Girls Burn Brighter
2018 • 320 pages
Ratings12
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings12
Average rating3.4
A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, for readers of Rupi Kaur, about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstances but relentless in their search for one another. Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them. They are poor. They are driven. And they are girls. When Poornima was just a toddler, she was about to fall into a river. Her mother, beside herself, screamed at her father to grab her. But he hesitated: "I was standing there, and I was thinking...she's just a girl. Let her go...That's the thing with girls, isn't it...You think, Push. That's all it would take, Just one little push." After her mother's death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to take care of her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to secure for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls' perspectives as they face ruthless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them.--Amazon.
Reviews with the most likes.
Story about two friends from a poor village in India who are separated and journey to find each other again. I appreciated the friendship piece of this book, but the immense hardship these girls endured was really hard to read. So much senseless suffering – it felt excessive and made me feel helpless as a reader.
The story in Indravalli blooms, unique to the setting, with a persuasive love anchoring Poornima and Savitha amidst poverty and patriarchal oppression. The titled theme however, despite being drummed at the reader, begins to lose coherence after successions of misery are planted along the pages. Savitha especially has her fire dimmed, loses her wings, is swallowed in pieces. Although the scale of hardship explodes, it is in the worthwhile tackling of monstrous subjects including misogynistic violence and human trafficking.
Notes:
- There's ableism written in regarding Kishore.
- Rao chooses to detail plural instances of stump-based sexual violence.
- Mohan is afforded sympathy. He's a rapist slave owner...but what he really wants is to be a poet.
- An out of place omniscient short story is tacked on with the passing Jacob character.
2.5
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Before I explain my rating I just need to state a few trigger warnings.
Domestic abuse, Rape, Prostitution/Dehumanization of Women, and a little bit of Animal Slaughter.
So if you personally are triggered by ANY of these please go into this book knowing that. Don't just read a book because of hype, if you know that it has triggering topics that you are personally triggered by please don't read it.
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Okay now onto the review.
So going into this book I already had a feeling of what was going to happen, because I did look up some reviews prior to reading it. I will say this that I was taken by surprise by some of the things that happened in this book. The writing was beautiful and it made me feel like I was in Indravalli with Poornima and Savitha. I felt the pain that they were going through. This book is so Emotional and Important because it shows you how life is in a different country. How easy it is to be taken into sex trafficking. It made me be so thankful that I live in a country where women are treated a bit more equally. yes women are STILL struggling to have equal rights as men, but at least things are better than other places where women are dehumanized and treated like complete trash. I'm not going to lie this book was mad boring at times, and it did put me into a slump. But I am not going to discredit the beauty of this book that shows two strong women and their friendship. I loved Poornima and Savitha so much, I swear if y'all dont know if y'all want to read this book or not. Please do just for their story(if you're not triggered by any of the tw I said earlier) I promise you won't regret it.
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Thank you to Flatiron Books for sending me this book for review
