A review by alliereads_
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

dark tense

2.0

This book was just not for me. It was an easy enough read so I stuck with it, but there was nothing compelling me to finish - I wasn’t interested in finding out what happened, so much of it felt unnecessary and redundant, and moreover, I was uncomfortable with the portrayal of the young women. 

It really disturbed me how much Engel portrayed the girls as willing participants in affairs with Yates as opposed to what they really were: victims. Sophia committing suicide because she was jealous that he loved someone else more and Penelope dressing to seduce him: both depictions give these children too much agency and will when in reality they had none and would likely have been devastated and full of hatred due to Yates’ abuse. Even Sharon paints the girls as the masterminds, rendering herself and Lillian as the victims of their affairs. Not to mention the constant harping on Allegra as an irrefutably broken person - a pretty harsh friction of someone struggling to overcome a lifetime of incest. 

It infuriated me how dense Lane was, too, refusing to consider that Allegra might have left Roanoke knowing that she might have a baby - aka Yates’ next victim - on the way. Why wouldn’t she tell Tommy? Why is she protecting her grandparents? Why didn’t Tommy or the grandparents think to check the swimming hole before Lane stumbled upon it? Unfortunately, some of this is realistic, and some Engel remedied for me through Lane’s monologue towards the end. But it just wasn’t enough to change my opinion. 
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