Those Girls Paperback – May 3, 2016

The storyline of what overcame the what was stated in the story. I truly liked the book. Such recommend for sure

I received and early copy of Lauren Saft's debut novel and honestly could not put it down. The writing is fantastic, the wit is sharp, situations comical, and yet, it is also an honest portrayal of the things girls go through today in High School. A harsh but very real commentary on what our youth are turning into. Miss Saft captures their voices, makes them into real people you will love and hate, root for and against, with each decision they make.

Anyone who loves dark YA contemporary novels likely has Those Girls on their TBR and wants to know how good this is on a scale from 1 to Courtney Summers (because as we know, Courtney is the queen of dark YA contemp). Even the similarity of its title to Summers' novel Some Girls Are is screaming READ THIS IF YOU LOVE HER. Well, let me answer the question of quality: no. Those Girls is a wannabe that includes all the shocking antics without writing them with any heart or doing anything with them.Turn away now if you're tired of reading about rich white girls with horrible personalities because that summarizes Alex, Mollie, and Veronica very quickly. Veronica is the least horrible of the three and possibly the closest to being more than a one-note character, but the truth is all three girls are flat as can be. Alex is the Stoner Band Girl; Mollie is the Name-Caller; Veronica is the Sex-Haver. Those names are the extent of their personalities. The key to writing horrible people well is to give us insight into what made them so horrible or give them a powerful character arc, but we learn little to nothing about any of their pasts and none of them change in any way. They're the same girls at the end of the novel as they are at the start.Those Girls is a slice-of-life novel--a portrait of a specific period of time in three girls' lives. If that's what you want, go for it, but it really is a portrait in that nothing will change. It makes you wonder what the point of this story is. Are we supposed to come away with something of value? There's nothing here. There are scenes of these girls being horrible in ways decent people will already recognize as wrong (Alex and Mollie call Veronica a variety of names like whorebox and cum-guzzling crack whore; Mollie loves to use the r-word), but it's all shock value and no deconstruction or heart or realism. If this stuff came from the author's own experiences, they failed to translate to the page.After a while, the three girls' voices blend together due to their similar voices, similarly horrible thoughts, and the fact all three have problems attached to them that are never dealt with. Other than a mention every hundred pages or so, nothing changes about Mollie's eating disorder; Veronica's hypersexuality is implied to be due to abandonment issues in the jacket copy but are never actually considered in-novel. All three want to be Gossip Girl-esque watchable train wrecks with their repeated infidelities and love/lust dodecahedron but lack anything the recognizably human qualities that create watchable train wrecks. My heart only came out when Veronica got raped while drunk multiple times--because anyone having sex with someone who is falling-down drunk the way she's always shown to be is not going to be able to consent to sex. No. Novel doesn't deal with that either.And then it all ends. The year ends, bad things happen, the girls all have happy endings, and whatever point it probably wanted to make but failed to is negated altogether. Just... What does this novel mean? Who thought it was a good idea to unleash it upon unsuspecting consumers? It's the kind of bad wherein you're disappointed instead of angry. It leaves you with a sense of bafflement, incompleteness, and missed opportunities.Those Girls is worth skipping. My zero-star rating is rarely used for a good reason and this novel earned it. Maybe it would get half a star if I thought, "well, at least it doesn't _______," but let's be real: giving a novel points for what it manages not to screw up is just sad. It's crueler for me to give this novel pity points than it is to not do so. Go pick up one a Queen Courtney Summers novel instead for better takes on life as a teenage girl in the new millennium when the world pits itself against you because of your gender.

Girls on their own as teenagers can be awful—believe me, as a former girl I can tell you stories. But add a group, and the stakes get a lot higher—and the jokes even more cruel. When publisher, Poppy (part of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) gave me the opportunity to read Lauren Saft’s Those Girls, I jumped at the chance to read this book.Alex and Mollie have been friends forever. Since fifth grade, Veronica has been part of their group and they’ve all navigated the waters together. Fast forward to this year—junior year. This year is the year everything changes—sure, Alex is still a little shy and stoner-y, Mollie still has her older boyfriend Sam and her eating disorder and Veronica is still on her own at home and using her body as a way to connect with the opposite sex. But this year, things are different—Mollie feels Sam slipping away, Veronica has a boyfriend (Alex’s best friend, Drew) and Alex joins a band. But as things change, they seem to unravel—and there are some dangerous implications as friend is pitted against friend. And the futures of these friends are in jeopardy.I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a well-written and QUICK read. Saft’s characters are every girls—meaning readers can identify with one or more of these characters. I am looking forward to reading more from Lauren Saft.I loved the character of Alex. All of what she was going through, and the way she dealt with it made me love her even more. I saw a lot of myself in Alex. However, she makes a pretty heinous choice later on that I wanted to scream AT her about.Veronica was set up to do a few things in the book early on. I was saddened to see how readily she accepted her status with the male population of their area. She was also not as intelligent as the other girls, and I had hoped she would prove me wrong.As I said, while I was shocked with the freedoms that some of the teens had in this book, overall it was a solid and interesting read. I definitely recommend it for the summer!

This book was really sexually explicit which I found kind of disturbing. But, it was a pretty good tale of friendship between three girls. Heartbreak, heartache, and rejoicing in cries!Overall....ok.

So much fun to read! You can relate to so much in this book- if it didn't happen to you, you definitely knew a girlfriend or, well, one of "those girls" from HS. This book is REAL, so read it if you are open to what it will show. As a late 20's lady who was looking to be sentimental and have a few laughs, this was a hit. Please write a sequel!

Read this book in 3 days ! It jumped right into the drama and was a fun fast read , I'm honestly sad it's over , you get into the heads of each character and truly form a bond and connection with them. I think this is a raw real book of high schoolers

Delivery came on time in wonderful condition. I finished the book probably 2 weeks after i got it I loved it that much! Would definitely reccomend for anyone interested in teen, high school related books to check this one out.