Havoc cover art

Havoc

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Havoc

By: Rebecca Wait
Narrated by: Jacqui Bardelang
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £17.94

Buy Now for £17.94

About this listen

 'A LABYRINTHINE MYSTERY OF EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY' Jo Brand
'DELIRIOUS AND REWARDING' Guardian
'UNMISSABLE' Woman's Weekly

Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding school on a remote part of the south English coast. Despite the eccentricities of her new Headmistress, who warns her of the dangers of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the bomb, St Anne's seems like a refuge to Ida. But all this is about to change. For a start, her new room-mate is the infamous Louise Adler, potential arsonist and hardened outcast.

Meanwhile, the geography teacher Eleanor Alston, in her late thirties, a disastrous love affair in her wake, faces the new term with weary resignation. But the fragile ecosystem of the school is disrupted by the arrival of a new teacher, Matthew Langfield. Eleanor has an uneasy feeling he is not who he says he is.

And things only get worse when a mysterious sickness starts to spread throughout the school, causing strange limb jerks and seizures among the pupils. What is happening to the girls of St Anne's? Could there be a poisoner among them? Is Ida's scholarship really an escape, or is it instead a new nightmare?©2025 Rebecca Wait (P)2025 Quercus Publishing Coming of Age Dark Humour Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Funny Witty
All stars
Most relevant
Loved every minute of this book. Many laugh out loud moments. Excellent storyline and characters. Read this after finishing Wait’s “I’m sorry you feel that way” - which is also fantastic. I thought the narration was excellent as well (on both books).

Laugh out loud funny

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
story and narrative were fine but the starting words of the sentences were strangely cut short in the latter chapters.

amusing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyed this fun, quirky novel with it’s oddball characters and unique plot. Malory Towers for grown ups

Quirky

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really love Rebecca Wait’s books and was excited to start this. I really regret getting it on audiobook as the narration was so infuriating. Pantomime voices and bad accents, over acting and inappropriate characterisation. The male teacher sounded like a cartoon gremlin - it was distracting and annoying. The story is great - characters interesting, it’s funny and gripping. But definitely read don’t listen this time

Great story, painful narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The reader is oddly stilted and mispronounces quite a few words. The story is unusual and quite fun, but the comic set pieces - e.g. the school play - are not well done and quite tedious.

Unusual story that needs a better reader

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews