Bittersweet shows the dark underbelly of an ideal society of affluence and an outsider's longing to belong in a suspenseful and dramatic way.
Ordinary Mabel Dagmar, a scholarship student at a prominent East Coast college, is startled to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev asks Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on her family's Vermont estate, where youngsters twirl sparklers across the lawn at cocktail hour. Mabel is smitten with nighttime skinny-dipping, the lingering wet dog scent among the boats, and the moneyed laughter that echoes over the quiet lake as fireworks explode above. Before she realises it, she has everything she's ever desired: companionship, a partner, riches, and, most importantly, a sense of belonging for the first time in her life.
However, when Mabel gains access to the Winslows' inner circle, a stunning revelation leads to horrifying violence, revealing what the Winslows may have done to maintain their control - and what they could do to anybody who challenges them. Mabel must choose between exposing the evil around her and risking expulsion from paradise, or keeping the family's terrible secrets and adopting Ev's reality.
I was young, still so young, that I thought my lack of wholeness was somehow my fault. I had no idea everyone feels this way—that the most essential part of growing up is figuring out where your empty places are and learning how to fill them by, and for, yourself.
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