The Job of the Wasp

Writing as if in reaction to the glut of rapid-paced thrillers that read more like screenplays or plot points with dialog, Winnette (Haints Stay) exhibits a triumph of patience—exceedingly rare in young authors—and a gothic introspection that is a welcome antidote. That the novel spans but some 208 pages seems to belie even the possibility of the Henry James-like style with which its credited, but that observations is accurate. Not only does the author take considerable license with the classic unreliable narrator, he invests nearly the entire cast of roughly 30 orphaned boys and their headmaster with that quality, which makes for an odd effect: relentless tension throughout a story of moderate pace. Are there hostile ghosts menacing the facility? Is our young protagonist, who arrives at the orphanage a sociopath, obsessed with sex or merely a healthy lad in control of his emotions? These questions cannot be answered by way of accepted tropes, and readers will marvel at how little is known of human psychology.