Michael Barnes
A female coming of rage narrative is a favourite genre of mine, unsurprisingly given the misogynist culture we find around us everyday.
The story focuses on three young adults 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, (and I love this off scene addition to the story. I have read of cases where head injuries have lead to personality changes I love seeing where one made the person more compassionate), 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 and 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.
I was surprised when the young women's collective called for a now sex strike no one referenced Lysistrata's mission to end the Peloponnesian War. The conversations in the novel reveal the power dynamic that young women negotiate, not just with men bit also women in the hierarchy such as the Head of the high school. These called to my mind a scene from the 2020 movie 'Promising Young Woman' and the conversation the protagonist of that movie Cassandra has with Dean Elizabeth Walker of the University. More of this please.
Whilst these young women's view are where we spend most of the story it allowed other women (including a trans woman) voices to be heard and their points of view seen. Whilst the driver is initially the rape Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of Grace's new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape the story goes on to reveal a culture of rape and assault in the small town which from anyone who has read any statistics is very believable.
A book which for me falls into the window category (thankfully) and a reminder for all pushing for a more hopeful society we should be grateful that women are only demanding equality and not revenge.
A female coming of rage narrative is a favourite genre of mine, unsurprisingly given the misogynist culture we find around us everyday.
The story focuses on three young adults 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, (and I love this off scene addition to the story. I have read of cases where head injuries have lead to personality changes I love seeing where one made the person more compassionate), 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 and 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.
I was surprised when the young women's collective called for a now sex strike no one referenced Lysistrata's mission to end the Peloponnesian War. The conversations in the novel reveal the power dynamic that young women negotiate, not just with men bit also women in the hierarchy such as the Head of the high school. These called to my mind a scene from the 2020 movie 'Promising Young Woman' and the conversation the protagonist of that movie Cassandra has with Dean Elizabeth Walker of the University. More of this please.
Whilst these young women's view are where we spend most of the story it allowed other women (including a trans woman) voices to be heard and their points of view seen. Whilst the driver is initially the rape Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of Grace's new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape the story goes on to reveal a culture of rape and assault in the small town which from anyone who has read any statistics is very believable.
A book which for me falls into the window category (thankfully) and a reminder for all pushing for a more hopeful society we should be grateful that women are only demanding equality and not revenge.