The Lives of Desperate Girls

June 15, 2017
In the wake of the disappearance of her wealthy, white best friend, a white teenager in a small Ontario town investigates the murder of a classmate she doesn't know: a Native girl from the nearby reserve. The police have interrogated Jenny several times, as they feel that she has information about her friend, Chloe; she does, withholding it from both them and readers. But the police put Helen's story and investigation on the back burner, causing Jenny to suddenly recognize the mistreatment of Native people. As in far too many thrillers for teens, the parents conveniently never ask questions, even in the most dire of circumstances. In a particularly troubling representation, Native parents are depicted as passive victims who need Jenny's involvement. Jenny's cluelessness is both difficult to believe and actively offensive. Although rez kids live so close as to attend Jenny's school, she doesn't even know their nation and must ask, "uh, what do I call you guys? Like, First Nations or something?" (The answer is likely to illuminate readers no more than it does Jenny.) When Jenny and her pothead boyfriend frighten away a young Native man she wants to question, it triggers a burst of laughter, a snuggle, and the thought "For the first time since Chloe disappeared, I felt truly happy"--this just a few days after sitting in the home of a Native mother who tells her about the residential school experience. Stiff prose, inconsistent characterization, and clunky plotting round out this novel's woes. Skip this exercise in white-savior narrative. (Mystery. 14-18)

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July 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-In Northern Ontario, Chloe, a white teen, has gone missing, and police have just found the murdered body of Helen, a Native teen. Jenny struggles with the realization that her missing best friend claims all the police attention yet the disinterested cops have no plans to look into the Native girl's murder. Jenny throws herself into her own investigation, following clues to figure out the identity of Helen's killer. As she makes connections, she faces her new reality, one without her best friend and with too many lies. Ultimately, she tells the truth, explaining all of the bullying, slut-shaming, and date rape that Chloe endured and how it likely pushed her to suicide. But if Jenny ends this stifling town's culture of silence, will it truly free her? There is a lot to unpack in this novel: depression, slut-shaming, drug use, drinking, date rape, murder, suicide, and racism and racial privilege. By concentrating on the inequalities and indignities confronted by Native people, and Native women in particular, this debut author delves into sexism and rape culture. Depression is a strong theme as well. Jenny spends much of her time drinking or smoking pot out of a sense of hopelessness, despair, boredom, and stagnation. VERDICT Less a mystery and more of a drama. Purchase where Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why and Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces are popular.-Kristen Rademacher, Marist High School, IL

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