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A review by annierosebel
Girl Friends by Holly Bourne
5.0
This was brutal and brilliant.
I've never read fiction that so accurately portrays the way girls are taught to objectify themselves, the ways they learn to compare themselves and prioritise desirability over pretty much everything else.
This book doesn't gloss over anything. It's so incredibly raw and emotional, and it's a testament to the writing that it's still a novel you want to read.
I really like books with messy, flawed characters. And I like books where human relationships aren't neatly resolved - there's a huge grey area between a toxic friendship and a perfectly healthy one and it's complex to navigate!
When the main character narrates a novel, you get extra insight into their thoughts but you also get the whole narrative through their perspective and that's interesting to think about with this book.
It's rare for me to be equally invested in both parts of a dual timeline novel (it alternates a chapter from the main character's current adult life and her teenage life), but with this book I was.
I would be interested in how guys experience this book. I'd thoroughly recommend it if you're in a place where you have the bandwidth to think about things that have happened to you and your friends and your peers growing up and how it's affected your lives. It's almost impossible to not experience a huge amount of compassion for so many of the characters and to start making links to your own life.
I've never read fiction that so accurately portrays the way girls are taught to objectify themselves, the ways they learn to compare themselves and prioritise desirability over pretty much everything else.
This book doesn't gloss over anything. It's so incredibly raw and emotional, and it's a testament to the writing that it's still a novel you want to read.
I really like books with messy, flawed characters. And I like books where human relationships aren't neatly resolved - there's a huge grey area between a toxic friendship and a perfectly healthy one and it's complex to navigate!
When the main character narrates a novel, you get extra insight into their thoughts but you also get the whole narrative through their perspective and that's interesting to think about with this book.
It's rare for me to be equally invested in both parts of a dual timeline novel (it alternates a chapter from the main character's current adult life and her teenage life), but with this book I was.
I would be interested in how guys experience this book. I'd thoroughly recommend it if you're in a place where you have the bandwidth to think about things that have happened to you and your friends and your peers growing up and how it's affected your lives. It's almost impossible to not experience a huge amount of compassion for so many of the characters and to start making links to your own life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Mental illness and Self harm