Scan barcode
valerief's review against another edition
1.0
This book was just too bizarre for my tastes. Read fo XO Alumnae book club.
karaswils's review
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I know this book is not The Catcher in the Rye but for young girls, but it felt like it was. This book is a lot like The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger in that it contains:
- underage drinking
- adolescents looking for someone to give them attention and show them how to be an adult
- existentially fraught coming-of-age narrative
- implied grooming/sexual abuse
- wandering around New York and calling from public phones
- not fitting in at boarding school
If you didn't like Holden Caulfield but you liked the overall story of The Catcher in the Rye, this might be for you. The narrator, Maya, has a more subtle voice, and the brief depictions of gender non-conforming and lesbian characters are affirming and wholesome. This story beautifully handles the kind of disintegration that women can sometimes fall into when they place their identity in the way that older men (or men in general) treat them. For parts of the book, it reads more like a dreamy aesthetic than a story, but I'm into that kind of thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
moreadsbooks's review against another edition
2.0
Don't know if this was really worth it. It was a really fast read, but the scenarios these girls get into, Maya especially, seem pretty implausible. Oh & her name is actually Maya, although you wouldn't be able to tell if you hadn't read the book jacket.
ahsimlibrarian's review
3.0
This book captures just perfectly what it's like to be a teenage girl and a bit of an outcast (although doesn't everyone feel outcast as a teen?). Two sixteen-year-old girls meet at an East Coast boarding school and strike up a friendship. They wonder what life will bring them and decide to jump into life instead of waiting for it to find them.
Unfortunately, the book as a whole didn't live up to its initial promise for me. The author put her main characters into some situations that I felt didn't quite mesh with my sense of the girls. Or maybe it's not what I wanted to happen to them, to be honest. One meets a 32 year old man in New York and has an affair. The other gets into an abusive relationship with a local drop-out. When the narrator starts drifting and becoming discontent in her relationship with the older man she recedes in some ways that made me hate her and find her whiny.
Swann is an amazing writer, and I hear that her new novel, Flower Children, is amazing. But her debut disappointed me. I think I wanted it to be a different book. I wanted something more about the interior lives of these girls, more about their friendship. I just wanted more of something different than what I found. Maybe that's a fault I shouldn't place in the book. I just wish I knew someone else who's read this so I could hash it all out.
Unfortunately, the book as a whole didn't live up to its initial promise for me. The author put her main characters into some situations that I felt didn't quite mesh with my sense of the girls. Or maybe it's not what I wanted to happen to them, to be honest. One meets a 32 year old man in New York and has an affair. The other gets into an abusive relationship with a local drop-out. When the narrator starts drifting and becoming discontent in her relationship with the older man she recedes in some ways that made me hate her and find her whiny.
Swann is an amazing writer, and I hear that her new novel, Flower Children, is amazing. But her debut disappointed me. I think I wanted it to be a different book. I wanted something more about the interior lives of these girls, more about their friendship. I just wanted more of something different than what I found. Maybe that's a fault I shouldn't place in the book. I just wish I knew someone else who's read this so I could hash it all out.
More...