Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - One of the Girls

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A hen party gone wrong is becoming a fairly established trope at this point, so I'm always curious to see if an author can put a new twist on it. As is typical with this trope, there's secrets, there's drama, and it all comes unravelled on a weekend getaway.
What made this novel stand out to me compared to others in this space was the depth of the characters, the pacing, and the evocative sense of place established.

The story is told through the perspectives of the 6 women at the hen party, interspersed with flowery retrospective passages that allude to the tragic end of the story. Lucy Clarke does an excellent job creating a unique voice for each if these characters, which is where I see a lot of authors struggle. 6 perspectives may be a lot for some readers to keep up with, but I didn't find it too difficult once they were all introduced. I wasn't much of a fan of the interluding passages and felt they were disjoint, taking me out of the current moment and killing momentum. I also felt they didn't add much to the story.

This book was a very quick read for me, largely because of the short (but numerous at 98) chapters. Both the pacing and the evocative island setting makes me think this will be a perfect beach or vacation read. Definitely a standout compared to other novels in the same trope.

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is a deep dive into sisterhood and friendship.

Set against the landscape of a Greek island, this book follows a group of friends at a hen party, which first starts as a time to relax and escape but as the hen continues, secrets and tension seem to build until it all comes to an unfortunate conclusion.

The characters were easily the best part of this book. Each had something that they were hiding it feeling and for some, I couldn't guess exactly what that was until it became apparent. I did feel that some characters were written better than others, I assumed that they were all supposed to be the same level of likeable but they very much weren't. The only character I wanted to live throughout this hen sorry was Robyn, Elenor and Ana. The others I did not feel too strongly about.

I liked the way that the plot unwound itself though the little snippets between chapters did annoy me, I just felt they weren't needed. But the plot did have me guessing until the end and the reveal seemed shocking but in a way where it wasn't inconceivable which I appreciate.

Overall I did enjoy this, while I don't feel particularly strong about it, I feel as though it's a good beach read if you're into that sort of thing.

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