’ fanfics off the top of my head that take place at boarding schools. There’s a lot to draw from here. The structure, the rules, the uniforms, the power dynamics – these are all salient, suggestive qualities. 

Despite this surface-level connection, there has never been another book like Mrs. S, the debut novel from K. Patrick. The story utilizes this familiar setting, but that is where any reductive associations end. We begin by greeting characters with no name. Our protagonist, a young butch Australian known only by her title of Matron, finds work at an English boarding school named after a figure known as the Dead Author. The Matron is unwittingly drawn to the headmaster’s wife, Mrs. S, an alluring woman who commands but does not reveal. They embark on an affair that is as invigorating as it is unsettling – an undoing as well as a coming together. 

It’s immediately clear that Patrick’s writing is in a realm entirely of their own making. The prose is sparse, striking, sharp. There are no quotation marks or paragraph breaks to indicate a new line of dialogue. Instead, these are sentences that demand your attention. There are no wasted words here; each phrase is as precise as a scalpel. What this means for the reader is that we are given time to fill the spaces in between the lines with our own reactions and desires. A short, stinging sentence ends. The reader pauses, gasps, then takes on the next sentence, which is just as arresting. ...