Books I've Read - Those Girls

I'm changing this weekly column because I have loved far too few books recently to be able to sustain a weekly column called 'Books I've Loved'.  Plus, by including books I didn't love, I can talk about the reasons why these books didn't really do it for me…

So, without further ado, here's one I didn't love.

This book was a little like a car wreck.  It was horrible, but I couldn't stop reading it.  There are four points of view, all girls, and each one more despicable than the last.  It's difficult to understand how these four characters became friends in the first place, let alone how they managed to remain friends right through high school.  I know there is such thing as 'frenemies', but these girls take the concept to the extreme!

I never thought I'd be one of those people who claimed there was too much sex in a YA book, but here we are…  Or maybe it isn't that there's too much sex, but that it's such nasty sex.  No one seems to be doing it because they actually like the guy they're having it with.  Except Alex, maybe, and she winds up having sex with one of her so-called friends' boyfriends.  So still not really ideal for anyone.  There's also a truly awkward threesome.

But my biggest issue is with the ending.  I won't give it away in case anyone wants to read this book, but the girls' plan to humiliate their friend (yes, shady idea in the first place) is just stupid.  And the consequences are worse, but get pretty much swept under the rug before the book's conclusion.

So I wouldn't recommend this one.  The characters are awful people and spending the length of the book with them is unpleasant.  I really hope high school girls don't behave this way because if they do, my sons are on house arrest until they're twenty.  At least.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Some girls will always have your back, and some girls can't help but stab you in it.

Junior year, the suburbs of Philadelphia. Alex, Mollie and Veronica are those girls: they're the best of friends and the party girls of the school. But how well does everybody know them--and really, how well do they know one another? Alex is secretly in love with the boy next door and has joined a band--without telling anyone. Mollie suffers from a popular (and possibly sociopathic) boyfriend, as well as a serious mean streak. And Veronica just wants to be loved--literally, figuratively, physically....she's not particular. Will this be the year that bonds them forever....or tears them apart for good?

Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl, and her debut novel is raw, honest, hilarious, and thought-provoking, with a healthy dose of heart.