sweetpeppah 's review for:

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman

4.0

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i loved the voice/tone and non-structure of this novel. it's essentially a set of vignettes told from a child's(and then a teen's) point of view, but some of them are set up as test questions, some as girl scout badge instructions, some as social worker reports. i loved the obscure, sidelong way of describing really horrible difficult things. i loved that each vignette was slightly different from the last, that you never knew what kind of thing you'd be reading on the next page. the whole package is brilliant, and it sings of humanity's ability to persevere in the worst circumstances.