Havoc

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What to expect

'A LABYRINTHINE MYSTERY OF EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY' Jo Brand
'DELIRIOUS AND REWARDING' Guardian
'UNMISSABLE' Woman's Weekly

Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding school on a remote part of the south English coast. Despite the eccentricities of her new Headmistress, who warns her of the dangers of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the bomb, St Anne's seems like a refuge to Ida. But all this is about to change. For a start, her new room-mate is the infamous Louise Adler, potential arsonist and hardened outcast.

Meanwhile, the geography teacher Eleanor Alston, in her late thirties, a disastrous love affair in her wake, faces the new term with weary resignation. But the fragile ecosystem of the school is disrupted by the arrival of a new teacher, Matthew Langfield. Eleanor has an uneasy feeling he is not who he says he is.

And things only get worse when a mysterious sickness starts to spread throughout the school, causing strange limb jerks and seizures among the pupils. What is happening to the girls of St Anne's? Could there be a poisoner among them? Is Ida's scholarship really an escape, or is it instead a new nightmare?

READERS ARE LOVING HAVOC:

'Superb. Brilliantly funny, at times extremely poignant' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Another beautifully written book by Rebecca' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Utterly glorious, moving, enthralling and witty. I am so cross I have finished it' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'I absolutely loved the humour in this book. Bonus points for the Cold War references' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Entertaining and humorous' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Praise for Rebecca Wait:

'IT'LL EASILY BE ONE OF MY BOOKS OF THE YEAR' Hannah Beckerman
'It's a warm book and a touching one. And did I mention it's funny? Just read it. You'll see' The Times
'Funny, tender and sad' Sunday Express
'If you liked Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss, you'll love this novel' Good Housekeeping
'One of the richest explorations of family dysfunction I've read' i newspaper
'Shades of Fleabag in this smart, funny drama' Mail on Sunday
'An enjoyably bittersweet novel about a dysfunctional modern family' Independent
'Razor-sharp ' Observer
'One of the funniest novels you'll read this year' Guardian

Critics Review

Tragedy and comedy fuse together perfectly in a labyrinthine mystery of emotional and psychological complexity.
Jo Brand
Havoc is a rich, wry delight of a read - as funny as it is thought-provoking, as evocative as it is page-turning. Rebecca Wait is a phenomenal storyteller. I can't wait to see what she writes next
Abbie Greaves, author of The Silent Treatment
SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP! Havoc is a fever worth catching, a gloomy and gorgeous pleasure
Maggie Thrash, author of Rainbow Black
Eerie and utterly absorbing . . . [Havoc] is a tragicomic triumph about adolescence, identity and how quickly order can unravel
IMAGE Magazine
A delight to return to [Rebecca's] witty, emotional, insightful writing
Hannah Beckerman
One of my favourite reads of the year!
Charlotte Heathcote
Funny
Good Housekeeping (20 Hottest Books of Summer)
Rebecca Wait has a glorious turn 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 twisty, thoughtful and highly specific, and Havoc is a total blast of a read, perfectly pinpointing where tragedy and wryness meet
Irish News
A biting and savagely funny novel . . . Think dark academia meets The League of Gentlemen
Red Magazine
Its boarding-school setting may well be decrepit, but the writing in Havoc is anything but. Sharp and compelling, Wait has - once again - created the most curious of characters, who made me both laugh and gasp aloud. In many ways extraordinary, I loved it
Amy Beashel
A master of zippy one-liners
Sunday Times
A wonderfully droll English tragicomedy, with darkness and bite
Natasha Poliszczuk (Summer Reading List 2025)
Rebecca Wait has a glorious turn of phrase and a dazzling ability to go on peculiar tangents that never detract, but only ever add to a character's experience.
Herald
Gleefully macabre . . . Wait mines the rich seam of girls' school fiction to delirious and rewarding effect. There are welcome echoes of St Trinian's [and] abundant Ealing comedy in the madcap chases through school corridors and machinations in the lighting gallery during the school play. Yet beneath the comedy lies a distinctly unsettling undertone: the girls experience a convincingly visceral terror 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.
Guardian (Book of the Day)
[Rebecca Wait] perfectly balances dark humour with a sense of encroaching threat. Her keen ear for dialogue and astute social observations make for a highly enjoyable and multi-layered novel
Observer
Unmissable . . . [Wait] combines a propulsive plot with unforgettable characters and laugh-out-loud funny dialogue
Women's Weekly
Wry, compelling, and far funnier than a book about a mysterious contagion has any right to be, 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, Havoc defies easy categorisation 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

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 4.0
5.0
3.0
Great book.
jla 18/10/2025
5.0
5.0
Loved it. I was a day girl in a small, obscure boarding school in the 80s and this took me back (ok, my time there was a lot less eventful).

Great writing, sprinkles of P.G. Woodhouse
fluentindothraki 10/10/2025

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