Those Girls by Lauren Saft Format: ARC
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on May 3rd 2016
Pages: 336
Goodreads
Genres: Adolescence, Dating & Sex, Friendship, Girls & Women, Love & Romance, Social Issues, Young Adult
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 and 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?In a debut novel that is raw, honest, hilarious, and thought-provoking, Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl and how often even the closest of friends walk the thin line between love and hate.
I received this book for free from publisher/pr firm in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
As I was reading Those Girls it made me wonder if this is what girls are really like in a private school setting? Granted school is so much different from when I was in high school some 20+ years ago and I don’t recall if it was like that when I was there.
The book is told through each girl so you get to know the girls a little better.
Alex, Mollie and Veronica basically claim that they are all best friends but in reality I think they were more like frenemies then anything else. They are all nice to each others face but as soon as their backs are turned it basically any man for himself. There is jealousy amongst them.
I think the only one I liked in the book was Alex. She is starting to see the drama between them and you can see she doesn’t want to be a part of it so she starts doing things on her own like join a band which I think was good for her because it caused her to come out of her shell even though she was comfortable who is was. The one little thing that got to me was that she was in love with her best friend but he has no clue because she keeps it hidden (and we discover that is mutal) and then when she pushes Veronica to him and they connect she gets jealous.
Veronica is that party girl and she drinks, partyies and sleeps with guys to get the one thing that she truly longs for and that is unconditional love and she doesn’t realize she is going about it all wrong. Then when she has it she ruins it. Her parents aren’t there and always seem to be away so she is basically raising herself and doing what she thinks is best but its not.
Mollie is a whole other character. She is jealous, she is mean (and I don’t think I would ever cross her and get in her bad books) and she knows on some level that her boyfriend cheats on her but she puts up with it because it seems like that is all she knows.
I feel bad that I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I was hoping that I would. When I first heard about the book I was excited to read it and as I was reading it I was making my way through it because I wanted to know what was going to happen with all three girls.
All I can say is thank god I am no longer in school especially if this is what is going on now amoung the girls.
This is a debut novel and I have to say that I would give Lauren another chance because I did like her writing.