House Rules by Heather Lewis

Fifteen-year-old Lee has just been expelled from boarding school. Unwilling to go home to her abusive father, she escapes to the horse-show circuit and begins an affair with a beautiful but dangerous rider named Tory Markham. Through Tory, she becomes involved with a disreputable team of brother and sister trainers: Carl, notorious for his ruthless training methods, and Linda, who keeps the stable - both the horses and the riders - doped on narcotics. Lee’s descent into a web of violent sex and heroin addiction is depicted with hellishly vivid precision. First published in 1995, House Rules established Heather Lewis’ reputation as a gifted and uncompromising writer.

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'This utterly unexpected book dives straight into the chaos of an American adolescence, echoing the infernal laughter of William S. Burroughs as it probes the messier forms of sexual awakenings.'-Details

'House Rules . . . ventures off the map into an uncharted, quite terrifying strip of psychological badlands.'-The Village Voice

The narrator of Lewis' amazing first novel is 15-year-old Lee, whose story is both a fascinating and disturbing look at the dark side of show horse riding. With extraordinary insight, Heather Lewis describes a world she knew from the inside. Since its first publication 10 years ago, House Rules has established itself as a classic of lesbian literature.

Heather Lewis is the author of two other novels, Notice and The Second Suspect. In 2002, she took her own life at the age of 40.