In this breathtaking debut novel, Heather Lewis reveals herself as that special kind of writer who reports back from remote frontiers of experience, unflinchingly describing a world where the border between pleasure and pain has become blurred beyond distinction.

House Rules is about Lee. Fifteen (but passing for twenty), not interested in boys, and just kicked out of boarding school, Lee turns to the horseshow circuit, where she has been riding since the age of eight. In this meeting place of genteel old money and unvarnished greed, Lee begins a passionate affair with the beautiful Tory Markham, a rider known for the risks she takes both in the saddle and out. Through Tory, Lee hooks up with the Ruskers, a disreputable brother-and-sister team of trainers.

Carl Rusker is notorious for his ruthlessly effective methods; Linda, his sister, keeps the stable sedated with narcotics and finds in Lee a new person on whom to practice her violent sexual habits - habits sadly comfortable for Lee, who has experienced them at home. Lee's challenge is to learn that the oblivion of synthetic morphine isn't enough to transform her brutal world, that she must make the kind of leap she has only known on the back of a champion jumper.

1. Written with nervy frankness and shot through with jolts of savage humor, House Rules is disturbing, shocking, and unforgettable. It introduces a writer of many gifts, not the least of which is her courage to report candidly from the dark edges of humanity.