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Book Summary and Reviews of Flashout by Alexis Soloski

Flashout by Alexis Soloski

Flashout

A Novel

by Alexis Soloski

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2025, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A thrill-seeking young woman joins a radical theater troupe in this taut, suspenseful novel of art, seduction, and the deadly limits of liberation.

New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom.

California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made?

Riveting and atmospheric, Flashout is a coruscating coming-of-age story and an immersive thriller exploring the enchantments and perils of art.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"The pacing hits just right as both revelations—what happened 'that night' and the identity of the emailer—wash over the reader. An intriguing mystery of youth, folly, and theater." —Kirkus Reviews

"A heady, atmospheric thriller that underscores the dark side of art-making...Soloski's darkly seductive prose wrings harsh beauty from the characters' pain. The results are grimly satisfying." —Publishers Weekly

This information about Flashout was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Alexis Soloski

Alexis Soloski is a prize-winning New York Times culture reporter and a former lead theater critic at The Village Voice. She has taught at Barnard College and at Columbia University, where she earned her PhD in theater. She lives in Brooklyn with her family. Here in the Dark is her first novel.

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Read-Alikes

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