An intellectual movement morphs into a dangerous bid for dominance in Farnworth’s literary thriller.

Medusa (“Meddy”), born to a prison inmate and raised in foster care, earns a scholarship to Dartmouth College thanks to a recommendation from her AP Literature teacher. In a sophomore year philosophy course, Meddy is randomly paired for a group project with Peter Holloway, who quickly finds himself slipping under her influence. (“Oh, her eyes. They were a deep green, captivating, with a magnetic pull…and feeling that if you stared long enough, they might show you something you’d never seen before.”) Meddy channels her magnetism into starting the Students for Fundamental Change, an on-campus group for those who “wanted control back in their lives, and were willing to take it back, by whatever means necessary.”

After graduation, Meddy, Peter, and a small group of others relocate to Stillwell, Maine, where they build the Sustainable Futures Collective. The collective grows increasingly insular, with Meddy at the helm continuously tightening her hold. She has children—fathered by Peter, though he’s not allowed to publicly claim them—and raises them within the group’s rigid structure, with special attention paid to her eldest, Paul. Meanwhile, an FBI investigation into a string of murders linked to the SFC pushes Meddy toward more extreme forms of authority.

The story bounces between two timelines, moving from the commune’s evolution to Peter’s later attempt to reconnect with his estranged father, Frank, which adds emotional depth and dramatic tension to the narrative. Medusa herself is both compelling and occasionally ridiculous (naming her son after Paul Morel from D.H. Lawrence’s 1913 novel Sons and Lovers underscores her inflated sense of literary superiority), with a backstory that succeeds in making her ambitions seem disturbingly plausible. The book offers few truly sympathetic figures, but readers drawn to morally complex characters will find much to enjoy here.

A gripping meditation on power and control.