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Whores on the Hill
The girls of Sacred Heart Holy Angels eye the good dancers at the all-ages club Metropolis. They waste afternoons at the mall, check out parties on the lake, burn through candid, casual sex.
Everybody calls them the Whores on the Hill, but they don't care.
It is the mid-'80s and they go to the last all-girls' school in Milwaukee, where innocence is scarce and happiness is something to grabbed at in the backseat of a fast car.
Meet exuberant, uninhibited Astrid, her nervy, troubled friend Juli and Thisbe, the shy, ascetic newcomer. They are fifteen years old. And they believe they can take on the world, no matter what it calls them.
But when euphoric promiscuity mixes with a series of dangerous, deadly pranks, their world at Sacred Heart Holy Angels can never be the same.
Everybody calls them the Whores on the Hill, but they don't care.
It is the mid-'80s and they go to the last all-girls' school in Milwaukee, where innocence is scarce and happiness is something to grabbed at in the backseat of a fast car.
Meet exuberant, uninhibited Astrid, her nervy, troubled friend Juli and Thisbe, the shy, ascetic newcomer. They are fifteen years old. And they believe they can take on the world, no matter what it calls them.
But when euphoric promiscuity mixes with a series of dangerous, deadly pranks, their world at Sacred Heart Holy Angels can never be the same.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 2005
11 people are currently reading
1123 people want to read
About the author
Colleen Curran
2 books29 followersI'm the author of the novel "Whores on the Hill."
I like to write about girls, women, relationships, identity and coming of age stories.
I'm an avid reader and I like to read anything with a unique voice and a great story.
I like to write about girls, women, relationships, identity and coming of age stories.
I'm an avid reader and I like to read anything with a unique voice and a great story.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
April 3, 2022
Thisbe Newton hasn't spoken a word in six months and seventeen days when her mother transfers her to Sacred Heart Holy Angels, the last all-girls private school in Milwaukee. She meets Astrid Thornton and Juli Sung on her first day, and the transformation is almost immediate. She blacks out her eyes with kohl, hems her pleated plaid skirt a few inches above her knees, and trades her sneakers for punk Doc Martens. The three spend their nights driving too fast, drinking too much, worshiping at the altar of Joan Jett and Deb Scott--the baddest of all the bad girls--and pushing every limit. People call them The Whores on the Hill, and they're going to earn their reputation. Trigger warnings: character death, suicide attempt, rape, abortion, self-injury, sexual harassment, mental illness, depression, underage drinking, drug use, bullying, sexism, slut-shaming, low self-esteem, grief, infidelity, neglect. NSFW content.
From the moment Alice recommended Whores on the Hill to me, it became a part of our language. I read it for the first time on a flight to Europe, but the strange thing is I don't know where I was when I finished it. Books with powerful endings usually stay with me better. I accidentally destroyed my first book when it got soaked in my backpack. I had to make all my margin notes anew in my fresh copy and barely put my pen down. It's frustrating that no one else seems to know or care about this book. I've never heard anyone else talk about it; it has no fandom to speak of, but it's one of my favorite realistic YA books out there.
Some books capture better than others what it's like to be young, and Whores on the Hill is pretty much my benchmark novel for teenage girls. For all their crushes, flings, and relationships, this is a story about girls and how they both love and destroy one another. When school is the whole world, when the future is as frightening as it is exhilarating, when the people we love the most are the ones who know exactly how to hurt us. I never had friends like Astrid, Thisbe, and Juli, but they'll make sure no one ever forgets them. Like Alaska Young, like Theodore Finch, they burn off the page with their realness.
Curran's writing is exquisite. Each section is so lovingly crafted it could almost stand on its own, but the plot still moves seamlessly ahead. I love her descriptions and her insights. I love that she's written a book that's almost exclusively about girls, and I love that it's set in the 80's in the Midwest. I love Curran and her characters' feminist agenda, how they're tough, and loud, and brave and also incredibly scared and fragile. It deals with issues from birth control and self-injury to date rape and abortion--and how those things affect women most of all. It's a darker The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a better Looking for Alaska, a sister to All the Bright Places. I want everyone to read it and love it with me.
I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.
From the moment Alice recommended Whores on the Hill to me, it became a part of our language. I read it for the first time on a flight to Europe, but the strange thing is I don't know where I was when I finished it. Books with powerful endings usually stay with me better. I accidentally destroyed my first book when it got soaked in my backpack. I had to make all my margin notes anew in my fresh copy and barely put my pen down. It's frustrating that no one else seems to know or care about this book. I've never heard anyone else talk about it; it has no fandom to speak of, but it's one of my favorite realistic YA books out there.
Some books capture better than others what it's like to be young, and Whores on the Hill is pretty much my benchmark novel for teenage girls. For all their crushes, flings, and relationships, this is a story about girls and how they both love and destroy one another. When school is the whole world, when the future is as frightening as it is exhilarating, when the people we love the most are the ones who know exactly how to hurt us. I never had friends like Astrid, Thisbe, and Juli, but they'll make sure no one ever forgets them. Like Alaska Young, like Theodore Finch, they burn off the page with their realness.
Curran's writing is exquisite. Each section is so lovingly crafted it could almost stand on its own, but the plot still moves seamlessly ahead. I love her descriptions and her insights. I love that she's written a book that's almost exclusively about girls, and I love that it's set in the 80's in the Midwest. I love Curran and her characters' feminist agenda, how they're tough, and loud, and brave and also incredibly scared and fragile. It deals with issues from birth control and self-injury to date rape and abortion--and how those things affect women most of all. It's a darker The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a better Looking for Alaska, a sister to All the Bright Places. I want everyone to read it and love it with me.
I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.
April 12, 2010
How many times did I want to throw this book across the bus/room at the factual inaccuracies in this book? MANY! First of all, I grew up in Milwaukee and I went to one of TWO girls' schools that are there. Every time Curran talked about Sacred Heart Holy Angels being the only girls' school, my blood boiled. I get that the author wanted to be dramatic in her descriptions, but seriously! Inaccurate! Not to mention "Cudahy and Wauwatosa Counties" -- WRONG! Twenty-six miles of CORNFIELD between downtown Milwaukee and Wauwatosa? -- WRONG! Grr. I had a long discussion with myself about creative license, but really when it boiled down to it, I don't think that there would have been anything wrong with actually representing the city in which he story took place. Shame on you, Colleen Curran. You've been out of Milwaukee too long, I guess.
That being said, I did actually find a lot to enjoy in this book. The novel is set in a girls' Catholic high school the late 80s, in a dark place between the "sisterhood is powerful" 60s and 70s and the Lilith Fair 90s. Thisbe, Astrid and Juli are definitely friends -- they're close, they share makeup, write hilarious Teen magazine-esque quizzes and talk about boys, sex and their teachers. They also sleep with each others' boyfriends, slit their wrists and mindlessly swallow fists full of amphetamines. They are ruthless and have absentee parents -- their only role model is the fabled Deb Scott, a student who slept with a married man, and flipped the world off in her search for glory.
The novel, told in tiny vignettes, sometimes only a few lines long are incredibly powerful. Each chapter unabashedly paints a picture for the reader of situations that are increasingly difficult to read. I grew attached to the characters -- each of them awful and endearing in their own ways -- and wondered how each could do things that would make their best friends their worst enemies.
This was an interesting and atypical look into the world of the "private school student" -- both in content and character development. It was a departure from the world of privilege we might see in Gossip Girl or Prep, and rather a focus on three characters who have lost the definition of sisterhood in a lot of ways.
That being said, I did actually find a lot to enjoy in this book. The novel is set in a girls' Catholic high school the late 80s, in a dark place between the "sisterhood is powerful" 60s and 70s and the Lilith Fair 90s. Thisbe, Astrid and Juli are definitely friends -- they're close, they share makeup, write hilarious Teen magazine-esque quizzes and talk about boys, sex and their teachers. They also sleep with each others' boyfriends, slit their wrists and mindlessly swallow fists full of amphetamines. They are ruthless and have absentee parents -- their only role model is the fabled Deb Scott, a student who slept with a married man, and flipped the world off in her search for glory.
The novel, told in tiny vignettes, sometimes only a few lines long are incredibly powerful. Each chapter unabashedly paints a picture for the reader of situations that are increasingly difficult to read. I grew attached to the characters -- each of them awful and endearing in their own ways -- and wondered how each could do things that would make their best friends their worst enemies.
This was an interesting and atypical look into the world of the "private school student" -- both in content and character development. It was a departure from the world of privilege we might see in Gossip Girl or Prep, and rather a focus on three characters who have lost the definition of sisterhood in a lot of ways.
February 20, 2011
Great book---I love a good throwback to the 1980s sex-drugs-punk-rock scene. This story takes place in Milwaukee at the last all girls Catholic school in the area. The "Whores on the Hill" are a group of three girls who epitomize the 80s trends spoken of above. They wear fishnets under their uniform skirts, smudgy makeup around their red tinged eyes, and have a case of hormones gone wild.
Their behavior is so flat out dangerous, yet typical, it truly makes you wonder how you ever escaped teenage-hood alive, whether you participated in their variety of antics or not. It is a true and real charactarization of the teenage mentality---invincible, fearless, hopeful, and yet sullen.
Being from Milwaukee, I'll also add that I loved all the local references, and this helped me picture this trio of girls even better in my mind.
I would totally recommend this book. If you enjoy train wreck stories that place you into the shoes and minds of youth (of any era), this is a real classic.
Their behavior is so flat out dangerous, yet typical, it truly makes you wonder how you ever escaped teenage-hood alive, whether you participated in their variety of antics or not. It is a true and real charactarization of the teenage mentality---invincible, fearless, hopeful, and yet sullen.
Being from Milwaukee, I'll also add that I loved all the local references, and this helped me picture this trio of girls even better in my mind.
I would totally recommend this book. If you enjoy train wreck stories that place you into the shoes and minds of youth (of any era), this is a real classic.
September 22, 2010
There was something very appealing about the voice and phrasing of the book. I like to think of it as the way that Thisbe remembers her time at the school: short bursts, emotionally charged, poetic, an adult talking in her 15-year-old voice.
I read it without passing judgement on the girls, which is essential in absorbing the world of Astrid, Juli and Thisbe. It also helped that I was also a Catholic schoolgirl during that era, although not a Whore From the East Side. I would have been one of the girls at Deb's birthday party although a breathless observer harboring a secret envy of their freedom.
Not sure how I feel about Deb's identity being revealed. On one hand, Deb grew to be such a mythological creature, that almost any adult would have been a disappointment. But there are many different ways to rebel and surprise people, and I'm glad to know Deb lived on based on her terms.
Poetic justice to a trio of bad girls struggling through their adolescence.
I read it without passing judgement on the girls, which is essential in absorbing the world of Astrid, Juli and Thisbe. It also helped that I was also a Catholic schoolgirl during that era, although not a Whore From the East Side. I would have been one of the girls at Deb's birthday party although a breathless observer harboring a secret envy of their freedom.
Not sure how I feel about Deb's identity being revealed. On one hand, Deb grew to be such a mythological creature, that almost any adult would have been a disappointment. But there are many different ways to rebel and surprise people, and I'm glad to know Deb lived on based on her terms.
Poetic justice to a trio of bad girls struggling through their adolescence.
April 8, 2007
This book was good halfway through, and then it had the most ridiculous ending ever. I actually threw it down.
Also, I am so tired of memoir-style books where the main character glorifies/deifies an awful childhood friend.
Also, I am so tired of memoir-style books where the main character glorifies/deifies an awful childhood friend.
April 12, 2024
Kind of interesting but not my style... couldn't bring myself to finish it...
July 14, 2024
Part of me doesn't believe three 15 year olds could be this messed up and get into this much trouble even during the 80s, but another part of me knows it still happens today. This might be the epitome of "coming of age" stories. Three idiots thinking they're invincible, that bad things will never happen to them, and making the same bad decisions over and over again until life finally shows them it's not always fun and games.
Somewhat poetic in the storytelling. I was expecting the Deb Scott reveal, but I wasn't expecting the sad ending.
Somewhat poetic in the storytelling. I was expecting the Deb Scott reveal, but I wasn't expecting the sad ending.
October 16, 2009
I adopted this book from my ex, who I think adopted it from his ex, thinking it had to do with the lives and goings-on of some major players on Capitol Hill.
No.
It is a coming-of-age story about three teenage Catholic schoolgirls living in Wisconsin. Okay, fine. I needed something on the lighter side to cleanse my palette anyway.
The writing is fairly honest, although I'm not sure if I would have liked this book if I'd read it as a teenager. Some of the personality flaws and resulting events in the book seemed rather embellished, which kind of made me want to put it down. I remember being 15 and wanting to look bad ass without really trying, but these girls were trying extra-hard, to the point where it was nearly unbelievable, especially considering they went to a Catholic school.
Having attended both Catholic and public schools, I remember hearing kids at Catholic schools saying that although it seemed unlikely, Catholic school kids got into more trouble. At the public school I later attended, people were too busy getting into trouble to compare the two stereotypes.
One recurring theme in this book rang absolutely true: the feeling of being at the center of the universe as a 15-year-old girl. Around that age, you still feel like you have endless possibilities for the future, you learn the power you wield over the opposite sex, and you start to learn just how much you can get away with. I liked these moments in the book where the main character recognizes just how self-important she and her friends are, but still doesn't care.
The low point of the book was around the last 3/4 of it, when the girls at Sacred Heart celebrate the birthday of Deb Scott, a former student who is rumored to be deceased, with a huge costume party. Right around then, I just wanted it to be over. The idea that a bunch of girls would carry on such a tradition for so long was so ridiculous, and what happens at the party is kind of unreal too.
Soon after, the book takes another turn, using (surprise!) another ridiculous notion, but in this case two wrongs make a right. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, and it made the story more interesting, since it was pretty much done being believable a long time ago.
To sum it up, read this if you're bored. It will provide some entertainment and for some, a reminder of how obliviously insufferable we were at 15.
No.
It is a coming-of-age story about three teenage Catholic schoolgirls living in Wisconsin. Okay, fine. I needed something on the lighter side to cleanse my palette anyway.
The writing is fairly honest, although I'm not sure if I would have liked this book if I'd read it as a teenager. Some of the personality flaws and resulting events in the book seemed rather embellished, which kind of made me want to put it down. I remember being 15 and wanting to look bad ass without really trying, but these girls were trying extra-hard, to the point where it was nearly unbelievable, especially considering they went to a Catholic school.
Having attended both Catholic and public schools, I remember hearing kids at Catholic schools saying that although it seemed unlikely, Catholic school kids got into more trouble. At the public school I later attended, people were too busy getting into trouble to compare the two stereotypes.
One recurring theme in this book rang absolutely true: the feeling of being at the center of the universe as a 15-year-old girl. Around that age, you still feel like you have endless possibilities for the future, you learn the power you wield over the opposite sex, and you start to learn just how much you can get away with. I liked these moments in the book where the main character recognizes just how self-important she and her friends are, but still doesn't care.
The low point of the book was around the last 3/4 of it, when the girls at Sacred Heart celebrate the birthday of Deb Scott, a former student who is rumored to be deceased, with a huge costume party. Right around then, I just wanted it to be over. The idea that a bunch of girls would carry on such a tradition for so long was so ridiculous, and what happens at the party is kind of unreal too.
Soon after, the book takes another turn, using (surprise!) another ridiculous notion, but in this case two wrongs make a right. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, and it made the story more interesting, since it was pretty much done being believable a long time ago.
To sum it up, read this if you're bored. It will provide some entertainment and for some, a reminder of how obliviously insufferable we were at 15.
December 17, 2008
The book is about three friends: Astrid, Juli, and our protagonist, Thisbe, aka Jellybean. They go to the only all girl's high school in Milwaukee. It's the late 80s and the girls do all that they can to live up to their whores on the hill rep.
At first I thought this book was going to capture that out of control, on top of the world feeling you had at 15. That feeling that you are in complete control of everything and everyone, but at the same time you have no control over anything. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Over all, this book was really disappointing. It wasn't a shocking peek into the teenage world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, because that's been done a million times, and in much better ways. None of the characters develop into anyone or anything.
The one thing I really did like was a totally unexpected character revelation at the end that had nothing (well, almost nothing) to do with the three girls. It came out of the blue and I thought it was clever.
The ending felt silly; almost like Curran couldn't figure out how to get Thisbe out of her situation, so she fell back on a cliched plot twist. But then she did rescue it a bit with the very last sentence in the book, which made me wonder if Thisbe was going to become Astrid, only a good version. And then that felt like a total rip off of the movie Heathers.
At first I thought this book was going to capture that out of control, on top of the world feeling you had at 15. That feeling that you are in complete control of everything and everyone, but at the same time you have no control over anything. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Over all, this book was really disappointing. It wasn't a shocking peek into the teenage world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, because that's been done a million times, and in much better ways. None of the characters develop into anyone or anything.
The one thing I really did like was a totally unexpected character revelation at the end that had nothing (well, almost nothing) to do with the three girls. It came out of the blue and I thought it was clever.
The ending felt silly; almost like Curran couldn't figure out how to get Thisbe out of her situation, so she fell back on a cliched plot twist. But then she did rescue it a bit with the very last sentence in the book, which made me wonder if Thisbe was going to become Astrid, only a good version. And then that felt like a total rip off of the movie Heathers.
December 28, 2014
Though a technically easy read, Whores On The Hill grappled with some less-than-easy topics.
Told from the perspective of Thisbe, a student at an all-girls' Catholic high school, the book delves into the story of how easy it can be to get caught with the wrong crowd and how your choice in friends can have a huge impact on everything else.
To take it out of the context of the book review for a minute, when I was in 6th grade, my teacher pulled me aside and cautioned me... People judge who you are based on your friends. I really took it to heart and reconsidered who I was hanging out with and what it all meant. Had I continued hanging out with those kids, who knows what choices I would have made. Because your group of friends really does dictate what you do and how the world treats you.
How did the world treat Thisbe? As a whore. But Astrid, the leader of the pack, seemed to be so proud of that title - so proud to be the Whores On The Hill.
I thought Curran did a great job of grappling with ideas like sex and drugs, told from the perspective of a girl experimenting with both because of the places she and her friends put themselves.
There were several twists in the story I absolutely did not expect.
An easy and quick read, but a good story.
Told from the perspective of Thisbe, a student at an all-girls' Catholic high school, the book delves into the story of how easy it can be to get caught with the wrong crowd and how your choice in friends can have a huge impact on everything else.
To take it out of the context of the book review for a minute, when I was in 6th grade, my teacher pulled me aside and cautioned me... People judge who you are based on your friends. I really took it to heart and reconsidered who I was hanging out with and what it all meant. Had I continued hanging out with those kids, who knows what choices I would have made. Because your group of friends really does dictate what you do and how the world treats you.
How did the world treat Thisbe? As a whore. But Astrid, the leader of the pack, seemed to be so proud of that title - so proud to be the Whores On The Hill.
I thought Curran did a great job of grappling with ideas like sex and drugs, told from the perspective of a girl experimenting with both because of the places she and her friends put themselves.
There were several twists in the story I absolutely did not expect.
An easy and quick read, but a good story.
June 6, 2007
Very juvenile and kind of depressing. But I liked it. Curran's writing style is breathless and evocative and I probably would have tried to imitate her style had I discovered her during my creative writing college days.
The story is about three teenage girls and they're wild high school lives....everything you think will happen, happens. But Curran's writing style makes it worthwhile, I think.
The story is about three teenage girls and they're wild high school lives....everything you think will happen, happens. But Curran's writing style makes it worthwhile, I think.
August 4, 2015
I liked the writing style. The whole book had a feeling of inevitable doom. Youth is so exciting and fucking scary! It reminded me of being young and having that feeling of wanting to do and know everything.
October 20, 2019
I LOVED THIS so much, it was exactly what I needed. Sextalk, Stereotypes, Boys, The 80s, I could see myself in the reckless behaviour of the girls. Short and sweet chapters, poetic phrases mixed with vulgarity. Can't understand all the hate, but different people, different opinions.
January 14, 2024
Read this cause it was based off my high school. It was a fine book. Idk I found it hard to be realistic but I don't really think it is meant to be. Some of the characters are dynamic, whereas others just fall flat. Overall good, but I wouldn't exactly reccomend it.
May 7, 2007
I loved this. Took me back to being a teenager again. Very realistically portrayed.
June 15, 2007
This book's depiction of teenaged girls' attitudes in the 1980s rings very true!
April 20, 2010
A really good first novel. Honest and unstinting. Look forward to the next.
August 29, 2019
Maybe I'm a sucker for the nostalgia of a girlhood where I wanted to flee from my small town with all the other misfits, heading nowhere fast, but regardless of reason, I enjoyed this book! While it did follow a coherent timeline, the chapters were short and not so sweet, full of daydreams (and sometimes nightmares) under a filter of cotton candy gone stale. The Whores on the Hill-AKA- Astrid (the reckless ringleader), Juli (a troubled soul trapped beneath a perfect facade), and Thisbe (former outsider searching for some solace) drive and take rides recklessly through the city and countryside, raising hell for better or worse or sometimes just to feel... something. Many reviewers claim the writing is a mix of pretentious and frivolous, or bloated lyrical writing in an attempt to make something out of nothing. And yes, because it mirrors adolescence: everything for these girls (and most of that age) is a personal fable, they want to be over the top, otherwise, how will you see what's on the other side? Making something out of nothing is how they pass the nights: driving around in Juli's Audi, seemingly aimless, blaring music they would be shunned for singing. Their social life is the perfect antithesis of what they're in school to become. Although, I did find it a little off putting that both "bad" girls had to become tamed or perish (Deb Scott- the girls' personal heroine- became Sister St. Joe, a nun at their school, and poor Astrid fell from the school rooftop, dying on impact upon meeting the air shaft forty-two feet below). The ending was bittersweet: yes, Astrid passed away too young and the trio fell apart, but Thisbe is finally able to take back the slur of Whores on the Hill (once you finish it, you'll see what I mean). This whole novel felt like a mash-up of two films: The Smokers (2000) and Reckless (1984), and I mean the song "Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)" has never rung truer. Am I rambling? Yes. Gushing? Absolutely. I wasn't as reckless, but much like Thisbe, I was bitten by the bug of a certain friend resembling Astrid, (someone I've drifted from over the years whose name begins with the letter "H") who made me get out of my own way, made me question if I was being "good" for everyone else as opposed to "good" for me. This book brought back the euphoric terror of being with her and that whole crew again, crammed into cars, ready to take us just outside the city limits, and the limits of self-control.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2025
loved this one! such a quick, interesting read!
for some reason, i enjoy reading stories written in the POV of fucked up teenage girls. it’s just captivating to me and this was definitely one of those stories.
i really liked how the chapters were each their own kind of story, but towards the end there was a sort of cohesive story line.
my fav parts include when we find out Deb Scott is Sister St. Joe?! and she was somehow with Thisbee’s dad?? and then Astrid dying?! such a captivating story!
for some reason, i enjoy reading stories written in the POV of fucked up teenage girls. it’s just captivating to me and this was definitely one of those stories.
i really liked how the chapters were each their own kind of story, but towards the end there was a sort of cohesive story line.
my fav parts include when we find out Deb Scott is Sister St. Joe?! and she was somehow with Thisbee’s dad?? and then Astrid dying?! such a captivating story!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2017
A beautiful, and yet tragic coming of age story. The main character and her girlfriends feel like the popular girls that walked through your high school, and this novel feels like a secret look into their lives. "Whores on the Hill"is filled with raw emotion that is simply too real. I recall lending this to a couple friends back in the day, both of whom stated how amazingly relatable this story truly is.
March 23, 2024
I read this book because I heard it was about a school near me. It was just so bad. For starters, the characters were insufferable. Mean girls. They were trashy trashy trashy. I get that thats what the book was supposed to be about but I believe this book shows a poor deception of how teenage girls should act. These girls never looked after each other and the writing was mediocre at best. Promotes cheating, unsafe sex, drugs etc.
May 29, 2018
excellent
June 1, 2018
I'm a little too young for this book to hit as hard as it hit some people, but I've been in Milwaukee for almost a decade now, and exploring a previous incarnation of my city was fascinating.
July 2, 2021
Vignettes of 1980s private Catholic high school girls gone wild -got awfully dark awfully fast. Tone and some dialogue dead on, with interesting prose.
December 13, 2022
Eu nao consigo nem explicar o quanto eu amo esse livro e o tanto q o final acabou comigo
December 19, 2022
Love this book. Based on my high school and just so fun to read about girls living in my home state and city. I liked that there was more to the plot, that it got deeper at the end.
June 3, 2024
Researching for Lauren's aunt's 🤣
August 10, 2020
First off, if you have any connection to or enthusiasm for Milwaukee in the late 80’s, or enjoy a badass teenage girl coming-of-age story, you should definitely read this book. I grew up in Milwaukee (about 9 years later than these characters), and can 100% verify that this writer perfectly captures the nuances of that specific world. It’s the thrill, the tedium, and the endless, pointless searching for a better time from the back of someone you don’t know very well’s car. There aren’t a lot of places a teenager can go in that city, and the temptation to be bad is huge, even if “Wisconsin nice” filters through it all. The first 3/4 of this book was heaven, with main character Thisbe observing herself and her “friends” as they try their dour best to get through this confusing world. Toward the very end, though, a series of over-the-top melodramatic events and coincidences pile on top of one another, which sadly offsets the impact of that wonderfully relentless, seething, quiet opening. I think including only one of these events would have made for a more successful whole, but still I can’t wait to see what this original, crafty, and honest writer does next - she’s a real talent and her work is overall striking.
March 17, 2016
The girls of Sacred Heart Holy Angels eye the good dancers at the all-ages club Metropolis. They waste afternoons at the mall, check out parties on the lake, burn through candid, casual sex.
Everybody calls them the Whores on the Hill, but they don't care.
It is the mid-'80s and they go to the last all-girls' school in Milwaukee, where innocence is scarce and happiness is something to grabbed at in the backseat of a fast car.
Meet exuberant, uninhibited Astrid, her nervy, troubled friend Juli and Thisbe, the shy, ascetic newcomer. They are fifteen years old. And they believe they can take on the world, no matter what it calls them.
But when euphoric promiscuity mixes with a series of dangerous, deadly pranks, their world at Sacred Heart Holy Angels can never be the same.
“When Thisbe transfers to Sacred Heart Holy Angels shortly after her parents’ divorce, she’s promptly adopted by two beautiful outcasts into what she calls a ‘teenage brand of family’ (even if everyone else just calls them the ‘whores on the hill’). Astrid has ‘hair to her waist like a mess of wheat’ and Juli ‘likes to scratch her arms with the sterilized end of a stick pin.’ All three trick out their uniforms with fishnets and combat boots and line their eyes with kohl; they pop pills with gusto and square off against football players they can’t possibly hope to conquer. Still, this is no cautionary tale, but rather a heartbreaking portrait of what life can be like when, as Thisbe says, ‘you’re fifteen and knobby-kneed and you only had a handful of choices. Your world was small and cruel and narrow-minded and breathtaking.'”
March 15, 2008
This book didnt have much of a storyline, & the story it did have was not good. But I loved the way it was written. It's about teen girls in the 80s (one of my favorite things to read about) & it took place in Milwaukee County, where I live. It had really good descriptions of 80s styles & the culture, & it was fun to read about places I was familiar with. And even though it's an "adult" book with lots of sex & "adult situations" it's written on a teenage level, not like one of those heavy, deep novels where it's an adult looking back, & I liked that. I wouldnt recommend it for teens though, because there's a lot of sex & drug use & it makes it seem glamorous. I enjoyed it, even though the ending sucked. It didnt really go with the rest of the book & I'd have given it 4 stars if it had a different ending. Oh, & these girls werent kidding when they called themselves the "whores on the hill."
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