Making the Grades: Allie's Descent
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| Making the Grades: Allie's Descent | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jasper Flynn |
| Format | Novel (three-part novella release) |
| Universe | Subconium Shared Universe |
| Genre | Dark contemporary romance / psychological erotic thriller / light paranormal |
| Published | In progress |
| Status | In progress |
About
Making the Grades: Allie's Descent is the second book in the Making the Grades series by Jasper Flynn. It follows Allison "Allie" Branigan, a sophomore at Eastern Tsuga College, across the Spring 2023 semester, the semester immediately following the events of Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling. Like its predecessor, it centers on a student who enters Professor William Taylor's orbit after missing a class and a remediation arrangement that escalates far beyond its stated terms. Taylor's closing line at the end of Kelly's arc referred directly to this semester: "Next semester, his project would be sharper, more controlled. Kelly was only the beginning."
Publication
Allie's Descent is currently in progress. The first third of the novel has been drafted across nine chapters. The remaining two-thirds are unwritten as of the current SSU timeline. The novel is being adapted from branching Chyoa source chapters written before the draft.
Plot
Spring 2023. Allie Branigan is a sophomore English major, host of the "Cornflake Girl" show on Hemlock Veil FM, and a committed but anonymous participant in DareGrid, an online kink forum she discovered the previous semester. She arrives at the start of term carrying unresolved wounds from a high school betrayal and a summer confrontation with her mother that fused her desires with shame.
When Allie misses a session of Psych 250: Sexology: Sexual Deviance or Sexual Culture, her roommate Meghan Kang goes to Professor William Taylor's office on her behalf. Taylor identifies Allie as a promising candidate and uses the visit as a lever. What follows is the second iteration of his methodology, applied to a subject who has already been naming her desires privately for months and is terrified of what happens when someone sees them clearly and stays in the room.
Taylor's closing line at the end of Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling referred directly to this semester: "Next semester, his project would be sharper, more controlled. Kelly was only the beginning."
The novel's second and third movements remain unwritten. The first movement has been drafted across nine chapters.
Characters
- Allison Branigan — protagonist; sophomore English major; DareGrid user; Cornflake Girl radio host
- Meghan Kang — Allie's roommate and best friend; UX Design major; Hemlock Veil FM host; ends the novel entering Taylor's office
- Professor William Taylor — connective antagonist across the series; PSYCH 250 instructor
- Marty Cavendish — Order of Aetherion member; pursuing Allie; invites her to the Dogs and Cats party
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Key themes
Allie's Descent explores the difference between anonymous desire and intimate vulnerability. Where Kelly's arc was about a student who surrendered to a dynamic she had never named, Allie's is about a student who has been naming her desires privately for months and is terrified of what happens when someone sees them clearly and stays in the room. The Patrick betrayal is the wound. Taylor is not the first person to see her. He is the first person who might not leave.
The novel also develops the DareGrid platform as a structural engine, with Allie's DSU journal entries functioning as interlude chapters tracking her emotional state between the main narrative chapters.
Canon notes
- Publication date not yet established
- The second two-thirds of the novel remain unwritten