Book Review: Girls Burn Brighter

Author: Shobha Rao

Publication Date: March 6, 2018

Publisher: Flatiron Books

“Incandescent...A searing portrait of what feminism looks like in much of the world.” ―Vogue

“A treat for Ferrante fans, exploring the bonds of friendship and how female ambition beats against the strictures of poverty and patriarchal societies.” ―The Huffington Post

An electrifying debut novel about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstance but relentless in their search for one another.

Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. After her mother’s death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.

Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face ruthless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within.

A disturbing look at the world that ultimately tears Poornima and Savitha, and their remarkable friendship, apart. These girls meet in a small Indian village, form a friendship that is fierce and undeniably inspirational, but are separated by unforeseen circumstances and forced to fight through the absolute worst of odds to be together again. They are both brave, unmistakably resilient, and overcome brutal lives that most of us would never be able to endure.

After these women are torn apart, readers will follow each of them and the lives they are living. Their journey is horrific, demoralizing, and not for the faint of heart. The suffering of both women is appalling and stomach-churning, but the reader can't help but admire their strength, cleverness, and persistence. 

Rao’s debut novel has quite possibly made her an auto-buy author for many people. The story is gut-wrenching and terrifying, but written in a way that makes it easier to digest. Rao’s debut puts precious and beloved human faces on the plight of young women who are sold around the world --- and even in America --- for others’ pleasure and profit - a crime we know as sex trafficking. Not every author could take on a topic as vast and horrifying as this – Rao’s pacing was perfect for all the tragic, disturbing things that happen to Poornima and Savitha. Rao doesn't shove everything at readers at one time. She sandwiches the bad in between the good. There are many things about this book that are beautiful, even if the main topic is cruel and horrible.

“Every moment in a woman's life was a deal, a deal for her body: first for its blooming and then for its wilting; first for her bleeding and then for her virginity and then for her bearing (counting only the sons) and for her widowing.”

“It was stillness, she learned, that at the time was the greatest movement.” 

“We girls. Afraid of the wrong things, at the wrong times. Afraid of a burned face, when outside, outside waiting for you are fires you cannot imagine. Men, holding matches up to your gasoline eyes. Flames, flames all around you, licking at your just-born breasts, your just-bled body. And infernos. Infernos as wide as the world. Waiting to impoverish you, make you ash, and even the wind, even the wind. Even the wind, my dear, she thought, watching you burn, willing it, passing over you, and through you. Scattering you, because you are a girl, and because you are ash.” 

Alternating from Poornima's and Savitha's points of view, Girls Burn Brighter is a feminist story studying the importance of female friendships. Please do not go into this book and think that this is a light-hearted story about friendship. No, this book is not that. It does share the importance of friendship and its beauty as well, but it also takes on a world that is eye-opening. You will come out changed after finishing this book, and hopefully like me, you will be changed for the better. Hopefully, like me, you will appreciate the world you have grown up in and you will call your girlfriends and talk for hours about all the beautiful memories you have shared!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Flatiron Books in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: S.T.A.G.S.

Author: M.A. Bennett

Publication Date: January 30, 2018

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Donna Tartt's The Secret History meets Pretty Little Liars in this propulsive, edge-of-your-seat novel that explores just how far the elite at an English boarding school will go to maintain the social order.

There's no point hunting if there's no kill.

At St. Aidan the Great School, or S.T.A.G.S., new things--and new people--are to be avoided. Unfortunately, Greer MacDonald, token scholarship student, is very much a new person. She has just transferred to S.T.A.G.S., and finds herself ignored at best and mocked at worst by the school's most admired circle of friends, the Medievals.

So imagine Greer's surprise when this very group invites her to an exclusive weekend retreat at the private estate of the parents of their unofficial leader, Henry de Warlencourt. It's billed as a weekend of "huntin' shootin' fishin'," and rumor has it that the invitee who most impresses the group will be given the privilege of becoming a Medieval themselves.

As the weekend begins to take shape, however, it becomes apparent that beyond the luxurious trappings--the fancy clothes the maid lays out on Greer's bed, the elaborate multicourse dinners held in the Great Hall--there are predators lurking, and they're out for blood. . . .

Greer MacDonald is the “scholarship girl” at the illustrious and exclusive St. Aiden The Great School, or S.T.A.G.S. for short. Greer falls into the typical girl that doesn’t fit in with the rich kids trope. However, she fits this role well and she makes a subtle change in the way things are done in this pompous, pretentious boarding school. Greer did not start page one by being a hero, but grew and developed as the twisty plot unfolded. More authors should take note from this!

Greer had two friends accompanying her during her time at S.T.A.G.S. Shafeen and Chanel, or “Nel, as she liked to be called. Shafeen and Nel both came from privileged backgrounds, unlike Greer, but they were still outcasts and did not fit in with the popular kids. They were excellent secondary characters and supported Greer’s smart, feisty personality very well. If I was trying to survive a deadly weekend, I would definitely want both of them on my side. I felt that Chanel could have been better developed; she was lacking in character depth, but Shafeen made up for it.

Lastly, we have to discuss the Medievals – the “cool kids”. These group of rich, snotty, snobby brats was everything you want in your boarding school ring leaders. They were described as beautiful and full of charm, but all had a drop of evil in their souls, especially once the plot started to unravel. I know I should hate them, but I spent most of the book being intrigued by them.

The writing was easy to navigate and took me no time at all to get through. It does feel like a young adult novel, so don’t go in expected some poetic, vast novel full of meaningful phrases that make you stop and reflect for minutes at a time. With that being said, this book and its writing are a guilty pleasure that are worth adding to your to be read list, if you haven’t already.

“The hunter…became the hunted,” she translated haltingly. “The hounds…were struck with a wolf’s frenzy…and tore him to pieces as they would a stag.” 

“Shafeen cleared his throat. “ ‘To course’ means ‘to chase, or to hunt.’ ”

“Psalm 42. As the running deer seeks the flowing brook, even so my soul longs for you, O God.” 

I am most intrigued by how dark this book got – I mean we are dealing with a cult here, people! The book left off with a literal question mark as the last piece of punctuation, which makes me question if there will be more books in a series. However, I do feel that this book needs more. This was a guilty little pleasure read that took me no time at all to finish and made me so glad that I am no longer a teenager! The boarding school and “cultish” atmosphere of the setting was enough to get me to try this book and I am not sorry that I did.

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Book Review: Tangerine

Author: Christine Mangan

Publication Date: March 27, 2018

Publisher: Ecco

“As if Donna Tartt, Gillian Flynn, and Patricia Highsmith had collaborated on a screenplay to be filmed by Hitchcock—suspenseful and atmospheric.”
—Joyce Carol Oates, author of The Book of American Martyrs

The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the accident at Bennington, the two friends—once inseparable roommates—haven’t spoken in over a year. But there Lucy was, trying to make things right and return to their old rhythms. Perhaps Alice should be happy. She has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy—always fearless and independent—helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country. 

But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice—she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice’s husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.

Tangerine is a sharp dagger of a book—a debut so tightly wound, so replete with exotic imagery and charm, so full of precise details and extraordinary craftsmanship, it will leave you absolutely breathless.

This story follows the alternating viewpoints of Alice Shipley and Lucy Mason. Alice and her husband, John, have just recently moved to Tangier and Alice is not successfully adapting to her new life there. Then, Lucy Mason shows up unexpectedly, followed by the disappearance of her husband. Alice starts to questions everything around her, including Lucy.

Alice and Lucy are distinctly different characters. Alice is the frail, innocent housewife who seems to be harboring anxiety from past experiences. Lucy is the ambitious, unpredictable friend who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Their characters start to develop very clearly from the start and readers can easily see who is being manipulated and who is doing the manipulating.

A past tragedy, during her college years, keeps Alice from acting on urges or doing anything out of her comfort zone. Readers learn early on that Lucy was possibly involved in this traumatic event that led Alice on a downward spiral and will become immediately suspicious of Lucy’s motives. However, Lucy is intriguing and her perspective is questionable, making her an interesting and versatile unreliable narrator.

Mangan’s writing is atmospheric, poetic, and lyrical. The 1950’s Moroccan setting helps transport readers to a time and place that is vibrant and seemingly almost magical. Mangan writes tension with such expertise. The alternating point of views of Alice and Lucy help add to the suspense as readers try to unravel and understand all that these two women have shared – the good and the bad. Their perspectives often contradict the other, which leaves readers guessing as to who is unreliable or if either of them can be trusted.

The story is dark, mysterious and two large secrets are revealed that add to the lush, eerie writing style. Each chapter brings you closer to understanding what happened between these two women and what happened to Alice’s husband, John.

The setting of Tangier is beautiful and breathtaking and adds to the suspense of the story. The heat and hustle and bustle of the city streets makes the tension between Alice and Lucy all the more sweltering. I loved the city and reading the descriptions of a place in the world that is far different from the one where I live.

“Tangier and Lucy were the same, I thought. Both unsolvable riddles that refused to leave me in peace. And I had tired of it - of the not knowing, of always feeling as though I were on the outside of things, just on the periphery.”

“I did not ask her where she had spent her day, or whom she had spent it with. I did not ask what she was doing in Tangier, why she was here, what she wanted - still too afraid of the answers I might receive.” 

“The feelings I had felt toward Lucy, I often thought, were something like this - something sharper than a normal friendship, something that I felt threatened to overwhelm and, quite possibly, destroy. There were moments when I had thought that I did not so much as want her, as I wanted to be her.” 

“She was put together nicely, with the intention of others not noticing. There was nothing about her that clamored for attention, nothing that demanded to be seen, and yet, everything was done exactly in anticipation of such notice.” 

I was pleasantly surprised and shocked to learn that this is a debut novel. Christine Mangan has a bright future ahead of her in her field as a writer. This story transported me to another world, gripped me from page one, and kept me guessing until the end. Both of the main characters were interesting to read about and the pacing was consistently fast all the way through. I will add Mangan to my auto-read author list.

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Ecco in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: Not That I Could Tell

Author: Jessica Strawser

Publication Date: March 27, 2018

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

"Full of slow-burning intrigue, Strawser's second novel will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies and Jennifer Kitses' Small Hours." ―Booklist

*Book of the Month Club Selection

An innocent night of fun takes a shocking turn in Not That I Could Tell, the next page-turner from Jessica Strawser, author of Almost Missed You.

When a group of neighborhood women gathers, wine in hand, around a fire pit where their backyards meet one Saturday night, most of them are just ecstatic to have discovered that their baby monitors reach that far. It’s a rare kid-free night, and they’re giddy with it. They drink too much, and the conversation turns personal.

By Monday morning, one of them is gone.

Everyone knows something about everyone else in the quirky small Ohio town of Yellow Springs, but no one can make sense of the disappearance. Kristin was a sociable twin mom, college administrator, and doctor’s wife who didn’t seem all that bothered by her impending divorce―and the investigation turns up more questions than answers, with her husband, Paul, at the center. For her closest neighbor, Clara, the incident triggers memories she thought she’d put behind her―and when she’s unable to extract herself from the widening circle of scrutiny, her own suspicions quickly grow. But the neighborhood’s newest addition, Izzy, is determined not to jump to any conclusions―especially since she’s dealing with a crisis of her own.

As the police investigation goes from a media circus to a cold case, the neighbors are forced to reexamine what’s going on behind their own closed doors―and to ask how well anyone really knows anyone else.

The story mainly goes back and forth between two main perspectives: Clara’s and Izzy’s. While the story takes off right after a bunch of neighborhood women gather together for wine around a bonfire, it only follows Clara and Izzy’s point of views after the disappearance of Kristin, one of the women in the local community. I was, first of all, disappointed in this. There were more women at that bonfire – what about their thoughts?

However, I enjoyed Clara’s chapters far more than Izzy’s. Izzy’s background and reasons for moving to Yellow Springs were re-hashed and re-hashed over and over until she became a whiny character to me. Izzy’s chapters had no depth and no intriguing parts for me. However, Clara’s chapters were where I felt that the most suspenseful and mysterious things happened. I loved seeing Kristin, the missing woman, through Clara’s eyes. Unlike Izzy, Clara actually spends her chapters going over Kristin’s life, their conversations, and really tries to help solve the mystery of her disappearance.

Then there is the character of Paul, Kristin’s soon-to-be ex-husband. Paul was creepy, unlikeable, and totally untrustworthy. I liked that his character was added to the story. I felt that he added a bit of suspense and kept me, and the other characters, on edge.

For a mystery/thriller, I felt that the writing lacked suspense, lacked the fast pace that I am used to with mystery novels, and lacked the ability to keep me guessing. I felt that the pace was slow, partly because I did not like Izzy as a character and partly because I wanted to know more about Kristin than I was given. I felt, as the reader, I was not given enough information or backstory about Kristin in order to make speculations about what could have happened to her. I wanted more and more to be revealed as the story progressed, but it fell short for me. We are given some clues, but by the time they were revealed, I had already guessed most of them.

Ever wonder what your friends really think of you?

"It's no great accomplishment to get someone to believe a lie. It's not that hard, really. Look at me: doctor's wife, working mom, good neighbor. You've already summed me up, haven't you? You're already filling in the blanks. But whatever you're writing there, it's not the truth. And that's fine by me. It's easier, knowing you don't know me at all."

“The missing, the hidden, the murdered and the other wise lost never get to tell their sides of the story. It’s the last and sometimes cruelest injustice.”

I won’t lie…the big twist is quite remarkable and made the story better for me. However, I was not impressed with most other parts of the novel. I am such a character driven reader and the characters just did not feel fleshed out to me; I did not connect to them, feel for them, or really care what happened to them. The only character that I wanted to know more about was Kristin, and I just didn’t get that information fast enough. When I pick up a thriller/mystery that is pitched as the next Big Little Lies, I expect it to be fast-paced and completely guttural when it comes to the plot and character development. This felt more like contemporary fiction than the mystery/thriller that it is pitched as.

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Book Review: The Broken Girls

Author: Simone St. James

Publication Date: March 20, 2018

Publisher: Berkley

The “clever and wonderfully chilling” (Fiona Barton) suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare...

Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants—the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming—until one of them mysteriously disappears...

Vermont, 2014. As much as she's tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister's death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can't shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case.

When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past—and a voice that won't be silenced...

The story bounced back between a perspective from November 2014 to flashbacks from 1950 at the elusive, mysterious Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for girls who have suffered less than desirable fates. Our main character, I would consider to be, Fiona Sheridan. Fiona is a journalist who is still stuck in the past and stuck in her sister’s murder that happened years before this story took place. The infamous Idlewild Hall mesmerizes Fiona because some part of her thinks it holds more secrets than anyone has yet to uncover. And when a body is unearthed during renovation of the boarding school, Fiona is forced into a world of murder, ghosts, and laying past demons to rest.

Four girls who attended Idlewild Hall share the second narrative, the part of the story that is set in 1950. Katie, CeCe, Roberta, and Sonia each share their voices and moments of the time they spent at the haunted, eerie, and soul-draining boarding school. These girls formed a bond that was unbreakable and when one of them disappeared, they banded together to learn the truth and protect the others no matter the cost. Their friendship was remarkable and endearing.

Fiona is intuitive, persistent, and determined to find answers to the mystery of her sister’s disappearance as well as the bones of the young, malnourished girl that was dug up on the grounds of the boarding school where her sister’s body surfaced years before. I absolutely loved both perspectives – Fiona’s and the teenage girls. Every character felt so real, raw, and emotional. They all have/had secrets and were eager to find something to believe in in a world that seemed otherwise hopeless.

Then there is the character of Mary Hand…or the ghost of Mary Hand, I should say. Mary Hand’s story is fascinating, if not completely unveiled until the end. To me, she serves as a major character in this story because she helps our main characters see their pasts, their present, and their future.

The writing and pacing of this novel was perfect for me. I flew this book and was completely enraptured by every part of this story. I loved both perspectives equally, I was completely freaked out when reading about Mary Hand’s ghost, and I did not see the ending coming early on. Simone St. James is a brilliant novelist with a knack for writing suspense, horrific scenes, and sending chills up your spine. There is not one part of this book that I would consider slow or boring. I had a hard time ever putting it down.

“That was what the books did - they turned off your thinking for you, put their thoughts in your head so you wouldn't have your own.” 

“If you were hunting for someone to murder, what better person could you choose?”

It was November 19, 1950. She would be dead in ten days.

Simple handwriting, on a piece of notebook paper, written in ballpoint pen. Meet me behind the church at eleven o’clock, it said. And beneath that: You’re not looking hard enough.

This was my first Simone St. James read and it was definitely a 5 star read all around! I was invested in the story from page one. It took me no time at all to love Fiona and want her to find the answers to all of her questions. These are the type of books that make readers like me more invested in this passion. I thought about this book long after I had put it down. I want more – and I will be looking for more books by St. James.

The story is spooky and creepy but not enough to make me sleep with the light on. I love the boarding school trope, so if you are a fan of that trope as well, then this is a must read for you. I did see the ending coming but not from the start. I was so pleased to see that Fiona had a love interest, but it did not take over the plot nor was that her sole focus. She was brave and kept pushing all the right people to get the answers she desired. If St. James writes more, I will be reading them and this will probably be one of my favorite books of 2018.

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Berkley in exchange for my honest review*** 

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