The Burning Girl
A Novel
by Claire Messud
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Pub Date Aug 29 2017 | Archive Date Aug 29 2017
Description
A Note From the Publisher
LibraryReads nominations due by 6/20 and IndieNext nominations due by 7/5.
Advance Praise
"Messud (The Woman Upstairs, 2013, etc.) investigates the fraught intricacies of friendship and adolescence as two girls grow up and grow apart in a small Massachusetts town....this is very much a book about masks and performances...Emotionally intense and quietly haunting." - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"Julia and Cassie are childhood friends. We see them visiting each other's homes, doing what girl buddies do. While Julia is raised in a loving home that encourages education and being a good person, Cassie lives the opposite. She is raised by a working mom who doesn't seem to care about her yet is very religious. Cassie is pretty and popular but she longs for her phantom dad whom she tries to track down. Julia is relegated to a helpless observer as Cassie becomes consumed by her personal demons. Claire Messud is a master in dissecting fractured friendships and digging deep into her characters' psyche. This is a wonderful pick for a book discussion." - Andrienne Cruz, Azusa City Library
"Messud elegantly maps the geography of a teen girl's connection with her best friend in small town Massachusetts and brings to vibrant, pulsing life the power of friendship and connection that can only exist at a fundamental age. This compact novel is magic at all levels." - Gregg Winsor, Johnson County Library
“I thought the heartbreak of the loss and complication of friendships during the middle school years was long gone. However, when reading Clare Messud’s sagacious novel about girls’ relationships with each other and their mothers, all those feelings of confusion, allegiance, and insecurity resurfaced, showing me the bittersweet experience of growing up. The Burning Girl is an essential addition to the canon of 'coming of age' novels.” - Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Cafe
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780393635027 |
| PRICE | $25.95 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Diana A, Librarian
I also always appreciate a look at female friendship, which doesn't get enough attention in fiction when compared to romance.
Two little girls have been best friends since preschool, and are just at the interesting, volatile age during which girls give up some things they shouldn't and other things that maybe they should. There are class differences between these two, and other differences, and cracks are starting to make themselves known. Then, with their friendship unspooling, one of them winds up in peril. Watching things get resolved is fascinating and affecting. Claire Messud writes with sensitivity and compassion, getting right into her female character’s heads.
Helen M, Bookseller
A compelling and engrossing coming-of-age tale centered on two best friends, Julia and Cassie, and how kids develop at different rates, their tastes diverge and rock solid friendships drift apart.
If this was an experiment in raising teenage girls, Julia would be the "control" - stable family, middles class background, good grades, on track for university, whereas Cassie would be the "experiment" - single mother, weird wannabe stepfather, turbulent home life.
When you add adolescent hormones to this already heady mix, it signals the start of a derailment for Cassie that will test the limits of her most enduring friendship and everything she holds dear.
This is a great tale, that kind of creeps up on you, as you get involved in the lives of these two girls. Your heart breaks for Cassie as she struggles with life in an all-too-familiar tale of teenage angst.
Great writing, great characters, great story.
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