I am rarely able to finish books like Trouble Girls, and to be quite honest, I do not know what compelled me to request it on Netgalley knowing full well the content of the book, but here I am, having finished pretty much the entire book in one sitting. It is hard to balance such heavy topics as sexual assault and homicide with the sometimes less mature tone of young adult fiction, but Julia Lynn Rubin has done it well.

When Trixie accidentally stabs a boy who tried to rape her best friend Lux, the two girls make a run for it in Trixie’s beat-up old car, driving across the country to escape being caught. But when sexual assault allegations begin surfacing against the now-dead boy, who turns out to be the son of a college administrator, Trixie and Lux are suddenly the centers of a #MeToo movement.

As I was reading this book, I kept on getting extremely frustrated by Trixie and Lux’s horrible decision-making skills. I think that was kind of the point; they are, after all, teenagers who make spur-of-the-moment choices. Nonetheless, I was nearly screaming at my phone during some parts, especially when they trusted people they should not have trusted. Really, I was surprised the police didn’t find them earlier.

But amidst the teenage impulsivity and sapphic love story was a story of a deep amount of hurt and pain, one that certainly shook me. I think this is an incredibly important book for people to pick up if the content won’t be triggering, and I’m glad I was able to read it before publication.

I enjoyed this fast paced YA retelling of Thelma and Louise. I loved the relationship between Trixie and Lux, especially 'cause I adore childhood best friends to lovers!

This book is not about them falling in love but rather them taking care of each other and realising their feelings while on the run.

Trouble Girls is written entirely from Trixie's POV and I really wish we'd gotten a couple of chapters from Lux. I really wanted to see more of her character. The writing sucks you in and you feel like you're with them on the road trip. I liked the conversations and forum posts surrounding rape culture and misogyny. The #MeToo movement and protest was introduced but only explored at a surface level. The ending wasn't really satisfying and I wish we'd got something more.

CW: sexual assault, mentions of past child sexual abuse, attempted sexual assault, ptsd, death

*ARC provided by the author via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

This book is being billed as a YA queer retelling of "Thelma and Louise" and it's the perfect description - high schoolers Trixie and Lux are on their way to a weekend camping trip when something that happens during a visit to a local college bar transforms them from teenagers trying to escape their mundane lives to famous fugitives.

There are some interesting modern twists to the story as the girls become poster children for #MeToo and the focus of both positive and negative media scrutiny and internet chatter after Trixie posts a rant on a misogynistic message board calling them the Trouble Girls. It seemed like the book might be headed in an almost "Legend of Billie Jean" direction (and if you don't know what I mean by that, stop reading this review and go stream the movie on Netflix immediately!) as Trixie and Lux own the power that their crime has given them and lead a movement. But they don't (props to Rubin for having the characters realize that they left stronger but also more vulnerable women of color to do that for them). Instead, we follow the pair on a kind of haphazard road trip without a clear goal.

Part of the problem for me was the characters' young ages (they were too immature and naive to really take a stand) but it was that they were somewhat one-dimensional. Trixie's past trauma is alluded to in her negative perception of men and we know she has a mother with health issues but there's not much more to her and I never got a handle on Lux at all. I did enjoy the evolution of their friendship into romance but again I wanted it to go somewhere deeper than it did.

I didn't dislike this book but I wish it had lived up to its potential. The Trouble Girls never actually cause much trouble or even take a real stand. If they had, this would have been so much more than just a criminal buddy road trip with a side of romance - it could have really made a statement.

Thanks to Wednesday books and NetGalley for a copy to review.

Believe me, no one’s as shocked by that rating as me. I went into this book thinking this would become a new favourite, but I was let down immensely. A lot of this was due to the fact that I feel like this book was marketed wrongly. I somehow expected this book to delve deep into the media’s role in a story like this one, in the sexism and in the trial these two girls face. We got to see a bit of the first two, though not nearly as much as I wanted. The latter though? The story ends before we can get there, which I really think is a loss.

I also just expected…more. The execution of this amazing concept was really weak for many reasons but the thing that really brought this book down was the lack of depth. I expected characters I cared for, instead I feel like we only got to see one layer of them. The layer that’s right at the surface, might I add. Because I wasn’t rooting, or for that matter even caring, for the characters, I couldn’t be immersed into the story, either. They just didn’t have a lot of personality or chemistry in my opinion.

At one point Lux even points out Trixie’s treating her like a manic pixie dream girl (or “manic pixie bubblegum girl”, in Lux’s words) which is…fair. That’s how Trixie indeed sees her, but then, after that being said, I don’t feel like anything changed? I don’t know, I just didn’t feel anything for the characters.

One thing I did really think the author did amazingly is write through Trixie’s eyes. She’s very cynical and so is this book because she’s the point of view character. The prose is drained with this and I can only applaud Julia Lynn Rubin for that. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it really did work well with this book.

The novel is also just really raw and honest. There’s no beating around the bush in the writing and it’s not made more beautiful because of its target audience (young adults), something I’ve been hoping to see ever since I actively started reading. From the very first lines you really know Julia Lynn Rubin didn’t hold back, and I really appreciate that!

I really liked the sapphic rep too! It was unmistakably present and while I didn’t really feel enough chemistry between the characters (mainly because of the circumstances) to ship them, I still liked reading about their relationship. At some point Trixie also has some inner monologue in which she says “why does anyone love anyone” and I really liked that paragraph, lol! But yeah, the rep was a really good part of the book, also because of how raw and honest it was!

Unfortunately, all of that doesn’t take away that this story’s pacing is an absolute mess. It was way too fast (and like I said already, the ending came too soon). A great example of this is the key scene where they stab someone (in the very beginning). It all happened so fast I didn’t even realise this was the important scene. It was described so quickly, without any emotions or thoughts, and then they were running. It just felt…weird?

Overall, I don’t think this is a bad book at all. I just think that it’s a book that lacked a very essential element: depth. With depth, I truly believe this could’ve been an amazing and revolutionary story, even. But here we are, and I’ll have to give this highly anticipated release of mine two stars…

In Julia Lynn Rubin's novel, Trouble Girls, she introduces us to Trixie and Lux, two best friends from small town Blue Bottle, West Virginia. They are about to go on a weekend getaway, Lux from being her little brother's primary caregiver, and Trixie from caring for her mother who suffers from dementia.

Everything is fine until Lux insists on stopping at a bar near the local college, where she says they don't card. However, Lux gets in over her head with a drunk bar patron, and Trixie does what she has to do to protect Lux, which sends the two on a Thelma and Louise escape route.

Rubin paints her reimagining of Thelma and Louise with a brush of LGBQT - in addition to being best friends, Trixie has romantic feelings for Lux, which she later discovers are returned. But in the meantime, they want to get as far away from the scene of the crime - and it is a crime, as the boy who attacked Lux ends up dying from his Trixie-induced injuries - as possible.

Trixie and Lux are complicated characters and the people they run into on the way are well-defined. Rubin paces the plot well to keep the reader involved. I felt Trixie's alternating hope and hopelessness, and by the end, was wishing for a positive outcome for both of these troubled victims. It's a tough read - this isn't a light, fluffy story - but a very well-written one.

Sometimes you read a book's synopsis and you feel like you've been granted a secret wish you never even knew you've had. And sometimes, that dream-come-true turns out to be rather disappointing...

This isn't a bad book and I actually enjoyed a lot of its aspects. But at the same time, where I was expecting it to shine, it kind of fell short. You see, with how it's marketed as girls on the run, I was hoping for a lot of action, I was hoping for it to keep me at the edge of my sit, never knowing if the girls will or won't make it out unscathed. Instead, the whole time they're on the road feels, well, lacklustre. There's no real tension because it never feels like the girls are in any real danger. We assume they are, based on what we know about the society we live in, but it doesn't manifest in the novel at all.

The romance also isn't as developed as I was hoping it would be. That could be blamed on the fact the girls are technically on the run from the law authorities, but then again, are they really?

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, I had to dnf this book at 60% of the way through reading it which is sad because I was really excited to read this book. I'm all for reading sapphic books and I love retellings of all kinds but sadly this did not hit right for me.

I genuinely think the concept of the book was great as was the writing, but the characters and their decisions throughout the book frustrated me and had me physically putting down my phone and stepping away from reading.

I'm positive that this book would suit others to a T to read and I'm disappointed in myself that I couldn't get into it! I'll still be promoting the book on my Instagram on its publishing date to share and recommend it to my friends!

Thank you again to the publishers!

Trouble Girls unapologetically examines rape culture through this queer reimaginging of the iconic 1991 movie "Thelma & Louise". While I was intensely excited for this book in the #MEtoo era, unfortunately I found the story didn't quite live up to its potential. While the beats of a truly great feminist book are present, it unfortunately doesn't reach the mark for me.

"Maybe in some places it isn't so hard to be fully yourself, doesn't feel like you're constantly walking a thin tightrope, keeping a smile on your face while holding your breath. Molding yourself with care to fit the scenery. Dull. Fully blending in."

Just as in the film, Trouble Girls documents female metamorphosis of two friends on the road after one night changed everything. It's as much of a coming-of-age story as it is a tale of friendship and love.

I found the near stream-of-consciousness narrative style difficult to engage with (exacerbated by my eARC's formatting being terrible - there weren't chapters? or any indication of breaks or shifts of time?), which made it difficult for me to connect with the characters. This is very much a Me Thing and others will undoubtedly like the biting and at times acerbic prose, but it wasn't for me.

"It's taken a life of its own, turned from a dust storm to a raging haboob. A chorus of frenzied voices and pain and fury. It no longer belongs to me."

Ultimately, this book didn't quite work for me due to the narrative style but that doesn't mean it won't be a future favorite for you. If you enjoy stories centered on friendship and the love between best friends who become more, truly ride-or-die friendships of strong women, this book may be for you.

Content warnings: abuse (off-page), attempted rape, death, drug use, hunger, murder, rape culture, slut shaming, underage drinking and smoking, victim blaming, violence

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me with an eARC copy in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my opinion nor the contents of my review. Quotations are provided from an uncorrected proof and subject to change upon final publication.

TROUBLE GIRLS is an intriguing reimaging of Thelma and Louise. Told from Trixie's perspective, the story begins with Trixie working her difficult job at the diner, dealing with the hog men who are constantly trying to get something more from her. She is excited that she will heading out on a road trip with her best friend and big crush, Lux.

As they begin, their first stop leads them to a horrible situation (assault), and Trixie makes a split-second decision that sparks a need to run. After that, they consider the way that such events are viewed by the public and the law, deciding to take their chances on the run. Their trip is complicated by their lack of funds and rising fear of what is happening. As the world views their case, it becomes entwined in the #metoo movement. As they question themselves and the world, Trixie and Lux must decide how it will all turn out.

What I loved: This was a truly gripping story that pulled the reader in from the start. It was challenging to read at times, as there is very present danger and assault on page. The book really sets the atmosphere and mindset well, giving the weight and difficulty of the situations and decisions they make. I found the portrayal of the fallout from a past and the current event to feel pretty realistic, with their anxiety and pain permeating the book. As they begin to rely on themselves and each other, the intensity transforms, and I felt the LGBT romance was a great touch.

The conversations around misogyny, metoo, and related rpe culture to be thought-provoking. The book shows a few sides of these issues, and I think it would be great for discussion in classrooms or clubs. It ends up being quite an immersive and intense read with unexpected potency.

What left me wanting more: The book felt a bit drawn out in places, but it did also feel realistic to being on the run and figuring out what to do. The ending is also uncertain, with the focus on the journey throughout. I would have liked to see beyond the current end of the book a bit with an epilogue or additional chapter, but this may be just me, as I like to know everything!

Final verdict: Atmospheric, intense, and with thought-provoking themes, TROUBLE GIRLS is a clever and suspenseful YA reimagining of Thelma and Louise. Would recommend for fans of THE PROJECT, THEY WISH THEY WERE US, and I KILLED ZOE SPANOS.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Trouble Girls sounded like a lot of fun, but not without grit and darkness, due to the subject matter. And in a way, it is. It’s fast-paced and engrossing, and the prose does not let you go from the first pages. While the intensity means it won’t work for everyone, it’s still a fairly compelling read.

Its strength is in conveying the aesthetic of the narrative, as well as the message about fighting back against sexual assault, and the lengths some may have to resort to for escape. There’s a dark poignance to the fact that these young lives were torn apart due to them defending themselves against a rapist.

However, there isn’t a lot of substance to the two leads, Trixie and Lux, and I wasn’t super connected to them. And once the initial acts of violence are over, there’s a lot of going from place to place without any real purpose but fleeing their crimes. It results in the initial thrills petering out as the story went on, even though being caught did remain a possibility.

This book has a great idea, but I think it fails a bit in the execution. There is a lot to like here, but the characterizations being bland and the plotting feeling a bit uneven means it didn’t blow me away, although I can see why others would enjoy it.

On the one hand, this has some elements that make it feel like the dark sibling of An Abundance of Katherines. On the other, it struck me as a book biting off more than it can chew. Of course, stories can be about more than one thing, serve more than one purpose, or carry more than one message, but the coexistence of a standard small-town/family centered realistic fiction novel that also wants to be a coming out story and a best friends falling in love romance and an Issue Book about rape culture and the patriarchy and a thriller and and and...it's a bit much, and the different elements end up making each other feel emotionally inconsistent. When Trixie barely remembers her declining but allegedly beloved mother until the 50% mark because she's busy going on the lam and writing on internet message boards and noticing Lux's freckles, her story feels less authentic.

Trixie is a decent narrator for the story overall, and the writing in engaging (if a bit overly reliant on the "men as hogs" comparison). However, I didn't find Lux a compelling character (while the story seems to want to peg her as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, trixie's later analysis of her as a child felt more accurate, although she became a bit of a disturbed child as the story went on) and thus the romance fell pretty flat for me. There just isn't much there there when the main character's feelings toward the love interest are based on "Her dimpled smile and her laugh full of bells and the way she half frowns at herself in the mirror as she brushes out her curls each night" rather than any actual personality traits or actions. The story also had an unfortunate habit of introducing oddball characters who didn't seem to make a particular impact on the main duo or how the plot ended up.

Although the chapter-free style did somewhat echo the endlessness of the road trip, and was particularly interesting toward the end, I would have appreciated having them, as natural breaks, as ways to help keep track of time (by the time a two week mark was finally mentioned, I had literally no idea whether that felt accurate, too long, or too short) and as a way to reset the mood rather than the characters seemingly swerving off in opposite directions between paragraphs. Perhaps that was just a feature of the ARC, though, and the final copy will have chapter differentiation.

I think the Thelma and Louise makes sense, but the Riverdale comparison feels more apt. Offer to those who don't mind some overstuffed, scattershot storytelling with a darker vibe.

Thank you so much to Wednesday books and NetGalley for the eARC of this absolutely haunting YA release. When we meet best friends Lux and Trixie, their lives are limited to the small town they grew up in; Blue Bottle. Lux dreams of being a photographer and Trixie yearns to be herself-- someone who is hopelessly in love with her friend. However, this feels impossible where they reside, so she instead settles for stealing happy moments with her whenever she can. The two plan a small escape from the town and from school; a secret camping trip. However, they stop by a bar on the way out, and the unthinkable happens. In one fell swoop, the girls become fugitives, runaways.

So their Thelma-and-Louise-esque journey begins; an unplanned and dangerous getaway to take Lux to the ocean. They lay low as much as possible, and the reader feels the mounting tension as they enter a world without social media, without parents, and without rules. From snippets of news playing in diners or think pieces on library computers, we learn of the aftermath of the girls' violent act. It gives a very clean view of the two divided sides of the fight-- women who have had enough, and the men who want to see them silenced forever. Though I'm not a teenager anymore, I related to this story in the way that all females will. There is something deemed inferior about us from the moment we're born, and we spend our lives trying to break through that.

In this way, this novel is a mallet to the heart. These girls have seen too much in their young years, but their feats of defiance rally other hurt women to speak out. Lux and Trixie do questionable things, but their saga inspires a floodgate to open up. I am proud to live in a world that is slowly changing every day-- that people like our protagonists are starting to feel comfortable sharing their stories. Only in honesty can we be healed, and no one should have to keep their pain to themselves. This book is a story of love, of mistakes, and one of the impact a life can make on the world. It reminds the reader that they are important-- even if they don't know it.

I got an ARC of this book.

I wanted to like it, but if by 30% I can't remember the main love interest's name it is likely I won't ever remember. The first bit was interesting, but once the reason they ran was revealed nothing happened. It was just wandering around and angst about things that I didn't care about. I felt bashed over the head with so many of the details. It was constant and felt like the author was just shouting at me to notice two details: the MC is in love with love interest and MC was probably sexually assaulted by a family member (not confirmed, I did not get far enough for the reveal). It was a lot of telling with no showing. A lot of describing wanderings, but no real substance.

3.5 stars. I'm trying to figure out if I'd have liked this more or less if I'd ever seen/knew more than the bare basics about the movie Thelma and Louise. Would I have gotten more out of it, to see all the parallels? Or would all the similarities have frustrated me?

I don't know. But I did enjoy this. Mostly? It's the story of two girls who end up on the run after what was supposed to be a weekend getaway turns bloody. This is an extremely anxiety-inducing book, especially from the perspective of an adult who's just so worried and scared for these girls, and so angry about all the ugliness and hate that surrounds them. They make a lot of bad decisions, but it's all very realistic; they're scared teenagers, and they're panicking, and they don't have any experience with things like this. It's still very nerve-wracking, seeing it all play out, and that anxiety wasn't exactly enjoyable, as a reader?

But that's a bit of the point. This isn't meant to be an easy read. Trixie and Lux's story is a condemnation of rape culture and misogyny; a close-lensed look at the suffering and PTSD that can come with being a queer teenage girl. Trixie and Lux aren't always likeable, but there's something very cathartic about their rage, and the way they refuse to be cowed. I really loved their burgeoning romance; everything about Trixie's feelings and insecurities and the way it was described felt so authentic and real and my heart just hurt for them. Another thing I especially liked was Rubin's writing and craftsmanship; she really succeeded in creating the perfect atmosphere and characters.

I'm not quite satisfied with this though. At times it was a bit... essentialist? In its commentary and discussion? And idk, it's very possible to write a story about rape culture and the violence that men inflict upon women and the ways it's ingrained in the fabric of society without going there. IDK. I also didn't love the whole "hog" thing, though there are story reasons for it, and I understand. It was used a lot, and started to border on fatphobic, when she used it on random side characters. And the ending didn't feel very satisfying to me. It either needed to end some time before or after that moment, for me to really feel a sense of completion. (There were also a bunch of typos, but I'm assuming that's just an arc issue.)

Definitely a compelling read, one that shouldn't be approached lightly. 

Content warnings: past csa, attempted rape, rape culture, murder, death, homophobia, misogyny, panic attacks and anxiety.

Trouble Girls is a story of love, revenge and the injustices women put up with existing in a world that doesn’t want to hear them. The premise is a powerful one, but personally this one just wasn’t my favorite. The girls at the heart of the story are compelling but it felt like the book didn’t know what to make of their arcs as characters. I also appreciated that the book delves into the moral grey of the situation while raising broader points about the way women are treated but it didn’t seem to have a cohesive sense of where to drive this story. It just felt a bit lost, much like the girls themselves. That said, I hope that some readers find power in this book and enjoy it.

Trouble Girls is a primal scream disguised as a book. This dark and gritty tale reimagines the essence of Thelma and Louise into a modern day context to provide a searing tale that cuts to the bone.

The writing style is so addictive. Rubin’s style just made the pages fly past with an effortless mastery of tension and thrilling plot. I was buddy reading this with Theresa and I genuinely found it so difficult to stop reading at the assigned pages each day. The tension in both the plot and the relationships is pushed to its very limits. The plot often moves at breakneck speed with little warning, with plot twists flying thick and fast. This creates an atmosphere where Trixie and Lux can often only truly rely on each other, ramping up the personal tensions even further.

Their fun road trip quickly turns into a nightmarish exploration of rape culture, particuarly a culture that revolves around victim-blaming. Both Trixie and Lux are all too familiar with the failings of the system and how it often fails to protect the very victims it claims to be at its heart. This is a dark and unflinching exploration of the topic, so I would recommend checking the trigger warnings before reading. Rubin leaves some room for hope in an ambiguous and open-ended conclusion that leaves their ultimate fate down to your imagination.

Trouble Girls is an intense, thrilling read that does not shy away from confronting the dark truth of social issues. It provides a raw and committed tale that you cannot tear yourself away from.

Trixie is looking forward to a weekend away with her best friend, Lux. They pack light, Diet Coke, Lux’s ’89 Canon camera, some cigarettes, and a knife that Trixie is holding onto for a friend. It’s only a weekend after all, but when a local tries to assault Lux in a bar they shouldn’t be in, Trixie sees Red. She stabbed that boy, and she’s not sorry. On the run, the girls find out that this boy is the son of the college’s president, a well-respected boy, and it’s not the first time he’s sexually assaulted girls. One night incites a movement in their small, West Virginia town and sparks a life-changing road trip for Trixie and Lux. It probably won’t end well, but there’s nowhere else to go but west.

I am 100% sure this has already been called Thelma and Louise for the #Metoo generation, so I’ll just echo it. I didn’t know much going into this one, but I was all in with Trixie and Lux. It’s a more extreme version of a situation nearly all women have encountered, and I identified with the girls as they discovered the injustice of wrongs not corrected. I loved them as vigilantes and the followers they gained via internet discussion boards.

They are white girls from West Virginia, perhaps one reason why this plot was able to go on as long as it did, so the representation mostly ends at queer girls, but I still think it's worth a read. If you have a #MeToo story, and it’s not triggering to read about another one, I definitely recommend this book. A vigilante road trip that I won’t soon forget.

This book was great! It was everything I expected and more.

Trixie and Lux were both very nuanced characters with so many dimensions to explore. I think the dialogue in the story sells this factor excellently. Specially in how sometimes they would play off of each other. Their connection was very much real and intense, it carried the book almost seamlessly.

And I think that is so valuable for this type of story. Things get out of control quickly and the pacing gets insane FAST. Having Trixie as a greatly executed main character helps to ground this. It made everything palpable to the reader, giving space for the story’s message and sensibilities to hit to the core. However, I do also think that the writing style helped with this as well. Nonetheless, the way the story is written goes hand in hand with Trixie’s inner voice, because the book is told in 1st person point of view. Therefore, I would say it was an integrative way of delivering the tone and building the character.

Moreover, all of this leads to the book’s purpose. This is the story’s heart, a beating and wild one. The trouble girls. How society perceives women. Who gets to get away with what. I left this book full of rage, but also nostalgic for a suspended belief of freedom. It’s a weird sensation.

All in all, on top of it, I left it thankful that this book exists and that it will be out there, for other trouble girls to find.

I was super excited for this. I love queer stories, and especially queer retellings. And while I mostly enjoyed the story, sometimes I kind of just, fell out of it. It was a little hard to stay into it, and I was really disappointed in how it ended. I would’ve liked a much more concrete ending where we actually know what specifically happens to the girls after the fact.

Honestly, the concept of this book is brilliant. The aesthetic of this book was brilliant. Two girls on a road trip who murder a rapist and have to go on the run, and all with a vintage grunge aesthetic? PLEASE. I wish I were as badass as this book was. The stakes are high, the characters are messy, the aesthetic is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and the tension had me on the edge of my seat. This book is TENSE, engaging, and extremely easy to visualize. It’s also super fast paced! Oh man, what a read this was.

We need to take a moment to discuss the absolute best part of this book: the aesthetic. I’ve seen the vibe of this book compared to Riverdale (not a fan of that awful show at all, sorry) which is fairly accurate, but I actually find the aesthetic more comparable to Lana Del Rey’s vibe (before she went all yeehaw). Motorcycles, leather jackets, red lipstick, cigarettes, and run down motels. Basically, grunge femme fatale with a large dose of girl power. And I am HERE FOR THAT.

Also, I couldn’t help but think how amazing of an indie movie this would be. Because WOW, if this were adapted into a film, it would be the indie movie of the ages. Loved the aesthetic, loved the characters, loved the vibe. However, I have to be a little critical. I was absolutely racing through this book to get to the end, only to be disappointed after reading the last page. For me personally, there wasn’t enough closure for this to be a satisfying ending for me, and it was too open ended for my taste. The ending is the only thing keeping this book from a 5 star rating, but I still give this book a STRONG 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.