Kate Stanley is the kind of girl who can handle a detention, improvise a confession, and survive a Catholic boarding school summer in a stone oven of a campus. What she can't seem to handle is everything else: boy trouble, college decisions, a rival at the theatre, and the unsettling possibility that her best answers might be the wrong ones.
Then the new priest starts asking real questions, her old boyfriend stops making sense, and her friends begin speaking in ways that make the whole campus feel different. The rules are still the rules-but suddenly Kate can see the cracks.
As graduation approaches, Kate has to figure out whether she's been living in a safe little world, a tightly controlled one, or a home. And whether the person she becomes next will still belong there.
Offstage is a prequel to the Marduke Manor series. Read how it all began! The Marduke Manor series blends Catholic life, found-family chaos, and the complexities of adult relationships. Moments of intimacy appear, but the focus stays on conscience, consent, and character.