Jane Eyre meets gritty reality in Dark Companion, an eerie, lush Gothic YA debut by award-winning author Marta Acosta--now in trade paperback .Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. She finds herself accepted by a group of amazing girls. She even starts tutoring the headmistress's gorgeous son, Lucien. He represents everything that Jane has done without in her miserable life, and she thinks that if she can have him, she'll also have security, family, and safety from the dangerous world. Things seem too good to be true. They are.The more she learns about Birch Grove's recent past, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the previous scholarship student, whose place Jane took? Why does Lucien's brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much?As Jane begins to piece together the answers to these puzzles, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove--and what she would risk to stay there... Because even the brightest people make terrible mistakes when they're offered everything they've always wanted.