A review by lizsk3
The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton

5.0

Not really The Girls meets Fight Club.

I would say more like Mean Girls meets [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451554846l/29044._SY75_.jpg|221359], but more like a fanfic version of each, if that makes sense?

I really enjoyed it, because I'm kind of a sucker for everything in here and remember being a teenage girl who took everything way to seriously and mythologized what I read, but it feels very familiar.

A lot of it feels very Secret History-like, but it feels like what could happen if you read that book, took it too seriously and tried to live inside of it. Also [b:The Wives of Bath|227789|The Wives of Bath|Susan Swan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388769078l/227789._SY75_.jpg|1465396] is a pretty apt comparison. It also returns to some things from Burton's [b:Social Creature|34909789|Social Creature|Tara Isabella Burton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518794075l/34909789._SY75_.jpg|56171634], like an obsessive friendship between a mousy/milquetoast girl and a glamourous/ethereal girl (though in different ways) and involves passionate screaming poetry and diving in water.

The central relationships are very Mean Girls, like what if there was a love triangle between Janis, Regina and Cady?