Peterfreund, Diana

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Peterfreund, Diana

PERSONAL:

Born in PA. Education: Yale University, graduated, 2001. Hobbies and other interests: Outdoor activities, knitting, crocheting, old movies, cooking, word origins, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, journalist, reviewer, and food critic. Weekly Planet, food critic. Worked as a reporter and movie critic and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in FL.

WRITINGS:

Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of the Diana Peterfreund blog.

SIDELIGHTS:

Diana Peterfreund is a journalist, movie reviewer, and food critic whose debut novel, Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel, unfolds a story that explores the power and prestige of secret societies at a fictitious Ivy League college. Peterfreund, herself a graduate of Yale University, is well versed in the effect that secret societies can have on collegiate life, and uses this knowledge to tell the story of college junior Amy Haskell, unexpectedly recruited into the most prestigious secret organization on the campus of Eli University. The unassuming editor of the school's literary magazine, Amy thinks she is being inducted into the literary society, Quill & Ink, when she is mysteriously spirited away to a shadowy induction ceremony. Instead, she finds she has been tapped for membership in Rose & Grave, also known as the Diggers, the powerful society populated by the rich, famous, and influential. Soon, Amy enters an unfamiliar world of wealth, prestige, political power, and secrets that cannot be revealed. Initially enthralled with the group and her newfound friends in high places, Amy eventually finds that even high society is not immune to pettiness and infighting, and becomes the focus of conflict over female membership in the once men-only club. Against her will, she is forced into a position where she must prove herself worthy of her membership and newly minted upscale status. Peterfruend "brings to life a heroine who is instantly likeable," observed Erica Blake in the Toledo Blade. Among Amy's more admirable characteristics, Blake observed, is that she is "normal. She isn't among the uber-elite at the school. She works hard to get where she is." Library Journal contributor Lisa Davis-Craig noted that the novel is less about mystery or intrigue and more accurately a "coming-of-age story as Amy learns to appreciate herself and find sisterhood with her fellow Diggers." A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked favorably on the novel's "impressive plot," while Booklist reviewer Aleksandra Kostovski called the book "frivolous but fun to read, full of quirky characters and situations."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 2006, Aleksandra Kostovski, review of Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel, p. 31.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2006, review of Secret Society Girl, p. 434.

Library Journal, June 1, 2006, Lisa Davis-Craig, review of Secret Society Girl, p. 112.

Toledo Blade (Toledo, OH), July 30, 2006, Erica Blake, "Chick Lit Goes to College: Ivy League Heroine Is Invited to Join a Secret Society," review of Secret Society Girl.