Another Faust

Victoria cheats. Belle tricks. Valentin lies. Bice hides. Christian steals. Everything and nothing is connected, by the most invisible, inaudible things around the world. The darkness you trust to protect, the governesses–maids, nannies, baby-sitters–you trust to protect your children, is/are what betrays you when the right moment strikes for what they truly want and will give anything to have. The most five differentiated children are brought together by one governess because of their “weaknesses.” Every person and nuisance they encounter or interact with is eventually ultimately used as an amusement for Madame Vileroy, no matter how humiliating or degrading it may be for them; beware if Madame gets a laugh out of your mortification of your most embarrassing moment, for she may come back to you for more.
Okay, why is it that the best books always take me forever to read? Of course, I don't know they're the best books until I actually read them.
The beginning of every chapter, after chapter two, has a specific capture of time in Madame Vileroy's life, mostly, anyway; past or future. At first I did not understand why they were there, until I actually got the whole understanding of the chapter still to come. The book is not necessarily told in anyone's perspective but that does not mean their feelings and emotions don't contribute to the narration of the novel. Another Faust tells the children's/teen's stories individually and, at times, mesh together because they're “siblings.” All have their insecurities–no matter how confident they appear–and in that, their weaknesses. Another Faust is the opposite of every book I've been reading lately, yet the same in different ways. In a lot of books there are the good and the bad. In this book it also has both sides but from the opposite perspective–the bad one. Instead of the teens talking about the latest fashion for the New York holiday event, they're planning devious schemes, like paying the waiter to introduce himself to their enemy's high maintenance mother as an ex-boyfriend of her daughter, their enemy, just for kicks. Another Faust is smoothly written and doesn't frustrate you into skipping pages and finding out the secrets of others, it makes you want to go over every detail just to make sure you haven't missed anything.