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A review by jenzhg
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
1.0
1.2/5 ⭐
Honestly, this book is the epitome of that one very slim chance of reading a bad book due to spontaneity.
Firstly, I want to discuss the writing. I think the writing could be dreadfully mundane at times yet gorgeous at times. Here are the quotes that left me with a burning desire to carve into my own desk:
"I wondered if a boy bred and raised by a man with hungry fists and an appetite for pain could ver escape the violence in his blood."
"I feel like we're all balancing on a house of cards, no one quite brave enough to say fuck it, and topple the whole thing to the ground."
"Made a meal of the crumbs of time Yates spent with her-- never enough, always leaving her hungry for more."
"All of it masquerading as innocent, but really just a gateway drug for girls starved for affection, desperate for someone to love them. He doesn't force us with a heavy hand. He manipulates with a gentle touch, guides us exactly where he wants us to go. So in the end, we blame only ourselves."
I've said it before and I'll say it again, what a talent it is to spin complicated emotions into beautiful phrases.
Anyways, onto the aspects I didn't like.
1. Marketed as a mystery
I don't think it should be marketed as a mystery at all since it is clear what the author had prioritized-- the tragedy behind the Roanoke girls. A good mystery has suspense, it has thriller elements, it keeps the readers on the edge of their seats--It's a good page-turner. But this book wasn't that.
More than half of the book was just us following Lane fighting against the effects of her mother's abuse and living under this blanket of fear, running around saying, "For Allegra!" and crying on Cooper's shoulders (An Aside: I love Cooper). Furthermore, throughout the story Lane goes and checks these places in Kansas that she KNOWS Allegra wouldn't have visited and yet she still goes? Like shouldn't the first instinct be to check places she HAD been to? That logic was really flawed.
Secondly, she keeps saying, "It's what Allegra would have wanted" but didn't Allegra want Lane to run away from the Roanoke house? Like...??? I get that at the end we find out that it wasn't just Allegra's mysterious death that caused her to stay but also the weird attraction she feels towards her father, Yates Roanoke (who's also considered her Grandpa...fucked up, I know). See, I just think that we were robbed of those scenes-- where she's combatting against this forbidden desire to be with Yates (typing this is making me convulse with disgust). That's why I felt like the forbidden attraction to Yates couldn't be considered one of the reasons. Hell, I think paying tribute to her mother would've made so much more sense.
1.5 What I think It should've been
I seriously loved the aspects that discussed the effects of abuse within this book (if you couldn't tell from the quotes above). Amy Engel has so much potential to turn this book into something similar to 'The Silence of the GIrls' by Pat Barker had she not added the "mystery" to it.
The characters' decisions and way of thinking were so wretched and fucked up and so in tune with the abuse they faced. For example, Lane. Lane is definitely not my favourite character but I can understand where she comes from, she seeks pain because that's what she's familiar with. It's what she thinks she deserves.
Furthermore, I like how the ending wasn't idealistic by any means. Connor doesn't swoop Lane up like some cheap fairy-tale romance but instead provides her with a wall to lean against when she slips back into an episode. I also liked how they don't just forget about their traumatic pasts or dilute the situation down but rather acknowledge it and work around it.
In conclusion, I wished Amy Engel could've just scraped the whole mystery aspect and focused solely on the Roanoke girls' tragedies instead. That would've definitely been a 4-stars-book.
Honestly, this book is the epitome of that one very slim chance of reading a bad book due to spontaneity.
Firstly, I want to discuss the writing. I think the writing could be dreadfully mundane at times yet gorgeous at times. Here are the quotes that left me with a burning desire to carve into my own desk:
"I wondered if a boy bred and raised by a man with hungry fists and an appetite for pain could ver escape the violence in his blood."
"I feel like we're all balancing on a house of cards, no one quite brave enough to say fuck it, and topple the whole thing to the ground."
"Made a meal of the crumbs of time Yates spent with her-- never enough, always leaving her hungry for more."
"All of it masquerading as innocent, but really just a gateway drug for girls starved for affection, desperate for someone to love them. He doesn't force us with a heavy hand. He manipulates with a gentle touch, guides us exactly where he wants us to go. So in the end, we blame only ourselves."
I've said it before and I'll say it again, what a talent it is to spin complicated emotions into beautiful phrases.
Anyways, onto the aspects I didn't like.
1. Marketed as a mystery
I don't think it should be marketed as a mystery at all since it is clear what the author had prioritized-- the tragedy behind the Roanoke girls. A good mystery has suspense, it has thriller elements, it keeps the readers on the edge of their seats--It's a good page-turner. But this book wasn't that.
More than half of the book was just us following Lane fighting against the effects of her mother's abuse and living under this blanket of fear, running around saying, "For Allegra!" and crying on Cooper's shoulders (An Aside: I love Cooper). Furthermore, throughout the story Lane goes and checks these places in Kansas that she KNOWS Allegra wouldn't have visited and yet she still goes? Like shouldn't the first instinct be to check places she HAD been to? That logic was really flawed.
Secondly, she keeps saying, "It's what Allegra would have wanted" but didn't Allegra want Lane to run away from the Roanoke house? Like...??? I get that at the end we find out that it wasn't just Allegra's mysterious death that caused her to stay but also the weird attraction she feels towards her father, Yates Roanoke (who's also considered her Grandpa...fucked up, I know). See, I just think that we were robbed of those scenes-- where she's combatting against this forbidden desire to be with Yates (typing this is making me convulse with disgust). That's why I felt like the forbidden attraction to Yates couldn't be considered one of the reasons. Hell, I think paying tribute to her mother would've made so much more sense.
1.5 What I think It should've been
I seriously loved the aspects that discussed the effects of abuse within this book (if you couldn't tell from the quotes above). Amy Engel has so much potential to turn this book into something similar to 'The Silence of the GIrls' by Pat Barker had she not added the "mystery" to it.
The characters' decisions and way of thinking were so wretched and fucked up and so in tune with the abuse they faced. For example, Lane. Lane is definitely not my favourite character but I can understand where she comes from, she seeks pain because that's what she's familiar with. It's what she thinks she deserves.
Furthermore, I like how the ending wasn't idealistic by any means. Connor doesn't swoop Lane up like some cheap fairy-tale romance but instead provides her with a wall to lean against when she slips back into an episode. I also liked how they don't just forget about their traumatic pasts or dilute the situation down but rather acknowledge it and work around it.
In conclusion, I wished Amy Engel could've just scraped the whole mystery aspect and focused solely on the Roanoke girls' tragedies instead. That would've definitely been a 4-stars-book.