Skid Dogs

by Emelia Symington-Fedy

"I can't remember the last time I read a book so brave. Maybe never." Ani Difranco

"I fell hard for this scrappy, resilient young heroine of Skid Dogs and the wise narrator that mediates her story. An essential tale of girlhood survival."
- Melissa Febos, Author of Girlhood. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle.

A raw and riveting coming-of-age story about the wild love of teenage friendships and the casual oppression of 90s rape culture. Emelia Symington-Fedy grew up with her girl gang on the railroad tracks of a small town in British Columbia. Unsupervised and wild, the girls explored the power and shortcomings of “best” friendships and their growing sexuality. Two decades later an eighteen-year-old girl is murdered on Halloween on the same tracks, and Symington-Fedy returns to her hometown to stay with her mother, who is fearful of a murderer at large. While the media narrows its focus on how the girl dared be alone on the tracks, Symington-Fedy slowly comes to terms with the mistreatment of her own teenage body. Giving a bold and often darkly humorous first-hand account of nineties rape culture and the sexual coercion that still permeates girlhood, Symington-Fedy holds her hometown close and accountable and exposes the subtle ways that misogyny shows up daily.

Award-winning poet and author Aislinn Hunter describes Skid Dogs as a “riveting, raucous and tender look at growing up a girl in a boy’s world. […] Beautifully written and bravely told, this book is the Stand By Me for girls that’s been far too long in coming.”

Genres: Memoir, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Canada, True Crime, Book Club, Biography Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2024

Reviews

[Mizuki Giffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skid Dogs is a book about small-town girlhood in the most raw, unfiltered, visceral way. Set in Armstrong, BC, it takes place in two separate timelines: Emmy at thirteen, making friends with girls named Bugsy, Aimes, Cristal, and Max, and Emmy in her mid-thirties, returning to Armstrong to take care of her terminally ill mother in the wake of the murder of Taylor Van Diest.

Going into this book, I expected the story of Taylor Van Diest to be the focus, but it ended up being much more than that. Travelling back in time and spending the bulk of this novel in her girlhood, Emelia Symington-Fedy paints a vivid portrait of small town BC in the 90s, and all the harmful things such an upbringing taught her about herself, her body, and who has a right to it.

This book tackles many heavy themes, including sexual assault, murder, and cancer. Surprisingly though, it didn't feel like a overly heavy novel. At times funny, at times bleak in its honesty, but always so engaging that I couldn't put it down, I absolutely adored this book.

Comp. Brutes or The Virgin Suicides

[Stitching Ghost]

I didn't realize this one was a nonfiction until way too late in my reading journey. I'm not sure if it would have changed the way I felt about it if I had realized that earlier. This book should have resonated with me but somehow didn't, it touches on topics that normally hit close to home for me (teens dealing with poverty left to their own devices, the casual misogyny of the 90s, cancer and parental loss) but somehow only felt blasé while reading and the jumps back and forth in time didn't help at all.

No rating because I don't rate memoirs.

[Paige Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5

Rural BC girlhood and grief really just smacked me in the face

[Sarah Petrescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written and structured riveting read by first friend Emelia Symington-Fedy. I laughed, cried, had to look away for some parts and savoured many others. Congrats Emmy, a magnificent accomplishment.

[Michelle Cornish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brave, raw, and real!

This book was a must-read for me as a lover of memoirs and dual timeline stories. I feel like readers who love transgressive fiction would love this book too! Growing up in Armstrong during the 90s, I appreciated the nostalgia and references to things like dewberry and Lipton Noodles & Sauce. The mirrored timelines, linked by the tracks and the horrific events occurring on and around them, added rawness and depth to this incredible book. A true testament to female relationships, small towns, and the dark secrets they keep. You'll think about this book long after you finish the last page!

[Anne Farrer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a memoir+. A searingly raw, small town coming of age story. Captures the visceral joy of teenage girl friendships, and brutally accounts the emotional confusion, rampant sexual coercion and double standards of those years. You can't help but see yourself on this continuum of experiences. A well-written, tough and entertaining read.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take your rose coloured glasses off for what growing up in the 90s meant for teenage girls. Heartbreaking and nuanced, I ached for Emmy and wished she could make better choices, and the men and boys she encountered weren't such cruel jerks.

One annoying thing in this book, though- Vancouver to Armstrong does not take 7 hours!

[Torie Dactyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so goddamn good. It’s yappy and visceral. The feeling this book gave me in my guts is similar to what I felt reading Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club. Highest praise.

[Cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very powerful, raw, upsetting, and uncomfortable memoir. Made even more so by being based in Armstrong, BC. Book club had a lot to say about this, even with the mixed reviews!

[Alexia Ferrari · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a memoir. It’s engaging and at times cringe-worthy

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skid Dogs
By Emelia Symington-Fedy

5/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Audiobook

Poignant display of girldom and teenage angst, small town love, and the instilled mentality of girls bodies as property for our male counterparts umongst generations past.
Set in Armstrong, B.C. and jumping from the early 90’s to the early 2010’s - this is story hit home in many ways. Looping in the murder of Taylor VanDeist on Oct. 31 2011, Emelia takes readers back to her high school years growing up in Armstrong and walking the tracks with her girl crew.
There were parts of the book that left me feeling very uncomfortable - the sexuality and ideas that this group of girls had about their bodies and flippancy in which they dismissed abuses against them broke my heart.
I am grateful for the nerdiness of my early teen years and the naivety it allowed me.
I highly recommend this read to all my small town friends and any women who are working towards changing the dialogue for the next generation.

[Marissa Kielman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but I had to give up at the 60% make. The way the author behaves and treats other people is just too much.

I finished the book for a book club. I am genuinely concerned about the authors lack of empathy

[Lester · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of ones life, told from 'the heart'..is so important!!
Thank you Emelia Symington-Fredy.

I was very happy to see quotes from a fav person..Ani DiFranco!!

The 'culture' of this story though set in the 1990's..could be pretty much any group of girl teen years.
Mine in the 1960's was similar..and today, I see similarities with granddaughters.
Fortunately (in my mind) I am a very open minded and strong voiced Grandma. Ask me a question, any question and I will answer it according to the 'age of understanding'. Also very willing to broach all those past forbidden subjects..knowledge and discussion..open it all up!!
With the No Means No info in the world today..girls know..they really do know..that unfortunately there are way too many 'out there' that will forever be stuck in the 'dark ages' of.."Yeh..what was she wearing?".."Was she drinking?".."Why was she out so late?"..etc. etc.
Grrrr..I have no patience for that thinking..none.

Thank you ES-F for writing this book to open minds and eyes.

[Anne Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally chose to read Skid Dogs by Emelia Symington-Fedy now because it referenced the murder of a young woman on Halloween night, so I thought this would be perfect for my October reading…until I realized it was a) non-fiction and b) not really about Halloween at all. Yikes! The fun of being scared on Halloween suddenly feels artificial and weird when we’re talking about true crime. Once that realization set in I was already a few pages deep into the memoir, and it seemed like a promising book regardless of my initial ignorance, so I was happy to continue reading it. Not quite as dark, it reminded me of another recent read of mine, Sharp Edges by Leah Mol. Both of these books are about young women learning the power of their own bodies and the way this is exploited by boys and men.

Book Summary

On Halloween night in 2011 in a small town in British Columbia, a young woman is murdered on the railroad tracks. Emelia is an adult living in Vancouver when this happens but returns to her hometown to comfort her mother, as this violence has frightened the entire population, putting everyone on edge. Emelia has other reasons to come home; her mother is suffering from another bout of cancer which is rapidly spreading so their time together is limited. The reader is led between two time periods; 2011 following the murder, and the mid-90s when Emelia is a teenager, starting in 1991 when they first move there as a family. Emelia’s parents are divorced and she lives with her younger brother and mother. She quickly makes friends with local girls Aimes, Bugsy, Max and Cristal, and their favourite spot to hang out is the tracks, a place they (ironically) feel safest, hidden from their parents and boys at school who make their lives so difficult. Their friendship is tested and eventually broken by the people around them, various pressures stemming from the impossible expectations placed on young women in small towns.

My Thoughts

Emelia’s book is focused on two specific times in her life; her teenage years, and the period of caregiving for her elderly mother. These two periods are linked by a very specific mindset; a desire for bodily autonomy, and the struggles she faces as she tries to connect with the opposite sex. In both her teenage years and her adulthood, Emelia is plagued by feelings of inadequacy around men. As a young woman she places herself in dangerous situations to seek out validation, and as an adult woman, she is caught between wanting to find a partner who understands her, but not wanting to come across as too emotional or needy. Her mother is tied up in all these emotions because of two specific reasons. When Emelia was a teenager, her and some friends blacked out while drinking and were (very likely) sexually assaulted by some local young men from her school. Their parents punished them, alternating between shame from their actions, and righteousness, telling this this is what they deserved for drinking too much. Fast forward a few decades and Emelia’s mother is desperate to become a grandmother before the cancer overwhelms her, so she’s constantly begging Emelia to find a man and become a mother. The murder of the young woman complicates these emotions for Emelia even further, especially when it’s determined that the young woman would have survived if she would have simply let this man rape her then knock her unconscious; she died because she fought back.

Everything in this book leads back to the railroad tracks. One of the most popular games the young girls play (and return to) is the competition to see how long they could balance on the rails for, and how fast they could run while on on them. This game draws an obvious parallel to the balancing act they must perform as teenagers; being cool enough for each other and their peers while staying within the confines of their parents’ expectations. By switching between adult and teenage Emelia, we learn that she never wins – she is always walking this fine line, whether it be her mother’s expectations, or her boyfriend’s expectations, or what society is expecting of women in general – she can never win.

There is some benefit to hindsight in this book; Emelia eventually realizes how unfairly she and her friends were treated as young women:

“What had happened to us, back then? What had they done? Was there a single sexual encounter that felt mutual, shared? With the language I have now, like coercion and fawning, the answer is no.

But the words rape and assault were saved for struggle and screaming. And we’d allowed it, a lot of the time, their ineptitude. Sometimes we even forced it upon ourselves. So, what’s that called?”

-p.213 of Skid Dogs by Emelia Symington-Fedy
So clearly this wasn’t the spooky Halloween scare I was looking for, but I found this messy, emotional memoir a very worthwhile and captivating read. Although it offers no answers or solutions, it’s a reminder of how powerful peer and societal pressures can be, especially in the lives of women.

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[Kelsey Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Why aren’t guys called sluts?”

Nails-on-a-chalkboard narration aside, this was an excellent read. At times, it hit a little too close to home, necessitating breaks from listening, but it importantly highlighted the “90s rape culture” still present 30 years later.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhh a small town story...rebelliousness born out of a lack of opportunities, this memoir embodies what teenage boredom and curiosity can create. You've got this beautifully mismatched friend group, an opportunity rare in larger cities, who almost parallel play through their teenage years. The storytelling itself is raw and raunchy, innocent and authentic. Recommended.

[Krista Sarmatiuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn’t put it down!
This incredibly raw book takes the reader on a journey into a small BC town, and the experience that was growing up as a young woman in tbe 90s. We follow Emmy, first as she navigates a new hometown as a young teen and later as she returns to it in her 30s, to care for her dying mother. The story is brutally honest, sharing Emmy’s experience of growing up, fitting in and finding her way.
The story is beautifully written, painting such clear pictures in each scene that it felt like I was wandering through the town myself, watching the story unfold. This made the most raw moments even more raw, pushing the reader to confront the imbalance of power and sexual expectations placed on young women.
It took me back to my own coming of age in the late 70s early 80s, floated up memories buried deep, surfacing feelings carefully kept in check. Connected to the story at a visceral level, I was rooting hard for Emmy all the way through. This is the power of great writing.

[Phebe May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad this book was written. It reminded me of my own world view and the way I used to think as a teenager and young adult. At times I felt almost sick with the memories…how could that have been normal? But, it was. It made me think about how sexual culture and consent might be different for my teenage and young adult daughters. I think it is. Thank God. Lots of work to do still.

[Lindsey Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tale of resilience that loses me in the chosen parallel stories which seem irrelevant to one another and feels unnecessarily shocking without resolve.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searing honesty in portraying a teen girl's growing sexual awareness from 1991 to 1996 and her later look back in 2011 left me often feeling a frustrating blend of disgust and dismay. The disgust is with the boys and their callousness, which Symington-Fedy and her four gal pals seemed to accept as part of their lot in life--at least in the beginning. As the author gives blow-by-blow descriptions of her sexual encounters, it's hard to "watch" and not feel angry. I was therefore disappointed when she doesn't later try to analyze her motives beyond wanting to be accepted (more like used) by boys. She recognizes that she had a need for attention, but seems to blame the culture for her choices and not her nature. Her friend Max manages to extricate herself from this male domination by the age of sixteen, finishing off school early. Two of the other friends stick with their first boyfriends and the other friend seems to put her sports first, avoiding the dating scene.

I admit that as a teen I didn't know the "rape" culture, as the book jacket proclaims, but I do know a little of the small-town culture that she grew up in (I lived 20 years earlier in a community over the hill from Armstrong). In my time the girls didn't form gangs as such (nor did the boys). They might be on a basketball team or a cheerleader, but other than those kinds of events, they were more splintered. We also didn't get to party at the age of fourteen and even fifteen, unless an older boyfriend was in the picture. Birth control was just becoming available, though many girls with boyfriends ended up pregnant nonetheless.

The town of Armstrong as Symington-Fedy depicts in her memoir is full of rowdy, randy teens teaming with hormones and nasty gossip. (Or maybe just her group's lives were living this way.) Reading about their often misguided attempts to be accepted is like watching a car accident in progress--fascinating yet somewhat depressing.

Teenaged Symington-Fedy and her hard-working single mother have an often volatile relationship. Her mother prides herself of being independent, and her daughter seems to admire that independence at the same time as feeling ignored by a mother who is constantly working. I can understand her mom's frustration at her often antagonistic and self-absorbed daughter. She is a nurse who suffers bravely through cancer treatments in the two time periods in which the story takes place. I can only imagine how hard that was to handle, and it's no wonder that she doesn't keep a more firm grasp on the goings-on of her headstrong, drama-queen teenager. The two of them do tend towards a gift for the dramatic--some scenes depict their overly dramatic reactions as their struggle comes to a head.

In the later time period of 2011, we see how this lack of connection with her mother still affects her when she seems at times callous as her mother is finally succumbing to cancer. The two both need something from the other, yet can't quite deliver. Symington-Fedy's mother grasps for healing and meaning through alternative and group therapy, and her daughter likewise often engages in magical thinking as she tries to navigate her mother's illness.

The town of Armstrong is described vividly, especially the railway tracks that are the featured link in the two spheres of this memoir--1991 and 2011. The town left its mark on the author, and I can only imagine the mark she's made on the town with her memoir of growing up there.

[Meriel R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emelia Symington-Fedy has written an engrossing, up close, brutally honest account of what it was like to be one of "those" girls navigating teen-hood in the 90's in small town BC. We all either knew them - or were one of them - in our high schools. The girls who had the tough, I-couldn't-give-a-shit attitude, surrounded by their "girl gang", getting the attention of boys and being at the centre of rumours of questionable validity. Let Emelia, or "Em", take you into that world. Prepare to be shocked, amused, educated and sympathetic as you witness her journey. As an onlooker, many would have seen a clique of carefree girls, getting into all kinds of trouble, laughing their way through it all. But inside the head of Em, we experience quite a different story.

And that's only half of it! Fast forward to 2011: just when Emelia meets her life partner and is ready to start a family of her own far away from the place she grew up, her mother - a fiercely independent woman with clearly unresolved issues repeatedly misdirected toward her daughter - needs Emmy to come home to look after her as she battles cancer- again. The complexities of caring for a parent who was often incapable of adequately caring for her child in her formative years are explored with such candor, one cannot help but feel compassion for both women as they push and pull away from each other, sorting through their convoluted array of emotions that surface all while Emelia is faced with her past bleeding in to her present. It's a definite page turner that's hard to put down.

[Alicea Cavanaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ rounded down

I love to read in bed and this book had me up until past midnight reading

I was expecting this book to be more about the Taylor Van Diest murder and her memorial trail but instead was a coming of age novel about Emmy, and her groups of girls. Split between two timelines, 1992 and 2012, flipping back and forth between two time periods, showing the parallel’s of time.

Emmy moves to Armstrong in 1992 at the age of 12, meets a group of 4 girls and instantly becomes best friends with them, they make packs about when they will date, drink, become women, have sex for the first time, and every in between. This book is about all the broken promises of friendship, the hurt that families can cause, the traumatic relationships with parents, the pressures young girls feel from wanting to be loved and cared for by young boys, and all the pain and suffering that comes from giving your body away too early.

This novel was heart breaking and made me question many decisions made in teenage years. Overall it was well written, but some of the under lying messages fell short when the accompanying stories told with it. I hate to say that the writing could have been executed better as this is a recollection of past memories.

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a reflective coming of age short and quick read.

[Carolyn Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 95 of 2023 - “Skid Dogs” by Emelia Symington-Fedy. Wow ! This is a real life story that doesn’t gloss over or pretty up the harsh parts of teenage life. The author returns to her small home town (Armstrong BC) to help her terrified mother after a teenage girl is murdered on the nearby rails road tracks. This where she grew and has her coming of age, but this return opens old soul as and starts her questioning what happened and why. She was a teenager there in the 90’s, pre the Me Too era where rape culture and misogyny were just part of life and something her and her gang of girlfriends just had to deal with using their bodies for bargaining and gaining independence or affection.
The story is beautifully written and has been described as a Stand By Me for girls. I think it should be read by older teens to see how far the awareness of consent etc has come, but also how it can still be used against women.
I could see this being made into a film too. Slated for release September 9th 2023. Thanks to @talismanonpender @douglasmci @utp_distribution @emeliasf for the #ARC

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skid Dogs is a memoir told in two parts. The first part, which is told in the early 1990s, is the author's story about her girlhood. She moved to Armstrong, BC and ran into a bunch of girls hanging out on the railroad tracks. The tracks in Armstrong are a way of shortcutting through town, and many people use them. It's like a network for teens.

These girls become friends and allies. The 1990s section of the book felt quite real to me and realistically disturbing. There is date rape, and coercion from boys, and way too much drinking, and young women doing things they probably shouldn't be doing because they don't know better. Friendships come together and break apart.

The second half of the book is set in the 2010s, when the author returns to Armstrong to help her mother, who is dealing with cancer. The author learns about the recent murder of a teenage girl, and it reminds her of her own girlhood.

I came away from this book remembering some of the coercive things that happened to women I knew in the 1990s. I remembered the pressure to do certain things to fit in. This was a dark book and a page turner for me.

[Blair Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ugh. This book hurt so good. It brought up a lot of uncomfortable memories for me, and a lot of good ones.

I am just about 2-3 years younger than Symington-Fedy and her crew, and I also grew up in a small BC community so to say this book was relatable is an understatement. I was transported back to high school in the 90s and the fear and excitement of house parties, those awkward and fumbling (also confusing and sometimes painful) first sexual experiences. The closeness and safety I felt with my girlfriends and how we banded together to face the world.

I was impressed by the way S-F is able to transport us back to those early teen impressions without the lens of wisdom and judgment of her older self. She fully exposes the gritty and grotesque rawness of those years and calls out the sickness in our culture which tells young people that girls' bodies only exist for the pleasure of boys and can be taken at will.

I listened to the audiobook (narrated by the author) and it was phenomenal - hearing memoirs read in their true voice always feels really special.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coming of age story of a teen girl in Armstrong, BC, and what it was like growing up in a small town during the 90s. Heartbreakingly accurate, but hopeful at the same time. Themes of rape culture, small town attitudes, cancer, and life as a teen in a rural area 20-30 years ago. There were a lot of things I totally forgot about until they came crashing back while reading. I couldn’t put the book down.

The book is non-fiction, told by the author who returns to her hometown as a CBC documentarian to cover the 2011 murder of a teen. The story flipped from past to present. I liked the story of the past but I really wish there was more of the 2011 story. I wanted more and felt it was kind of glossed over, particularly at the end.

Growing up nearby, I found it a very interesting read. Recommend.

[Susan Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing style of this book is very engaging, and allows the reader to feel like they are right there observing the environment or interactions. I was brought into the recounting from the first few pages. It was also shocking to witness the pervasiveness of sexualization of young, barely teenage women, how normalized it was. And the level of substance use at such young ages. I enjoy a narrative where I really don't like the protagonist, and here I could align with the teen version of the writer, but her inability to hold compassion and connection with her mother as an adult, to be more than the wounds she carried was challenging for me. A character, in this case, a real one - this is a memoir, who has me reacting this much, has done a very very good job in honestly telling her experience.

[Suzan Milburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Skid Dogs" by Emelia Symington Fedy resonates deeply with me, offering a profound exploration of the societal pressures placed on young girls to know their value through their attractiveness to boys. As I immersed myself in the book, I felt a personal connection to the author's journey, transitioning from the author’s unconscious adoration of males (and my own) to self-awareness as a married woman facing the challenges of childbirth and the loss of her mother. Symington Fedy's storytelling really engaged me. She skillfully combines the awkward, the humorous, and the poignant, evoking a sense of gratitude for life and an appreciation for the complexities of female friendships. This book is honest and vulnerable and brilliantly written!

[Karyn Huenemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an extremely brave book. And exceptionally well crafted.

Having grown up in a small BC town (complete with train tracks, although ours included a tunnel and a trestle, and were therefore more if a challenge than a conduit), I feel the honesty here. But my own insular, sheltered life prevented me from seeing the reality my peers might have been living. Skids Dogs brings up memories of echoes in the hallways that I did not understand at the time… name-calling that slid past me… I could feel the anger and pain, but it wasn’t mine. It wasn’t my world. I could ignore it. Skid Dogs makes me see what my classmates might have been dealing with that I had no ability to even begin to comprehend.

I wish I had read this before I raised my daughter.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

For weeks before the release of this book, I relentlessly hounded my local bookstore for when they were releasing it for sale. It was a hassle to get my hands on it, but it was worth the wait.

Skid Dogs is ripe with a violent girlhood, full of love and longing. There is something deeply nostalgic about being a teenage girl between 12-17, and Skid Dogs unlocked so many things I forgot about myself then.

What an electric book about rape culture and the community of women. It reminded me of all the girls I loved but grew apart from. I miss you Emily. I miss you Amelia. I miss you Jude, and Lucy, and Sushanta, and Juliette, and Rachael. I miss all the girls I got was fortunate to exist with as a girl.