Fragile Like Us

May 15, 2017
Barnard's debut is a very different kind of love story.Caddy Oliver has just turned 16. It's time she had a love story, so she's created a list of three milestones to reach in the next year: get a boyfriend, lose her virginity, and experience her first Significant Life Event. This last is very important. Caddy's life is ordinary and hopelessly average; surely something significant will change everything. And something does happen, albeit gradually and without Caddy's realizing it, because the event doesn't appear in the way she thought it would. A new girl in her seemingly all-white Brighton, England, neighborhood, the confident, blonde Suzanne, enters Caddy's life. Suzanne is fun, a breath of fresh air, but she also seems to be hiding something. When she confides in Caddy that she had been repeatedly beaten by her stepfather before moving to Brighton to live with her aunt, Caddy becomes heavily involved in Suzanne's life as she continually enables the latter girl's self-destructive behavior in a misguided attempt to help her heal. Breaking the rules with Suzanne is thrilling, but their adventures only push Suzanne further down the proverbial rabbit hole. The narrative doesn't minimize Suzanne's pain and depression, nor does it simplify the gray areas for readers' understanding. Through Caddy's first-person narration, the complexities of such experiences are questioned by an outsider who doesn't understand it but tries, because she loves her friend. A beautiful, heartfelt appreciation of the importance of girls' friendships. (Fiction. 13-18)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Caddy and Rosie are BFFs, even though they go to different high schools. Caddy is the dull good girl who gets excellent grades at her private school; Rosie is the sarcastic, funny one, more at ease in social situations. Enter newcomer Suzanne, the troubled one with a family history of abuse, whose friendship with Rosie makes Caddy jealous at first. The dynamics of the friendship trio gradually shift, however, as Caddy and Suze grow closer. Suze adds excitement to Caddy's life, luring her into late-night meanderings around town and even on an overnight trip, leaving Caddy's family clueless and worried sick. Suze's bad influence eventually leads to an accident that almost ends not only a friendship but also a life. The story is told through Caddy's eyes, and while Rosie and Suze are distinct individuals, it is Caddy's view of them that predominates. Rosie is less angst-filled than the other two and slowly becomes peripheral to the action. The book is character-driven, with a rather thin plot involving Caddy following Suze in search of a "significant life event" in a downward spiral of increasingly dangerous activities, including alcohol and pot use. The ending, if not entirely predictable, is also not unexpected, and even a near tragedy doesn't quite enlighten Caddy about her own enabling behavior. Nonetheless, this is a strong first effort from a novelist who writes with a clear understanding of teen girls and the vagaries of their friendships. VERDICT Recommended for YA collections.-Katherine Koenig, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

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