Subjunctive Mood is the first novel in the False Friends series — a psychological thriller inspired by the author’s own experience studying at a real language school in southern Spain.
Bianca, living in South Africa, meets Ramón, a language teacher whose fascination with grammar and control extends beyond the classroom. When she is invited to join Instituto Guerrera in Málaga, the move promises reinvention through language and belonging. What she encounters instead is a carefully balanced system of influence, dependency, and silence.
As Bianca settles into the institute, the boundaries between professional guidance and personal manipulation begin to erode. Language becomes more than a subject of study — it becomes a mechanism through which behaviour is shaped and autonomy quietly compromised.
Drawing on real observations of language-school dynamics, Subjunctive Mood explores power, suggestion, and the subtle ways environments can alter identity. It introduces a series in which grammar is not metaphor, but structure — and uncertainty is built into every decision.