Until Alison

Russo’s melancholy sophomore effort (after Super Host) is an earnest meditation on teen angst and adult regret centered on the entwined lives of two childhood friends. From the ages of six to 12, Rachel Nardelli and Alison Petrucci were best friends. That changed when they entered junior high in staunchly middle-class Waterbury, Maine, where being rich was a “cardinal sin,” and the Petruccis were “far wealthier than anyone else.” Rachel split from Alison, launching a rivalry that continues into their days at Denman College and lingers until the moment Alison is found dead on the banks of Waterbury’s Pleasant Pond, following a boozy party hosted by Rachel’s boyfriend. The pond happens to be the site of the rupture between the young women, and when Rachel finds out it’s where Alison died, it sends her mind whirling back to her own cruelty, cowardice, and manipulation over the past decade. A journalist for the university newspaper, Rachel reports on Alison’s murder, wading through her own guilt in the process. Less a straightforward mystery than a tender character study, Russo’s elegiac novel offers moving considerations of forgiveness and the often thorny nature of female friendship. Unfortunately, the pacing is a little too shaky to allow those insights to resonate as deeply as they might. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Nicole Aragi, Aragi, Inc. (July)