Review by emleemay - Girls on Fire

emleemay 's review for:

Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman

2.0

DNF - 50%

I could keep going, but I'm just really not enjoying this. I can't shake the feeling that we’ve kind of already been here and done this thing.

[b:Girls on Fire|26074200|Girls on Fire|Robin Wasserman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1462088432s/26074200.jpg|44608351] is yet another book with flowery prose, about a good girl who becomes involved with a bad girl. Their friendship spirals into a consuming, chaotic obsession that leads to all kinds of craziness - drugs, sex, satanism, etc.

The author employs many shock tactics to keep you reading, but in truth, the narrative is very repetitive, both Lacey and Dex go over the same things again and again, using a different pretty metaphor. It's a copycat story of several others that have done this "bad girls, crazy obsession" thing a lot better. Maybe it will feel shiny and new if you haven't read any of the other books, but go out and read them first and this one will probably feel snoozeworthy in comparison.

Seriously, just read any of these:
[b:Dare Me|12982393|Dare Me|Megan Abbott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1342214694s/12982393.jpg|18141649] by [a:Megan Abbott|29593|Megan Abbott|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1341365230p2/29593.jpg]
[b:The Fever|18656036|The Fever|Megan Abbott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381359885s/18656036.jpg|26470722] by [a:Megan Abbott|29593|Megan Abbott|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1341365230p2/29593.jpg]
[b:Black Iris|18829666|Black Iris|Leah Raeder|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1420737066s/18829666.jpg|26771709] by [a:Leah Raeder|7105371|Leah Raeder|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1448080513p2/7105371.jpg]
[b:Boring Girls|22750458|Boring Girls|Sara Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408469857s/22750458.jpg|42295727] by [a:Sara Taylor|13392725|Sara Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1427185837p2/13392725.jpg]

I got the feeling that Wasserman was really trying to channel Megan Abbott with this book, but she just didn't capture that secret and psychotic little world of teenage girldom that Abbott knows like the back of her hand. Nor did she nail that "just purple enough" prose that Raeder (now writing under Elliot Wake) has. Or create sympathetic characters with realistic motivations like Taylor.

I don't need to read the ending to be sure what super shocking thing will happen. I knew it as soon as Nikki was introduced in the first chapter. And I do not care for characters who talk like this:

"I love it here in the winter. Everything dead. It feels like being inside a poem, you know?"