I'd forgotten just how evil Principal Satan--I mean Slatterly--is, and how awful some of the other adult women are to these teenage girls. Sometimes women who have given up can be just as bad as the boys and men in their lives - it's achingly tragic and shit in its truth. They are abusers, and they get off far too easy, I think.
I'm also not sure I'm satisfied with the book's open ending. A lot isn't resolved. Especially some of the girls (a few are not even named) whose stories remain unfinished; forgotten about, even. When I'd like to know more about them. But maybe the ambiguity is the point? That life is always changing and moving forward and we don't know and can't know the answers to others' futures - and our own - yet?
Does that one particularly egregious instance of sexual assault against a main character near the end even get addressed, even if the rapist is arrested for his other crimes?
And for all the talk about teen girls and their different sex lives, sexual experiences, sexual orientations and gender identities, why is asexuality never mentioned, nor alluded to? Enbies suffer erasure in this, as well.
Despite the flaws, I still love the writing, and I connect and relate to most of the girls. The Nowhere Girls.
The real girls.
Read my original review below for more.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
'The Nowhere Girls' - the perfectly imperfect book that exposes rape culture, published in October 2017. It is one of many YA novels that reveals terrible, horrendous, and uncomfortable human truths in our sick culture: that needs a cure - a voice, millions in fact - immediately.
Sure, for all its diversity and inclusion, 'The Nowhere Girls' does drop the ball in a few glaring instances. Such as one character implying that being transgender is a choice, and he is never corrected. In terms of POC representation, aside from one of the main female leads, Rosina, who is Mexican, and her family, and Jesse, the dark-skinned boy who makes that unfortunate trans remark regarding his own transitioned brother, 'The Nowhere Girls' still largely focuses on white feminism and white girl problems. Also Jesse is referred to as a "stuffed animal" more than once, for his big size and friendly demeanour; calling anyone who is POC "like an animal" of any kind is problematic in so many ways, even if it's to describe them as cuddly. It's patronizing at best. There is a "only men with daughters can respect and acknowledge women as human beings" thing going on near the end of the novel as well, which is infuriating (and bullshit - just think of all the famous sexists and misogynists who have daughters).
But despite these flaws that quite frankly should have been picked up on during the editing process, everything else in 'The Nowhere Girls' is wonderful. It is a spark of hope in our otherwise cesspool of a world run by functional adults; it reflects reality so painfully. With the internet taking over everything, and misogyny, hate speech, regressive 1800s politics, and Nazi sympathy on the rise in the last few years, it could not have been published at a more crucial time.
'The Nowhere Girls' is right up there with other greats that unflinchingly talk about rape and our culture's appalling allowance of it, whether we want to admit it or not - such as 'Speak', 'Asking For It', and 'All the Rage' (it even features male police chiefs who are far more concerned about football and its rapist players than the humanity of female rape victims).
We did this. We need this. Books like these need to exist. Because they are real.
It sounds like 'The Nowhere Girls' should be the most depressing read ever. But there is enough heart, humour, and fabulously interesting characters to give the reluctant, and possibly suffering, reader slow burning hope and joy.
The three main girls we follow, who go to a high school in Prescott, are excellent:
New girl Grace is the chubby daughter of a disgraced female preacher, who is utterly wonderful in her progressive Christian views apparently awakened via head trauma. Grace herself is still finding her way, living in her mother's blessed shadow. She is nice, if naïve, and encouraging and supportive. Her purpose in life is awakened by the anger of finding out about a girl named Lucy who had lived in the house Grace now occupies in her new hometown. Lucy had been calling for help when no one gave it to her - scratched in the walls of her bedroom - and now Grace wants justice for the rape victim - the practically exiled pariah of the town - she never knew in person. Did I mention that I adore Grace's mother? When she does finally spend time with her daughter away from the church, she is as full of love and support as her teachings; a true saint.
Rosina is a poor Mexican lesbian who dreams of leaving her large family that doesn't appreciate her to become a punk rock star. She's refreshing, she's loud and proud, and she would never take being called a diva or any sexist and racist name lying down. Rosina is more vulnerable than she lets on, however, and she is very lonely in her family - rooted in a seriously strained and dysfunctional relationship with her mother, who is as trapped as Rosina is in a patriarchal family business in a restaurant - but she is braver than she thinks. A bit of instant-love with a cheerleader named Melissa is present, but it's sweet once it gets going, developing in substance over the course of the book.
Erin is a genius, and she's autistic. She's an inspired 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' fan, whose ambition is to be a marine biologist. Order, routine and preparation are everything to her, and chances and unpredictability scare her. Human emotions are a detriment to her, as are painful memories caused by both rape culture and the systematic failing of children on the autism spectrum. Erin cares not for her appearance, as proven by her shaved head (other characters think she has a model's body underneath her frumpy clothes, dispelling the stereotype that people who are considered "weird" or mentally ill must be conventionally unattractive, or at least physically unfit). She believes that all males of the human species are naturally, biologically predisposed to rape, with them being predators and females the prey, so trying to change them is pointless. Or at least she says she believes this, at first.
I adore all these complex, fully-rounded, fascinating young women. One day at their lone cafeteria table, the three outcasts decide to create a movement called The Nowhere Girls, started by Grace for justice for Lucy - for all the girls at their school to come together and highlight and expose the rape culture of their school, thus try to end it. Of course, it turns out to be much harder - in fact much more life threatening - than either of them could imagine.
For all the awesome, moving characters, there are plenty of people to hate in 'The Nowhere Girls' as well, which is to be expected for its subject matter. It is absolutely shocking that there could be people as hateful and disgusting as the rapists themselves - one of whom in this book has his own blog called 'The Real Men of Prescott'. On occasion the reader gets to see samplings of its posts - and it is as toxic MRA as it can get, tailor-made for fellow caveman misogynists and rapists, blatantly created to hurt women. It is also followed by thousands. No doubt certain events in 2016 inspired some of the awfulness of what's written there. It will make you want to scream. Again.
But for my money, the most loathsome character in 'The Nowhere Girls', aside from the teenage male sex offenders and apathetic male cops, is Principal Slatterly. The worst extreme of white feminism, Slatterly flat-out tells Rosina in the principal's office that she got where she is today, as a woman of power, by acting like a man, in a man's world. She could have used her position of power to actually help people, especially people in marginalized groups in society, since she knows and understands what sexism and other types of prejudice are. She could have inspired real change. But instead she keeps to the status quo in order not to jeopardize her own career, because she's a coward. And racist as fuck. Slatterly suspects Rosina of being the ring leader of the Nowhere Girls movement from the start, because of course the one girl she knows at the school who isn't white and quiet would be in charge of something she disproves of. She says she's surprised that Rosina has good grades. On two occasions Slatterly blackmails Rosina on account of her lowly privilege - that she better do what she's told and end the Nowhere Girls, or else she will not be the only person in her poor Mexican family to go to college, and Slatterly will complain about the restaurant Rosina's family owns and so ruin the student's entire life and have her immigrant grandmother, who has dementia, deported. Oh and Slatterly accuses Rosina of doing drugs with no proof whatsoever, getting the poor girl into trouble with her mother for the sole purpose of spiting her. In a just world, Slatterly should be in prison, not in control of the lives of young people she claims she wants to help to make the best future possible. Alas, no mention of her receiving any kind of punishment is ever mentioned. Another case of sad reality, I suppose. Slatterly is no better than the white trash spokeswomen on outlets such as Fox News. She's the Uncle Tom of white women. She's a hypocrite, a tool, and as already stated, a coward. Evil comes in many different forms.
I want to hug 'The Nowhere Girls'. It is intense, and immensely addictive in writing. I could have finished its 400 pages in one day, if not for the chaos of Christmas time. I feel so, so glad and heartened to have had this as my last novel read in 2017. A few flubs cannot diminish its powerful message. Or its humanity.
Sad, harrowing, maddening, yet hopeful on the horizon. 'The Nowhere Girls' is about female relationships. It is about every female out there, most notably young girls, struggling with and suffering through their own individual identities, in a world that hates and fears their freedom and choices. Slut-shaming, victim blaming, blurred consent, anti-feminism, and lack of sex education have no place here.
A constant reminder every year: It is the 21st century. In 2018, we must do better. The patriarchy isn't as unbeatable as we fear, as Grace, Rosina, Erin, and thousands of real women and girls prove every day. Girls' and boys' lives are at stake.
Final Score: 4/5
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