Some lessons change more than the way you speak.

In the coastal town of George, South Africa, Bianca meets Ramón — a magnetic language teacher whose fascination with words runs far deeper than grammar. When he invites her to join his school, Instituto Guerrera, in Málaga, Spain, it feels like a chance to start over.

But the prestigious institute isn’t what it seems. Beneath its polished surface lies a quiet network of control, silence, and obsession — a place where language shapes more than thought, and meaning can be turned against you. As Bianca’s sense of self begins to erode, she must decide whether she’s mastering a new language… or being rewritten by it.

Subjective Mood is the first novel in the False Friends Series — a psychological thriller about power, desire, and the dangerous ways communication can deceive. Inspired by real people and a real school, it blurs the boundary between truth and fiction, reminding us that words can both reveal and destroy.