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A review by lizaroo71
Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell
3.0
Monsters of the Deep - an interesting tale about a girl and a boy that are not sure what they are to one another. They are insecure and predatory and they both seem to like it.
A Dog Story - a couple struggle to conceive and so they get a dog to help bring them closer.
Are You Comfortable? - a young girl drops out of college and is home to help with her grandfather's care and attempt to navigate his dementia.
Elephant - two young moms meet at the park. Their daughters aren't really friends, but the two women find kinship.
The Joy of Cooking - a young girl calls her mom for directions on how to cook a whole chicken. As the conversation unfolds, we realize the depth of the daughter's eating disorder and her dependance on her mother.
Aren't You Dead Yet? - a young girl befriends a fellow artist, Ray. Ray becomes a mentor of sorts until Elizabeth gets a story published. He then walks away from the friendship without warning. Years later when Ray returns, Elizabeth uses his life story for her stories. The line between fiction and reality becomes blurred.
Out of the Blue and Into the Black - Bender is in college and she likes to take risks. Her friends often wake her up from drunken stupors. Her friend Andy is always her support, but Bender can't admit to having feelings for him.
I'm Only Going to Tell You This Once - Heather is the mother to teenager Sam. Sam has begun to date a woman older than him and as a cautionary tale, Heather tells her story of a love triangle she found herself in as young co-ed (only she doesn't admit the star role is her - she says it's a friend Jane). The Heather in this story is the Heather from the first story, so it's a nice way to bookend the stories in between.
All in all, I found this to be a fairly cohesive group of stories. You have women that are broken here (on all different levels) and that are trying to seek some type of step towards healing. Many of the women in the stories just want to find someone that understands what they have endured; they want a sense of sisterhood, which I think Schappell achieves well here.
Some stories are more memorable than others. I think Out of the Blue and Into the Black is a favorite from this collection.
A Dog Story - a couple struggle to conceive and so they get a dog to help bring them closer.
Are You Comfortable? - a young girl drops out of college and is home to help with her grandfather's care and attempt to navigate his dementia.
Elephant - two young moms meet at the park. Their daughters aren't really friends, but the two women find kinship.
The Joy of Cooking - a young girl calls her mom for directions on how to cook a whole chicken. As the conversation unfolds, we realize the depth of the daughter's eating disorder and her dependance on her mother.
Aren't You Dead Yet? - a young girl befriends a fellow artist, Ray. Ray becomes a mentor of sorts until Elizabeth gets a story published. He then walks away from the friendship without warning. Years later when Ray returns, Elizabeth uses his life story for her stories. The line between fiction and reality becomes blurred.
Out of the Blue and Into the Black - Bender is in college and she likes to take risks. Her friends often wake her up from drunken stupors. Her friend Andy is always her support, but Bender can't admit to having feelings for him.
I'm Only Going to Tell You This Once - Heather is the mother to teenager Sam. Sam has begun to date a woman older than him and as a cautionary tale, Heather tells her story of a love triangle she found herself in as young co-ed (only she doesn't admit the star role is her - she says it's a friend Jane). The Heather in this story is the Heather from the first story, so it's a nice way to bookend the stories in between.
All in all, I found this to be a fairly cohesive group of stories. You have women that are broken here (on all different levels) and that are trying to seek some type of step towards healing. Many of the women in the stories just want to find someone that understands what they have endured; they want a sense of sisterhood, which I think Schappell achieves well here.
Some stories are more memorable than others. I think Out of the Blue and Into the Black is a favorite from this collection.