The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed | Mini Review

 

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Trigger Warnings: rape (graphic), sexual assault, misogyny

Release Date: October 10th, 2017

Pages: 416

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Goodreads Review: here

Goodreads blurb:

Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school transforming the lives of everyone around them in this searing and timely story.

Who are the Nowhere Girls?

They’re everygirl. But they start with just three:

Grace Salter is the new girl in town, whose family was run out of their former community after her southern Baptist preacher mom turned into a radical liberal after falling off a horse and bumping her head.

Rosina Suarez is the queer punk girl in a conservative Mexican immigrant family, who dreams of a life playing music instead of babysitting her gaggle of cousins and waitressing at her uncle’s restaurant.

Erin Delillo is obsessed with two things: marine biology and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but they aren’t enough to distract her from her suspicion that she may in fact be an android.

When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school, which includes boycotting sex of any kind with the male students.

Told in alternating perspectives, this groundbreaking novel is an indictment of rape culture and explores with bold honesty the deepest questions about teen girls and sexuality.

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M I N I   R E V I E W

I tried to work out how to write this as a full-length review, however, I was stumped every time I went to start or tried to work out what I wanted to write; here I am doing a mini review which may become longer than anticipated.

The Nowhere Girls was a book that I was scared to read. I really didn’t know what was going to happen throughout. However, I am left in tears. I have tears rolling down my face, as I realise how many girls aren’t believed when they come forward with their cases of sexual assault or rape. In the light of the #MeToo campaign that trended on Twitter recently, I think books like this are even more important. They’re eye-opening and conversation starters. They’re vital to this changing generation as we make our selves aware of what is right and wrong.

This particular book follows a format of focusing on different people. For a large part, it focuses on Erin, Rosina, and Grace, three girls who become unlikely friends and founders of The Nowhere Girls. With Grace only new to the town and living in the home of a girl who was run out of town after (accurately) accusing three males of rape Grace is desperate to make a change. The three girls do this and they do it in a way that shakes the small town of Prescott.

The other POV’s are ‘Us’ which follows many girls, switching between and sometimes not even naming them. It may be them during sexual encounters or just their thought process. I really found these chapters to be a powerful addition to this book. The remaining chapters that aren’t ‘us’ or the three main characters are random characters throughout the story. Some girls get their own chapter and some are some painfully gut-wrenching I just wanted to reach into the pages of the book and help them.

The Nowhere Girls touches on so many important topics and includes so many important elements. There is an extremely diverse cast featured throughout well and it seems the author used own voices beta readers to make sure her representation was correct. I can’t speak on that personally, but the acknowledgements do acknowledge this.

I was so completely involved in this book from the first chapter. I was made to feel repeatedly uncomfortable by the content and the graphic nature as we dive into the horrors of sexual assault and what means no. The way other girls treat each other is also highlighted in this book, as the group The Nowhere Girls tries to eliminate girl hate. It was refreshing to read a group of empowering young girls.

Overall, this is one of the most powerful books of 2017 in my opinion and definitely an important book that touches on the rape culture of our world.

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Happy reading everyone!

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