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cheelu's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
sonia_reppe's review
4.0
Pretty much what I expected from this book about three rebellious, sexually promiscuous 15 yr-old girls. Liked the clean, stark writing more than the characters. The surprize near the end I didn't see coming.
2am_limbo's review
5.0
I was given this book in my senior year of high school from my creative writing teacher, about 11 years ago now, and it was absolutely amazing then. I recently re-read it again and found that it was just as amazing now, if not more so.
jocelynw's review
2.0
A terrible book with a pretty good ending. In fairness, I had no admiration for bad girls as a teenager and clearly still have none.
briannalacey's review
3.0
Ehhh. Tough to get into at first because the thoughts are so scattered. Overall it's okay.
librarydosebykristy's review
3.0
Very juvenile and kind of depressing. But I liked it. Curran's writing style is breathless and evocative and I probably would have tried to imitate her style had I discovered her during my creative writing college days.
The story is about three teenage girls and they're wild high school lives....everything you think will happen, happens. But Curran's writing style makes it worthwhile, I think.
The story is about three teenage girls and they're wild high school lives....everything you think will happen, happens. But Curran's writing style makes it worthwhile, I think.
miloblue's review
4.0
I had a false start with this book, but picked it up again over the weekend. It was much better on the 2nd attempt. It really captures a time in Milwaukee that was pretty special. The characters are probably a little older than me, but the sense of place is right on.
jennybento's review
2.0
This book started really slow for me. It's a ridiculously stereotypical view of Catholic school. Several things rang true--the boys school in the book has the same name as my HS and many of the same chants, but mostly I liked NO ONE in the book. I dunno if that was intentional or not. The ending is pretty great but I just felt nothing after reading this. Some stuff happened to some people I didn't love or hate. oh, well.
satyridae's review against another edition
2.0
A wildly uneven but engrossing story of bad girls in the late 1980's. Enough parallels with my own tarnished high school career that I stuck it out. Curran has a lot of promise, I think. Her writing is very vivid, very intense, but she tends to telegraph the upcoming plot twists a little too clearly.
brightbeautifulthings's review against another edition
5.0
Thisbe Newton hasn’t spoken a word in six months and seventeen days when her mother transfers her to Sacred Heart Holy Angels, the last all-girls private school in Milwaukee. She meets Astrid Thornton and Juli Sung on her first day, and the transformation is almost immediate. She blacks out her eyes with kohl, hems her pleated plaid skirt a few inches above her knees, and trades her sneakers for punk Doc Martens. The three spend their nights driving too fast, drinking too much, worshiping at the altar of Joan Jett and Deb Scott–the baddest of all the bad girls–and pushing every limit. People call them The Whores on the Hill, and they’re going to earn their reputation.
From the moment Alice recommended Whores on the Hill to me, it became a part of our language. Some books capture better than others what it’s like to be young, and this is pretty much my benchmark novel for teenage girls. For all their crushes, flings, and relationships, this is a story about girls and how they both love and destroy one another. When school is the whole world, when the future is as frightening as it is exhilarating, when the people we love the most are the ones who know exactly how to hurt us. I never had friends like Astrid, Thisbe, and Juli, but they’ll make sure no one ever forgets them. Like Alaska Young, like Theodore Finch, they burn off the page with their realness.
Curran’s writing is exquisite. Each section is so lovingly crafted it could almost stand on its own, but the plot still moves seamlessly ahead. I love her descriptions and her insights. I love that she’s written a book that’s almost exclusively about girls, and I love that it’s set in the 80’s in the Midwest. I love Curran and her characters’ feminist agenda, how they’re tough, and loud, and brave and also incredibly scared and fragile. It deals with issues from birth control and self-injury to date rape and abortion–and how those things affect women most of all. It’s frustrating that no one else seems to know or care about this book. I’ve never heard anyone else talk about it; it has zero Tumblr posts, but it’s one of my favorite realistic YA books out there. It’s a darker Perks of Being a Wallflower, a better Looking for Alaska, a sister to All the Bright Places. I want everyone to read it and love it with me.
I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.
From the moment Alice recommended Whores on the Hill to me, it became a part of our language. Some books capture better than others what it’s like to be young, and this is pretty much my benchmark novel for teenage girls. For all their crushes, flings, and relationships, this is a story about girls and how they both love and destroy one another. When school is the whole world, when the future is as frightening as it is exhilarating, when the people we love the most are the ones who know exactly how to hurt us. I never had friends like Astrid, Thisbe, and Juli, but they’ll make sure no one ever forgets them. Like Alaska Young, like Theodore Finch, they burn off the page with their realness.
Curran’s writing is exquisite. Each section is so lovingly crafted it could almost stand on its own, but the plot still moves seamlessly ahead. I love her descriptions and her insights. I love that she’s written a book that’s almost exclusively about girls, and I love that it’s set in the 80’s in the Midwest. I love Curran and her characters’ feminist agenda, how they’re tough, and loud, and brave and also incredibly scared and fragile. It deals with issues from birth control and self-injury to date rape and abortion–and how those things affect women most of all. It’s frustrating that no one else seems to know or care about this book. I’ve never heard anyone else talk about it; it has zero Tumblr posts, but it’s one of my favorite realistic YA books out there. It’s a darker Perks of Being a Wallflower, a better Looking for Alaska, a sister to All the Bright Places. I want everyone to read it and love it with me.
I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.
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