Blank Canvas by Grace Murray

Blank Canvas is a novel about a woman at an arts college who lies about her father’s death. Charlotte studies at a small arts college in New York state and when she tells one classmate that her father died, it spirals into a new reality for her. However, her father is alive in England, and as Charlotte falls into a relationship with her classmate Katarina, she finds herself caught in a web of lies.

It almost feels surprising that this book doesn’t already exist: it’s a campus novel that mixes that liberal arts college atmosphere (e.g. The Secret History) with a dash of Ripley-style lying, and the narrative voice is distinctive, with Charlotte being distant and harsh and having secrets in her past she tries not to think about. Her first person perspective means you never quite know what is meant to be real, and there’s a sense that people might think of her entirely differently to how she believes, especially given that she often lies or holds in what she really thinks of others. There’s a definite atmosphere created, with her as a reinvented outsider who seems to have difficulty expressing her actual feelings and preferences, and it is interesting to see how it unfolds. I liked the fact she’s from the UK and that brings an extra layer to the US campus novel, though the book being told from Charlotte’s perspective means that you don’t always see the full effects of this.

The romance side of the book is excruciating at times, in a good way: it really explores the ways in which Charlotte and Katarina have very different ideas about their relationship, and with the reader knowing the huge lie at the centre of it, you have to wince as it goes on. With so many campus novels being about unspoken homoerotic relationships, I like when they have actual queer relationships and let these be appropriately messed up for the genre.

I did feel that the plot didn’t quite hold up to the promise, with the ending feeling frustrating in ways I couldn’t quite define. Overall, this is a campus novel with a strong premise and a fascinating protagonist and central relationship, that asks what happens when we try to reinvent ourselves and what might be lurking underneath that.