I'm fascinated with the culture surrounding teen girls. I know, I once was one, but I'm so far removed from it it's hard to put myself back into the mind-frame. Conversations with my 18 year old daughter have shown me that really, not a lot has changed for the eons ago that I was part of the tribe.
This book took me back a bit.
From Goodreads:
"Girls on Fire tells the story of Hannah and Lacey and their obsessive teenage female friendship so passionately violent it bloodies the very sunset its protagonists insist on riding into, together, at any cost. Opening with a suicide whose aftermath brings good girl Hannah together with the town's bad girl, Lacey, the two bring their combined wills to bear on the community in which they live; unconcerned by the mounting discomfort that their lust for chaos and rebellion causes the inhabitants of their parochial small town, they think they are invulnerable.
But Lacey has a secret, about life before her better half, and it's a secret that will change everything..."
This story is set at the beginning of the 1990's, from about 1991-1992. It's loaded with imagery and pop culture references that those who were around then, like me, are well familiar with. I was in high school from 1990 to 1994 so all of this is like home.
Hannah, or "Dex" as she is later called is the central character of the story. She is portrayed at first as being a sort of frumpy loner. Not one of the "cool kids" by any means, but not fully ostracized by the upper echelons of high school society either.
“I took up space. I was a collection of cells and memories, awkward limbs and clumsy fashion crimes; I was the repository of my parents' expectations and evidence of their disappointments”
― Robin Wasserman, Girls on Fire
Enter Lacey, the new kid at her school. Lacey is all plaid shirts, combat boots, black hair and Kurt Kobain ALL THE TIME. There's seemingly never been a bigger fan. These two quickly form a close, almost obsessive (on each side) friendship. As the book moves forward, Hannah is renamed "Dex" by Lacey and the reader can see the influence that Lacey has upon her.
Then things go BATSHIT crazy.
This book is GORY. This book is VIOLENT. This book has enough kinky sex to fill a porno. And all of the Satanic Panic pseudo Satan worship that this time period was famous for. Right up to the somewhat predictable ending.
It definitely reads like a "How to Be A Mean Girl" bible, down to the videotaping (yes, it was the 90s) of a was it or was it not rape scene at a party. None of the characters are particularly like-able, and sure, they don't have to be.
“There had to be consequences. Lacey was always right about that. Maybe freaks stayed freaks and losers stayed losers, maybe sad and weak was forever, but villains only stayed villains until someone stopped them.”
― Robin Wasserman, Girls on Fire
Girls on Fire
This book took me back a bit.
From Goodreads:
"Girls on Fire tells the story of Hannah and Lacey and their obsessive teenage female friendship so passionately violent it bloodies the very sunset its protagonists insist on riding into, together, at any cost. Opening with a suicide whose aftermath brings good girl Hannah together with the town's bad girl, Lacey, the two bring their combined wills to bear on the community in which they live; unconcerned by the mounting discomfort that their lust for chaos and rebellion causes the inhabitants of their parochial small town, they think they are invulnerable.
But Lacey has a secret, about life before her better half, and it's a secret that will change everything..."
This story is set at the beginning of the 1990's, from about 1991-1992. It's loaded with imagery and pop culture references that those who were around then, like me, are well familiar with. I was in high school from 1990 to 1994 so all of this is like home.
Hannah, or "Dex" as she is later called is the central character of the story. She is portrayed at first as being a sort of frumpy loner. Not one of the "cool kids" by any means, but not fully ostracized by the upper echelons of high school society either.
“I took up space. I was a collection of cells and memories, awkward limbs and clumsy fashion crimes; I was the repository of my parents' expectations and evidence of their disappointments”
― Robin Wasserman, Girls on Fire
Enter Lacey, the new kid at her school. Lacey is all plaid shirts, combat boots, black hair and Kurt Kobain ALL THE TIME. There's seemingly never been a bigger fan. These two quickly form a close, almost obsessive (on each side) friendship. As the book moves forward, Hannah is renamed "Dex" by Lacey and the reader can see the influence that Lacey has upon her.
Then things go BATSHIT crazy.
This book is GORY. This book is VIOLENT. This book has enough kinky sex to fill a porno. And all of the Satanic Panic pseudo Satan worship that this time period was famous for. Right up to the somewhat predictable ending.
It definitely reads like a "How to Be A Mean Girl" bible, down to the videotaping (yes, it was the 90s) of a was it or was it not rape scene at a party. None of the characters are particularly like-able, and sure, they don't have to be.
“There had to be consequences. Lacey was always right about that. Maybe freaks stayed freaks and losers stayed losers, maybe sad and weak was forever, but villains only stayed villains until someone stopped them.”
― Robin Wasserman, Girls on Fire
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