Blueprints for Building Better Girls

The title comes from a 1960s etiquette manual, which has little similarity to the young women portrayed in this collection of short stories. The main characters are not living happy lives, and they have seemingly little in common other than a sense of despair and negative experiences with men, drugs, and/or alcohol. Julia Whelan finds a tone that emphasizes the honesty of these glimpses into the women's lives. Portraying the pain and isolation of her characters, she also brings out the moments of connection between them. Ultimately, Whelan keeps the book from being overwhelming in its bleakness by giving the characters energy and an occasional spark of humor. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

May 23, 2011
This raw and engaging collection, Schappell's second (after Use Me), follows a cast of girls and women as they navigate relationships with each other, their mothers, and men across several decades. The strongest stories are those about gutsy girls who aren't "afraid to throw the trick," as one character's gymnastics coach describes her in "Out of the Blue and into the Black." Schappell endeavors to show the complex vulnerabilities behind some of the choices made by girls casually judged as sluts, as in "Monsters of the Deep" and "I'm Only Going to Tell You This Once," and this is where she is at her best; less successful, by comparison, are the more diffuse stories that depict the dynamics between mothers and daughters, wives and husbands. Each story adds new perspectives of characters or events chronicled earlier in the book, allowing Schappell to create a bigger, more textured and complicated world than is usually found in collections. This, combined with the energy of the writing and the dark wit of these characters, will endear the book to Schappell's audience and fans of Lorrie Moore and Maile Meloy.