SLIGHT SPOILERS!
Total page turner. Explicit and spot on about what can happen in a female friendship where one upmanship and insecurity are the drivers. When you look for approval in the wrong places, place blame in the wrong places.
It talkes place at Wesleyan College (USA), and I do love the sub genre of horrible things happening at colleges, as it encompasses thrillers, horror and fantasy, its a great niche - so much can be played with in it. This is firmly a psychological thriller with a hugely strong female lead voice. She's a very honest narrator, and the ups and downs of her emotional state and her reasonings for how and why she behaves as she does are crystal clear, we are there every step of the way.
For the protagonist you find out why she is vulnerable to this behaviour, being sucked into a need to impress a cruel other girl; for the other girl, you don't find out why she is as she is. You do see what happens and why to their victim/s. Their own innocence gone, they take it from others as revenge and cynical protection of themselves. This is what happens when two damaged and very angry young women get together, and decide other women need to pay a price for their own feelings. It felt very real: the jealousy, the doubting of another's motives and emotions, assuming people are like you or assuming they have perfection when you don't...deciding what others do and don't deserve. The cruelty you are capable of.
It's all very well handled, a back and forth from then to now, and then an ice cold ending. I really enjoyed this. The protagonist is NOT nice, but so understandable. And it's really well written, there's some great lines in here.
The making of predators from ordinary women, laid out. Moving through the generations.
Totally recommended!
*
(A smaller version of this review is up on my Goodreads feed.)
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