|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Jess, Dani, and Courtney, three teenage sisters, live in fear of the moment when their father returns home. Dani, the oldest, takes care of her sisters while trying to build a normal life for herself. Courtney, the middle sister, is the wild child who takes care of no one, not even herself. Jess, the youngest and most book-smart, seems to have the best chance of escaping their small rural Canadian town. The trajectory of their lives changes dramatically on the night when their father comes home to abuse them further and, after a shocking event, they escape in their unreliable truck.
Not surprisingly, the truck breaks down on the way to Vancouver. The small backwater town of Cache Creek appears as though it might provide them with some much needed care, but the girls fall in with the wrong boys and the next five days are the most harrowing of their lives. What they encounter makes dad seem not so bad after all. When they finally escape their torture and are on their way to Vancouver, they are badly damaged both emotionally and physically. This is a turning point in the book, coming about half way through, and allowing each girl to feel hopeful in her own manner. It also feels like a reprieve for the reader, who has thus far been exposed to the nastiest side of humanity.
The second half of the book has the girls finding new lives in Vancouver, helped by an ex-con and his wife. Jess has a baby, and now there are four girls. Most of the second half of the book is told from this new daughter's (Skylar's) perspective. When Skylar is 15 and her aunt, Courtney, reaches a new low, Courtney takes off to avenge the sisters' treatment in Cache Creek and Skylar follows. What happens there returns the girls and the reader to the depravity of the first half of the book. Stevens wraps the plot up in a way that manages to be both gruesome and hopeful at the same time.
This book had a strange sort of approach-avoidance pull over me. I read it quickly, finding it hard to put down even during the most difficult scenes. But on the other hand, I found it hard to pick up knowing that things were just going to continue. It was repetitive, but somehow still intriguing. Stevens describes the small rural towns of British Columbia exceptionally well, although I have no idea if the description is accurate. The reader is transported to the written environment. The evil characters are truly evil and easy to hate; the sympathetic characters are truly good people and easy to like. The girls are complex enough to seem like very real people, although some suspension of disbelief is required as the final quarter of the book plays out.
THOSE GIRLS was emotionally exhausting to read. I think I need a cozy, now.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, October 2015
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
