They Never Learn

Layne Fargo’s They Never Learn was published in 2020. A psychological thriller with feminist undertones, it reflects Fargo’s interest in strong, “unlikeable” female characters and engages with Power Dynamics and Sex Crimes in Academia, Misogyny and Sexism in Academia, and Vigilante Justice and Morality. The novel consists of alternating chapters, narrated by college freshman Carly Schiller and English professor Dr. Scarlett Clark. Midway through the novel, Carly and Scarlett are revealed to be the same character. Carly/Scarlett becomes a serial killer after realizing that men on campus are rarely punished for sexual harassment and assault of women.

This guide refers to the paperback edition first published by Scout Press in 2021.

Content Warning: The text and this guide describe sexual harassment and assault, as well as murder.

Plot Summary

They Never Learn is told in alternating chapters between narrators Carly Schiller and Dr. Scarlett Clark. Carly is a freshman at Gorman University where Scarlett is an English professor, but they are ultimately revealed to be the same person: Carly returns to campus 16 years later as Scarlett.

Carly initially escapes to Gorman University from an emotionally abusive home. Her father is a controlling, cruel presence in both Carly’s and her mother’s life. Initially shy and socially anxious, Carly strikes up a friendship with her sophomore roommate Allison Hadley and Allison’s high school friend Wes Stewart. When Allison is sexually assaulted by fellow student Bash, Carly tries to help her report the attack, first to a doctor and then Gorman’s dean. Allison is treated dismissively by both her physician and the school official, each of whom blames her rather than her attacker. This, coupled with her own abuse by a professor, Dr. Alex Kinnear, and Wes, propels Carly to take matters into her own hands. Although Carly’s plans for Bash do not work out, and he remains unscathed, Carly does push Wes off the tops of a building during a would-be assault.

As an adult, Carly, now Scarlett, has matured as a vigilante who kills with careful planning. The novel’s first victim is one of Scarlett’s former students, a football player who, along with a group of friends, sexually assaulted a fellow student at a party. Like many of the attackers whom Scarlett encounters, the boys go free. She stages the football player’s death, like many of her kills, as a suicide. She has dispatched so many serial predators that school officials decide to convene a special investigation into the pattern of what they believe to be suicides on campus. The investigation is headed by Psychology professor Dr. Samina “Mina” Pierce. Mina is one of Scarlett’s love interests, the other being graduate teaching assistant Jasper Prior. Both characters become increasingly suspicious of Scarlett’s involvement with the deaths.

During the investigation, one of Scarlett’s kills goes wrong, and she becomes the target of a separate police search for the campus killer. Her victim is Dr. Alex Kinnear, the professor who traumatized her as a student and continues to prey on female undergraduates. Because she is not able to fully sedate Kinnear, he fights back and she is unable to stage his death as a suicide. Throughout the course of both her own investigation and the police inquiry, Mina identifies Scarlett as the killer, and is forced to choose between upholding the law and her love for a woman whose work as a vigilante she ultimately finds sympathetic.

The many threads of the novel come together when Scarlett and Mina learn that Jasper has been harassing undergraduate Mikayla Atwell, Scarlett’s favorite student. Later, Mikayla stabs Jasper, and Scarlett and Mina cover for her, claiming to police that Jasper attacked them. Scarlett and Mina then leave for London, where Scarlett will be working on a research project for a year. The two have become a couple, and Mina helps Scarlett prepare and clean up after kills.