Brittany Cavallaro is the author of the New York Times bestselling Charlotte Holmes series and the poetry collection Girl-King. She earned her BA in literature from Middlebury College and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Michigan. Find her at her website, www.brittanycavallaro.com, or on Twitter @skippingstones. You can find more of my reviews of Cavallaro's works here. Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World and A Million Junes. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrites. You can find more of my reviews of Henry's works here.
Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happens the night they meet outside the police station—both deciding whether to turn their families in. Winona's seemingly perfect father, a celebrity weatherman, locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them. Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there's more out there for her than a lifetime of barely getting by. One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can't hurt. Hello Girls is the darkly funny, razor-sharp story of two young women who must reclaim their power if they're ever going to get away with their daring escape.
This one was a really quick read for me, because the writing was so enjoyable. It is true that this story is dark and gritty—it dives into some topics that may be sensitive for some people, however I thought it was done in a very meaningful and compassionate way, without sacrificing the atrocity of the situation. When Winona and Lucille leave their town, they are faced with a whole host of trials, and all of it is depicted with such searing honesty and emotion. This is what makes the writing easy to read, and full of emotion. This book is hard to put down.
What I really appreciated what the arcs of the characters, and how difficult they were to track. Both Winona and Lucille go through moments of growth and confusion about their identities, and these arcs are depicted in such a way that it feels like the reader is experiencing those moves through time with the character. Sometimes it's easier to track what is going on in Lucille's mind than in Winona's, and sometimes the other way around. I just loved how Cavallaro and Henry depicted the complexity of one's search for identity, all the way down to how one presents oneself to others.
Cavallaro and Henry also didn't pull any punches when depicting Winona's and Lucille's friendship. I felt like their friendship truly was forged by fire, and the entire book revolved around how deeply they are connected. I loved how this book sort of depicted a friendship that was more than a friendship—a sisterhood, almost, a deeper kinship than just "friends." This novel complicated a lot of topics that needed to be complicated, and dove deep into topics people are usually keen to ignore. Doing that by staying focused on the strength of Winona's and Lucille's friendship was fascinating, and necessary.
Find Cavallaro at her website, www.brittanycavallaro.com, or on Twitter @skippingstones. You can find more of my reviews of Cavallaro's works here. Find Henry on Twitter @EmilyHenryWrite. You can find more of my reviews of Henry's works here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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