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Layne Fargo
Layne Fargo writes dark, suspenseful stories. Her books include They Never Learn, Temper, and The Favorites. Readers enjoy her twisty tales of psychological suspense.
They Never Learn
Synopsis
Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor at Gorman University — and an even better killer. For sixteen years she has chosen the worst man on campus, studied him, and staged his death as an accident or a suicide, and for sixteen years nobody has looked twice. Then one kill gets away from her, the rising body count draws the university's attention, and Dr. Mina Pierce of the psychology department starts pulling at a thread Scarlett cannot afford anyone to follow. So Scarlett does the thing that has always kept her safe: she gets close, works her way onto the investigation, and charms the woman running it.
Across campus, freshman Carly Schiller is trying to disappear into her coursework. Newly free of an emotionally abusive father, she wants nothing more than to keep her head down — until her roommate and only friend, Allison Hadley, is sexually assaulted at a party by upperclassman Sebastian Waller, and the university responds the way universities do. Carly's fantasies about what should happen to him stop feeling like fantasies.
They Never Learn is Layne Fargo's second novel, written in the shadow of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and told in two alternating first-person voices. Publishers Weekly called it "a scathing take-down of campus rape culture"; it is also a genuine and uncomfortable argument about the distance between revenge and justice, and about who a university protects when it has to choose.
Vibe
Genres
Characters
Scarlett ClarkProtagonist
An exceptional English professor at Gorman University who secretly murders bad men on campus, meticulously planning her kills to avoid detection.
Carly SchillerProtagonist
A freshman student at Gorman University trying to survive her first year and focus on her studies, who becomes obsessed with revenge after her roommate is assaulted.
Sebastian WallerAntagonist
The Gorman University upperclassman who sexually assaults Allison Hadley at a party, and the target of Carly's fantasies of revenge.
Dr. Mina PierceSupporting
Dr. Samina "Mina" Pierce, head of the psychology department, who suspects the campus deaths are not accidents and leads the investigation Scarlett then charms her way onto.
Allison HadleySupporting
Carly Schiller's cool and confident roommate, who forms an intense friendship with Carly and is sexually assaulted at a party.
Frequently asked questions
Is They Never Learn a queer book?
Yes. Both point-of-view characters are bisexual women, and Allison Hadley is bisexual as well. A significant sapphic relationship develops between Scarlett Clark and Dr. Mina Pierce, the psychology professor investigating the campus deaths. The queer content is central to the story rather than incidental, and the novel is widely read and reviewed as a sapphic thriller.
What happened to Allison in They Never Learn?
Allison was sexually assaulted by a male student. This event deeply affects her friend Carly, who then seeks revenge.
How does They Never Learn compare to Layne Fargo's other books?
They Never Learn (2020) is Layne Fargo's second novel, after Temper (2019) and before The Favorites (2025), a modern retelling of Wuthering Heights. She also co-writes the Young Rich Widows series. Each of her solo novels is a standalone with its own setting and cast — this is the only one set on a university campus — but they share a preoccupation with ambitious, morally complicated women and with the power dynamics that let bad men keep going unchallenged.