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A review by liralen
Nobody's Girl by Sarra Manning
4.0
The second book I’ve read by Manning, and the second pleasant surprise. It’s a pity that this one isn’t more widely available. I see a couple of comparisons to Sarah Dessen, which feels both right and wrong: right because this is a fairly light book about a teenaged girl who more or less has her head screwed on right but who is facing some family + other personal drama; wrong because Dessen (as I’ve noted before) doesn’t let her characters get this messy.
Here, Bea finds herself enmeshed in the ‘popular’ group. Why? She’s not entirely sure. She knows she doesn’t fit in. She’s not sure she wants to. She knows better than to trust that the group doesn’t have ulterior motives, even if she can’t figure out what those motives are. But she also lets herself get swept along with it, because part of her wants to believe that a different, ‘cooler’ version of herself.
I could see Chloe and Emma casting bitter looks in my direction, which was ridiculous. They weren’t being ousted—Ruby simply appreciated how good I was at nodding. (58)
It doesn’t work, of course, and so Bea finds herself alone in Europe, not ready to go home and face her family. Instead: she’ll go to Paris. She’ll track down the father she’s never met. She’ll fall asleep on a train and fall in with a group of backpackers and fall for a boy.
She’ll make some questionable decisions—but she’ll also keep her head screwed on more or less right, and somehow the book manages to be both dramatic and understated. When Bea has her Big Moment with the popular group towards the end of the book, that moment is not her triumph: that moment is her realising that the Big Moment actually isn’t that big, and she’s already had much bigger—and more important—moments, and will have many more in the future, thank you very much.
I really ought to get around to reading some more of Manning’s books.
Here, Bea finds herself enmeshed in the ‘popular’ group. Why? She’s not entirely sure. She knows she doesn’t fit in. She’s not sure she wants to. She knows better than to trust that the group doesn’t have ulterior motives, even if she can’t figure out what those motives are. But she also lets herself get swept along with it, because part of her wants to believe that a different, ‘cooler’ version of herself.
I could see Chloe and Emma casting bitter looks in my direction, which was ridiculous. They weren’t being ousted—Ruby simply appreciated how good I was at nodding. (58)
It doesn’t work, of course, and so Bea finds herself alone in Europe, not ready to go home and face her family. Instead: she’ll go to Paris. She’ll track down the father she’s never met. She’ll fall asleep on a train and fall in with a group of backpackers and fall for a boy.
She’ll make some questionable decisions—but she’ll also keep her head screwed on more or less right, and somehow the book manages to be both dramatic and understated. When Bea has her Big Moment with the popular group towards the end of the book, that moment is not her triumph: that moment is her realising that the Big Moment actually isn’t that big, and she’s already had much bigger—and more important—moments, and will have many more in the future, thank you very much.
I really ought to get around to reading some more of Manning’s books.