Excerpt from We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Other than her roommate, whose name was Joy, Mallory hadn't made any new friends. Together their dorm room was a pair of Greek theater masks: Joy on one side, Mallory on the other. Joy had come to the college to study drama. She had the looks and the disposition for acting. Many things she did seemed dramatic: When she spoke or ate, she obscured her mouth with the back of her hand. When she read, she sometimes shut the book and bit into its jacket. When she watched shows on her laptop, she blinked rapidly and forcefully as if she was wincing, or willing something into happening like Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie.

Joy had spent much of their first few weeks at school preparing to audition for the school's play. She rehearsed monologues from Shakespeare and her favorite films. Some of these she performed for Mallory. But she didn't get a part. This devastated her, and for days after her audition, she became withdrawn. During this time, Mallory felt embarrassed on both of their behalf; the humiliation of a ruined dream was too acute, and Mallory felt incapable of consoling her. Time passed, however, and Joy declared that the following semester she would study prelaw. The courtroom was a different kind of theater, she said, and one that paid much better. Her tossing aside an old life so easily brought Mallory comfort; a new one might be waiting for her, too.

Excerpted from We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart. Copyright © 2022 by Michelle Hart. Excerpted by permission of Riverhead Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.