I’m so amazingly excited to be part of the blog tour for The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed! I’ve got the privilege of giving you my favourite excerpts from the book as well as my full review and my first ever dream cast! There’s even a giveaway at the end! Let’s start out by having a look at what the book is about.
Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school transforming the lives of everyone around them in this searing and timely story.
Who are the Nowhere Girls?
They’re everygirl. But they start with just three:
Grace Salter is the new girl in town, whose family was run out of their former community after her southern Baptist preacher mom turned into a radical liberal after falling off a horse and bumping her head.
Rosina Suarez is the queer punk girl in a conservative Mexican immigrant family, who dreams of a life playing music instead of babysitting her gaggle of cousins and waitressing at her uncle’s restaurant.
Erin Delillo is obsessed with two things: marine biology and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but they aren’t enough to distract her from her suspicion that she may in fact be an android.
When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school, which includes boycotting sex of any kind with the male students.
Told in alternating perspectives, this groundbreaking novel is an indictment of rape culture and explores with bold honesty the deepest questions about teen girls and sexuality.
I don’t know about you, but as soon as I saw the synopsis, it screamed read me!
Dream Cast:
Natalie Portman as Erin DeLillo, Nikki Blonsky as Grace Salter, Demi Lovato as Rosina Suarez
Note: These are quotes and excerpts I pulled from the advance reader copy provided to me by the publisher in exchange for my honest review. The quotes and excerpts may be changed in the final edition.
Page 22:
What’s worse? Lying about who you are, or not knowing who you are at all?
Page 39:
“Did you believe her?” Grace says.
Rosina sighs. “Of course we believed her. Most everybody did, but they’ll never admit it. Probably half the girls in this school have had some kind of run in with one of those assholes.” Rosina looks up from her barely-eaten sandwich. “But it doesn’t fucking matter.”
“Why doesn’t it matter?” Grace says. “Of course it matters.”
“On what planet?”
Grace has no idea how to answer.
Page 78:
Silence does not mean yes.
I have so many thoughts on this book and I’m trying to pull it all together. First, given the topic of the book, there are a few trigger/content warnings that are necessary. Let’s get them out of the way.
- Ablism (addressed internally on the page)
- Misgendering
- Transmisia
- Suicide Jokes
- Gang Rape (Chapter 9 – Lucy, Chapter 52 – Erin: both these chapters contain thorough recountings of separate instances of gang rape)
- Mentions of rape
- Sexual assault
- Nonconsensual sex
- Homomisia (addressed on the page)
The characters in The Nowhere Girls were incredibly well developed and I could imagine having full interaction with all of them. Because I was planning my dream cast while reading, I did notice that the physical descriptions are fairly vague, but the personalities were all so distinct and fleshed out so much that I could easily know any of them.
I like how the use of multiple points of view allowed for me to see the characters not only as they see themselves but as they see each other. I feel like this is an instance where using multiple points of view really added to the character development and story. I’m still not sure how I feel about the Us. chapters, but there were parts of them that really added to the characters and story.
The Nowhere Girls is set in Prescott, Oregon, which could easily be any small town in the United States. The world was built up enough to give an immersive feel to the story. Everything from the high school to the characters’ homes to the town itself is developed enough to be easy to visualize while reading.
The story has so much going on while still focusing on the main plot. I really love how we got to follow the separate stories of the main characters and a few side characters in addition to the main plot following the Nowhere Girls as a group. I do want to say that this is definitely not a feel-good novel so if you’re looking for something sweet and fluffy, you might want to pick up something else. If you’re looking for one of the most important and well written novels of the year, look no further. The Nowhere Girls shines a spotlight on rape culture and doesn’t shy away from the painful truth that so many girls and women live with today.
Overall, I rate The Nowhere Girls 4 out of 5 bookworms.
Don’t just take my word for it! Preorder your copy today to read it when it’s published on October 10th! A few places you can reserve your copy are:
About the Author
Amy Reed was born and raised in and around Seattle, where she attended a total of eight schools by the time she was eighteen. Constant moving taught her to be restless and being an only child made her imagination do funny things. After a brief stint at Reed College (no relation), she moved to San Francisco and spent the next several years serving coffee and getting into trouble. She eventually graduated from film school, promptly decided she wanted nothing to do with filmmaking, returned to her original and impractical love of writing, and earned her MFA from New College of California. Her short work has been published in journals such as Kitchen Sink, Contrary, and Fiction. Amy currently lives in Oakland with her husband and two cats, and has accepted that Northern California has replaced the Pacific Northwest as her home. She is no longer restless. Find out more at amyreedfiction.com.
BEAUTIFUL is her first novel.
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Congratulations! You made it to the giveaway. One lucky reader (US only – sorry, international bookworms!) will win:
- one (1) finished copy of The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed
CLICK HERE TO ENTER
There are so many other amazing posts on this tour by amazing bloggers. Plus, if you follow the tour, you get the added bonus of an increased chance to win the giveaway! You can find the full tour schedule here.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to Amy Reed for writing this heart wrenching and important novel. You are a rockstar!
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the digital advance reader copy of The Nowhere Girls they supplied via Netgalley.
Finally, thank you to the Fantastic Flying Book Club for allowing me the privilege of participating in this blog tour.
That’s all for now. Happy reading, bookworms!
Vicarious Bookworm 