Review of Offseason by Avigayl Sharp

A deranged and striking debut on a young woman’s woes and ruminating trauma as she starts work at an all-girls boaridng school on the coast. Teaching English, she’s desperate to introduce these girls to real literature. She spends all her time caught up within the books she dedicates her life to, but with failing to acknowledge real life she’s plummetted into a spiral of depressive reflection as the past surfaces, slowly but surely, as the tide outside the window sweeps across the shore.

Offseason is undeniably for fans of The Idiot by Elif Batuman. Its cadence and sharpness reminded me of Batuman’s highly acclaimed campus novel, where Offseason’s narrator is just as astute as Selin. It was almost uncanny.

Published on 05.05.2026 by W&N

Reviewed by Victoria

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