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Little Wrecks
In this haunting and explosive debut, Meredith Miller explores the truth behind three girls on the cusp of adulthood, and all the shocking realizations that come under the guise of growing up. Perfect for fans of I’ll Give You the Sun and Girl in Pieces.
Ruth, Magda, and Isabel are different from everyone else. They can see beneath the seemingly perfect, cookie-cutter exterior of their small town of Highbone, Long Island. They know that below the surface, each house is filled with secrets, indifference, and violence.
These girls refuse to become willing participants of these fake lives. Instead, they are determined to fight every condescending comment, every unwelcome touch, and every lie they’ve been told.
When the opportunity to commit the perfect crime appears, the girls finally start to see their way out of Highbone. But for the first time, Ruth, Magda, and Isabel are keeping secrets from each other. As they drift apart, the weight of reality starts to set in. These girls can’t save each other. They might not even be able to save themselves.
“Darkly atmospheric and brutally honest, Little Wrecks depicts girls becoming women in a society that devalues both.”—Mindy McGinnis, author of Female of the Species
Ruth, Magda, and Isabel are different from everyone else. They can see beneath the seemingly perfect, cookie-cutter exterior of their small town of Highbone, Long Island. They know that below the surface, each house is filled with secrets, indifference, and violence.
These girls refuse to become willing participants of these fake lives. Instead, they are determined to fight every condescending comment, every unwelcome touch, and every lie they’ve been told.
When the opportunity to commit the perfect crime appears, the girls finally start to see their way out of Highbone. But for the first time, Ruth, Magda, and Isabel are keeping secrets from each other. As they drift apart, the weight of reality starts to set in. These girls can’t save each other. They might not even be able to save themselves.
“Darkly atmospheric and brutally honest, Little Wrecks depicts girls becoming women in a society that devalues both.”—Mindy McGinnis, author of Female of the Species
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 27, 2017
36 people are currently reading
2361 people want to read
About the author
Meredith Miller
8 books79 followersI grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, in New York. I've lived all over America but these days I live and teach in Wales. I'm a published academic now writing fiction (and still a lot of critical stuff). I like to write novels featuring hard-boiled women. I also love language, sometimes to distraction.
I made this profile as an author, but I really enjoy being a reader here. I am happy to answer questions about my books, but also just to chat about whatever people are reading. I love nineteenth-century novels, geeky non-fiction and contemporary genre stuff, when it's well written.
I made this profile as an author, but I really enjoy being a reader here. I am happy to answer questions about my books, but also just to chat about whatever people are reading. I love nineteenth-century novels, geeky non-fiction and contemporary genre stuff, when it's well written.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
July 27, 2019
fulfilling my 2019 goal to read (at least) one book each month that i bought in hardcover and put off reading long enough that it is now in paperback.
What’s the point of flinching? Whatever is coming comes anyway.
this is a novel that refuses to be tidy or conclusive or moralistic. it also resists the conventional expectations of novelistic structure. not that it’s experimental or flashy, but it’s hard for me to even define its plot, its message, its ‘whatness.’ technically, i suppose it’s the ‘whyness’ i’m having difficulty pinning down, but that makes it sound like i’m saying “why was this written?,” and that has the implicit weight of criticism attached which is not at all my intention.
it’s a novel much more focused on character and atmosphere than on plot. things certainly happen, but the synopsis is a bit misleading, and it’s more concerned with exploring the shifting dynamic between its three main teengirl characters: ruth, magda, and isabel over the course of one summer in their long island hometown of highbone.
it's a little muddled at first—the chapters alternate between third-person POVs of the three girls, but the voices aren't wildly differentiated. the characters' experiences become quite distinct and specific, but they are difficult to navigate at the beginning—the early chapters are detail-rich, heavy with backstory and info-dumped specifics before we get to 'know' the personalities, and it's a lot to keep track of right outta the gate.
the story takes place just after the vietnam war, and highbone is full of men who have come back with nothing; homeless and shattered from their experiences, roughening up the picturesque town’s beaches and bandstands with their presence:
DIGRESSION: i myself am from rhode island, and am unsure what “Rhode Island types” are, but the description of this town’s economic disparity reminded me very much of newport; “the dividing lines, the different worlds.” we’re not all fancy folk, and someone’s gotta clean all those mansions and live “away from the beach and the bluffs and the old arts and crafts houses.”END OF DIGRESSION
even before the war, even without the presence of these ‘broken men,’ highbone is a town saturated with menace, particularly for its women, its girls. the menace is exaggerated, almost hyperbolic; the girls are exposed to or are themselves victims of rape, assault, beatings, gropings, the expectation of sexual favors, even the local cop ogles isabel’s ‘sixteen-year-old legs.’
in short, it's a shitty place for a girl to become a woman, for reasons both individual and bigger-picture:
in the absence of suitable maternal figures (one ran away from her abusive husband, one is in and out of institutions, and one is a pot-smoking hippie with a laissez-faire approach to parenting), the girls look for their life lessons elsewhere. there’s vicky, former stripper and prostitute, current dunkin’ donuts employee:
isabel, for one, envies vicky’s freedom to come and go as she pleases, and considers stripping at the town’s local club to be one of the few places to make enough money to finally escape the stifling confines of her life:
the other maternal stand-in is doris—the big, blonde badass & brassy girlfriend of a biker, who encounters the girls wandering the streets late one night after a group of jocks have yelled sexually aggressive things and thrown a vodka bottle at them.
if you think that this doesn’t sound like a YA novel, you’re right. the girls have a world-weary perspective uncommon in actual teens, leading to articulations like: "Show me a woman who doesn’t fantasize about hurting herself,” Ruth says, “and I’ll show you a liar.”
scrolling down to see the author fielding a question about reader-age-appropriateness for the book, her answer is very clarifying:
Though Little Wrecks is about three teen girls, it's really an adult literary novel that got sold as YA. People who like it tend to be readers who like literary. A warning: there a [sic] drugs, mental health issues and sexual violence.
it does not read like YA. not because of the intensity or the subject matter or even the too-adult observations of its characters. it’s more about the shape of it—its build and its resolution and its pretty damn bleak conclusion. it's not an empowering grrrrl novel. there's violence and consequences and bad decisions, and, ultimately, the girls can't even count on each other. it's a coming-of-age novel that focuses on the fracturing that occurs in adolescent relationships as each girl's problems and choices lead her down a different path towards selfhood.
i still don't know what the takeaway of the novel is meant to be, other than "life is hard for girls," but i really enjoyed reading it, and it's got a lot of power, although maybe better appreciated by adult readers.
come to my blog!
What’s the point of flinching? Whatever is coming comes anyway.
this is a novel that refuses to be tidy or conclusive or moralistic. it also resists the conventional expectations of novelistic structure. not that it’s experimental or flashy, but it’s hard for me to even define its plot, its message, its ‘whatness.’ technically, i suppose it’s the ‘whyness’ i’m having difficulty pinning down, but that makes it sound like i’m saying “why was this written?,” and that has the implicit weight of criticism attached which is not at all my intention.
it’s a novel much more focused on character and atmosphere than on plot. things certainly happen, but the synopsis is a bit misleading, and it’s more concerned with exploring the shifting dynamic between its three main teengirl characters: ruth, magda, and isabel over the course of one summer in their long island hometown of highbone.
it's a little muddled at first—the chapters alternate between third-person POVs of the three girls, but the voices aren't wildly differentiated. the characters' experiences become quite distinct and specific, but they are difficult to navigate at the beginning—the early chapters are detail-rich, heavy with backstory and info-dumped specifics before we get to 'know' the personalities, and it's a lot to keep track of right outta the gate.
the story takes place just after the vietnam war, and highbone is full of men who have come back with nothing; homeless and shattered from their experiences, roughening up the picturesque town’s beaches and bandstands with their presence:
The three of them pass by the weird mix of preppies and homeless people sprinkled around outside Flannagan’s Bar, and walk, singing, past the floating docks by the playground. They pass all the broken men returned from Vietnam, twitching and hallucinating on the benches at the bottom of Main Street. It’s four years since the war really ended, but the human wreckage is still lying around everywhere. It doesn’t match with the Rhode Island types in their sailboats, moored in the harbor, the picture-postcard park and the Victorian shop fronts.
DIGRESSION: i myself am from rhode island, and am unsure what “Rhode Island types” are, but the description of this town’s economic disparity reminded me very much of newport; “the dividing lines, the different worlds.” we’re not all fancy folk, and someone’s gotta clean all those mansions and live “away from the beach and the bluffs and the old arts and crafts houses.”END OF DIGRESSION
even before the war, even without the presence of these ‘broken men,’ highbone is a town saturated with menace, particularly for its women, its girls. the menace is exaggerated, almost hyperbolic; the girls are exposed to or are themselves victims of rape, assault, beatings, gropings, the expectation of sexual favors, even the local cop ogles isabel’s ‘sixteen-year-old legs.’
in short, it's a shitty place for a girl to become a woman, for reasons both individual and bigger-picture:
"We have to get out of this town, woman. Think about it. My mom hides behind the couch for days on end and my dad won't even call her a doctor. The one road to opportunity is working for the mob in a topless bar. Every time you go to the bathroom in Dunkin' Donuts, you get felt up by some diseased creep in a napalm jacket. You can't spit in the park without hitting some guy who got his brain put in a blender in Vietnam. Ruth's mom is the coolest parent we have between us, and she has to clean the toilets of a shallow bitch like Mrs. Hancock. Your little brother gets lost in the middle of the night, and you can't even count on your dad not to take it out on you. No, no, no. We do not belong here, and this place will crush us, Magda. Has it escaped your notice that the main road in and out of here is freakin' called the LIE? It's a pit of untruth, you can't climb out without getting some on you."
in the absence of suitable maternal figures (one ran away from her abusive husband, one is in and out of institutions, and one is a pot-smoking hippie with a laissez-faire approach to parenting), the girls look for their life lessons elsewhere. there’s vicky, former stripper and prostitute, current dunkin’ donuts employee:
Her hair is bleached like Jean Harlow, but with inch-deep roots as dark as FBI shoes. The pink uniform makes her look even paler than she is. She has two scabs on her chin, and you can see the scar on her upper arm from the time she ran away to the city and got cut up by a john in the subway. Vicky still has that deep, dead junkie look in her eyes. That’s what makes every guy that sees her want to touch her, no matter how many other guys have been there before them. Something about that crazy emptiness turns guys on.
isabel, for one, envies vicky’s freedom to come and go as she pleases, and considers stripping at the town’s local club to be one of the few places to make enough money to finally escape the stifling confines of her life:
"Guys will pay to look at you naked. How nuts is that? They’re always gonna be grabbing us and shoving their hard-ons up against us. There’s no stopping ‘em; we might as well work somewhere with a bouncer and charge them for it.”
the other maternal stand-in is doris—the big, blonde badass & brassy girlfriend of a biker, who encounters the girls wandering the streets late one night after a group of jocks have yelled sexually aggressive things and thrown a vodka bottle at them.
"Let me tell you the secret…Put it right out there…Sex…Men are actually terrified of it. All this crap about libidos and blue balls and frigid housewives—it’s a scam. Trust me. Never been with a guy who wanted to fuck more than I did. Acting like you don’t want it just helps them feel in control. Is that your mission?…So, put it right out there. Wear that shit on the outside. Nobody’ll bother you unless they already feel up for it. They won’t need to cut your feet to get their hard-ons back.”
if you think that this doesn’t sound like a YA novel, you’re right. the girls have a world-weary perspective uncommon in actual teens, leading to articulations like: "Show me a woman who doesn’t fantasize about hurting herself,” Ruth says, “and I’ll show you a liar.”
scrolling down to see the author fielding a question about reader-age-appropriateness for the book, her answer is very clarifying:
Though Little Wrecks is about three teen girls, it's really an adult literary novel that got sold as YA. People who like it tend to be readers who like literary. A warning: there a [sic] drugs, mental health issues and sexual violence.
it does not read like YA. not because of the intensity or the subject matter or even the too-adult observations of its characters. it’s more about the shape of it—its build and its resolution and its pretty damn bleak conclusion. it's not an empowering grrrrl novel. there's violence and consequences and bad decisions, and, ultimately, the girls can't even count on each other. it's a coming-of-age novel that focuses on the fracturing that occurs in adolescent relationships as each girl's problems and choices lead her down a different path towards selfhood.
i still don't know what the takeaway of the novel is meant to be, other than "life is hard for girls," but i really enjoyed reading it, and it's got a lot of power, although maybe better appreciated by adult readers.
come to my blog!
May 5, 2017
4 stars. Really weird?? But I kind of loved it.
First things first: this book has weird prose. I still can't decide whether I liked the writing style. At points, there's almost too much purple prose and the metaphors killed me a bit, but there are also points where the prose personally murdered me and left me near tears. I think the writing style is going to be very divisive between readers.
The thing is, the writing style can't bother me, because everything else about this book was so pitch-perfect.
Little Wrecks stands out mainly because of the character work. Isabelle is reckless and independent and desperate to get out of this town no matter what. Ruth, my personal favorite, is desperate to avoid her mother's fate. She loves her mother for being kind, but hates her for being more like a best friend and less like a mom. Ruth does some terrible things, lives through the consequences, and comes out stronger. Her character arc is very, very strong. Magda wants to save her brother and her best friends from themselves. She comes off as stern and level-headed compared to her two reckless friends, but she's also desperate to be loved. All three of these characters are developed and relatable.
These characters would've almost certainly made me give this book a 4.5, were it not for the unnecessarily sad ending. Keep in mind here that I usually prefer happy endings after dark character studies, and I don't like tragedy as a story format. The ending wasn't an explicit tragedy– it's really only terrible for one character. I just feel like a lot was wasted with that ending. These characters spend 300 pages growing and changing, and yet one of them ends up meeting a tragic end anyway. It doesn't work for me.
Still, this book is absolutely recommended.
div17: latinx mc
First things first: this book has weird prose. I still can't decide whether I liked the writing style. At points, there's almost too much purple prose and the metaphors killed me a bit, but there are also points where the prose personally murdered me and left me near tears. I think the writing style is going to be very divisive between readers.
The thing is, the writing style can't bother me, because everything else about this book was so pitch-perfect.
Little Wrecks stands out mainly because of the character work. Isabelle is reckless and independent and desperate to get out of this town no matter what. Ruth, my personal favorite, is desperate to avoid her mother's fate. She loves her mother for being kind, but hates her for being more like a best friend and less like a mom. Ruth does some terrible things, lives through the consequences, and comes out stronger. Her character arc is very, very strong. Magda wants to save her brother and her best friends from themselves. She comes off as stern and level-headed compared to her two reckless friends, but she's also desperate to be loved. All three of these characters are developed and relatable.
These characters would've almost certainly made me give this book a 4.5, were it not for the unnecessarily sad ending. Keep in mind here that I usually prefer happy endings after dark character studies, and I don't like tragedy as a story format. The ending wasn't an explicit tragedy– it's really only terrible for one character. I just feel like a lot was wasted with that ending. These characters spend 300 pages growing and changing, and yet one of them ends up meeting a tragic end anyway. It doesn't work for me.
Still, this book is absolutely recommended.
div17: latinx mc
May 11, 2017
(I received an advance copy of this book for free. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)
This was a YA story about three girls who stole some pot and then didn’t know how to sell it on.
Firstly, I’m not sure what time period this book was set in, but all the cars had cassette players, and nobody had a mobile phone, so it obviously wasn’t this decade!
This story had three main characters, Isabel, Magda, and Ruth, and at times I had trouble knowing who the story was following as it was written in third person. Isabel was a bit of a rebel, and liked to get revenge on people, Magda had a younger brother who she cared about and a mother who had run away, and Ruth was sick of her mother’s string of boyfriends.
The storyline in this was mainly about the girls stealing some weed from a dealer and getting him in trouble with the people who supplied the weed. This was a little odd, especially as the dealer in question was supposed to be a friend of theirs, and once they’d stolen it they then didn’t know how to sell it on, so they didn’t really benefit from the theft at all. We also had storylines about Isabel stealing from a cop, someone going missing, and a sexual assault, but I found the story a little odd, and had trouble following what was going on at times.
The ending to this was okay, but I did find this to be quite an odd story overall.
6.25 out of 10
“They want to steal his weed and turn his life upside down,”
This was a YA story about three girls who stole some pot and then didn’t know how to sell it on.
Firstly, I’m not sure what time period this book was set in, but all the cars had cassette players, and nobody had a mobile phone, so it obviously wasn’t this decade!
This story had three main characters, Isabel, Magda, and Ruth, and at times I had trouble knowing who the story was following as it was written in third person. Isabel was a bit of a rebel, and liked to get revenge on people, Magda had a younger brother who she cared about and a mother who had run away, and Ruth was sick of her mother’s string of boyfriends.
The storyline in this was mainly about the girls stealing some weed from a dealer and getting him in trouble with the people who supplied the weed. This was a little odd, especially as the dealer in question was supposed to be a friend of theirs, and once they’d stolen it they then didn’t know how to sell it on, so they didn’t really benefit from the theft at all. We also had storylines about Isabel stealing from a cop, someone going missing, and a sexual assault, but I found the story a little odd, and had trouble following what was going on at times.
The ending to this was okay, but I did find this to be quite an odd story overall.
6.25 out of 10
January 1, 2018
I️ was so excited to read this book after I️ read a free sample of I️t on my nook. However, I️ was very disappointed. The premise sounded right up my alley and I️ was expecting an exploration of the relationships between teenage girls, full of discovery and secrets. The scenes with all three girls seemed stiff and the way they talked felt unrealistic and pretentious to me. They didn’t even seem to like each other all the much and spent much of the book angry. The whole story was hard to follow because all three girls had very similar voices. I️ kept having to flip back to see who’s chapter I️t was. I found the minor characters to be better written and more intriguing than Isabel, Magda, and Ruth but a few times I️ had trouble remembering the backstory of the secondary characters and what their relationships were with the girls. Overall the book had a tremendous amount of potential, but the slow, sometimes confusing plot made I️t hard to like as much as I️ wanted to. I️ loved the writing style and a few passages were so beautiful I️ stopped reading to think about them. The three female protagonists didn’t have much going for them. I️ loved Ruth, but I️ found Isabel to be extremely irritating and Magda was just depressing. In fact, the entire story was very depressing. Obviously it’s about three girls who are very trapped by society but I️t seemed unnecessary how absolutely nothing went right for these poor girls. There were no moments of hope or even slight reprieves from the endless instances of how little the girls were valued in their world and I️t made I️t hard to finish the book. I’ve read depressing books before, but this one just felt heavy and I️ had to force myself to slog through I️t. Despite all this, the gorgeous writing and occasional thoughtful insights rescued I️t from the painful melodrama and lack of action of the plot. Minor characters such as Henry, Doris, and Lefty were very interesting and well-written, and they added depth that the story lacked.
Conclusion: 3/5
Disappointing based on my expectations after reading the blurb, but beautifully written with fascinating minor characters.
Conclusion: 3/5
Disappointing based on my expectations after reading the blurb, but beautifully written with fascinating minor characters.
June 18, 2017
GRADE: D-
1 STAR
LITTLE WRECKS takes place in 1979, which I guess makes this novel a period piece. I was around the same age as the three friends during 1979 and Meredith Miller does a good job accurately depicting the era.
I preordered and eagerly anticipated the release of LITTLE WRECKS and I was disappointed. Miller's writing turned me off with lots of telling and little showing. Simple sentence structure can be an effective means of creating intensity, emotion and tension like in GIRL IN PIECES and SPEAK. To me LITTLE WRECKS read more like a high school English story and I was bored throughout the book. I felt nothing for the characters.
I'm clearly in the minority with others rating higher on Goodreads so read the preview before deciding whether you want to read LITTLE WRECKS.
1 STAR
LITTLE WRECKS takes place in 1979, which I guess makes this novel a period piece. I was around the same age as the three friends during 1979 and Meredith Miller does a good job accurately depicting the era.
I preordered and eagerly anticipated the release of LITTLE WRECKS and I was disappointed. Miller's writing turned me off with lots of telling and little showing. Simple sentence structure can be an effective means of creating intensity, emotion and tension like in GIRL IN PIECES and SPEAK. To me LITTLE WRECKS read more like a high school English story and I was bored throughout the book. I felt nothing for the characters.
I'm clearly in the minority with others rating higher on Goodreads so read the preview before deciding whether you want to read LITTLE WRECKS.
July 17, 2017
these girls can’t save each other. they might not even be able to save themselves.
T H O U G H T S:
this just didn't work for me. first of all, too much information was lacking (what time period is this set in?!). secondly, the spark was missing; i felt no connection to the characters and was anything but compelled to keep turning pages. the premise promised a 'haunting and explosive' exploration of obsessive female relationships and dark criminal secrets. instead, i find myself lost in an underdeveloped story about stolen weed and what-are-we-going-to-do-next-we-did-not-think-this-through. sorry, but there was nothing to keep me emotionally engaged or interested in the juvenile antics of three desperate teenage girls.
R A T I N G:
plot // 1
pacing // 1
language // 2
story world // 1
protagonist // 2
antagonist // 1
secondary characters // 1
T H O U G H T S:
this just didn't work for me. first of all, too much information was lacking (what time period is this set in?!). secondly, the spark was missing; i felt no connection to the characters and was anything but compelled to keep turning pages. the premise promised a 'haunting and explosive' exploration of obsessive female relationships and dark criminal secrets. instead, i find myself lost in an underdeveloped story about stolen weed and what-are-we-going-to-do-next-we-did-not-think-this-through. sorry, but there was nothing to keep me emotionally engaged or interested in the juvenile antics of three desperate teenage girls.
R A T I N G:
plot // 1
pacing // 1
language // 2
story world // 1
protagonist // 2
antagonist // 1
secondary characters // 1
April 19, 2021
My first 1 star book of the year. This book was karma for talking about how lucky I had been so far this year when it comes to the books I'd been reading.
The characters were annoying and lifeless. They had no depth and I couldn't feel bad for any of them because they were all such awful people.
I don't even get why the 3 girls were friends in the first place. They all seemed to kind of hate each other. Specifically Ruth and Magdalene seemed to hate Isabel. Like a lot. So 1. why did they hang out with her and 2. why did she hang out with them.
Not to mention the weed stealing plot was boring and Henry getting lost at the end seemed like a cheap shot at a good ending.
I cannot wait to remove this from my shelf.
The characters were annoying and lifeless. They had no depth and I couldn't feel bad for any of them because they were all such awful people.
I don't even get why the 3 girls were friends in the first place. They all seemed to kind of hate each other. Specifically Ruth and Magdalene seemed to hate Isabel. Like a lot. So 1. why did they hang out with her and 2. why did she hang out with them.
Not to mention the weed stealing plot was boring and Henry getting lost at the end seemed like a cheap shot at a good ending.
I cannot wait to remove this from my shelf.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2022
the best book i’ve ever read. it’s been months and yet i still think about this.
June 21, 2017
I finished this book in two days so I obviously loved it! I was fascinated by Magda, Ruth and Isabelle and their complicated lives and friendship. This coming of age story was so relatable. When I first started the book I thought "these girls are so f-ed up!" but as the story went on I realized that I saw pieces of my teenage self in each of them. I was engaged and emotionally involved through the whole book and I didn't want it to end.
I listened to the audio version and the narration was perfect. She had a nice, clean voice and style without any of the theatrics that audiobook narrators sometimes use. It made the story very easy to listen to for an extended period of time and I found myself listening a lot longer than I usually do in one sitting.
I listened to the audio version and the narration was perfect. She had a nice, clean voice and style without any of the theatrics that audiobook narrators sometimes use. It made the story very easy to listen to for an extended period of time and I found myself listening a lot longer than I usually do in one sitting.
August 6, 2019
I loved this book, and am puzzled by the number of poor reviews, especially those that cannot identify the time period (er... what about the zillion references to the Vietnam war?), or mis-spell the protagonists' names or say that Meredith 'tells but doesn't show'. Genuinely puzzled. I wonder if the advance review copy was very different - or whether the reviewers simply need to read something different. (Maybe this is a problem with publishers sending out advance copies.)
I am interested in the concept of three protagonists, all as viewpoint characters rather than omniscient. I have been mulling over why I got them muddled, and I have come to the conclusion that it is voice. Although they each have different modus operandi, different interests and increasingly separate paths, I am not sure that any of their voices were distinct enough for me to be certain at any point who was speaking. This is an observation not a criticism, because I think this might accurately reflect the homogeneity of teenage girls (or boys, but we are discussing girls here). You only have to overhear a few contemporary teenage girl's saying "And I was, like..." to be reminded of this.
However, although, technically, each chapter started with the character clearly identified, I think it did contribute to me not being quite sure who had done what, or which family they came from (did they have a mother hidden behind the settee, or had their mother left?). At times I felt I would have liked a small spreadsheet, but that's just me! I think on second reading (and there definitely will be a second reading) I will be clearer, and spot things that didn't register the first time. Because there is a lot in this book.
The other thing I specifically liked is how it felt such a 'complete' book, despite not knowing what happened to poor Lefty, nor what Henry had to say about Magda's departure. Psychologically everything felt really tied up and rounded off at the end ). I love that they took the weed back - there are just so many little pointers to these being good people. Teenagers get such bad press, and on the surface you can see why. But this books is a brilliant depiction of burrowing into the reasons behind 'delinquency'.
I did wonder, a little bit, whether the girls' precociousness was a true reflection of the teenage characters, or whether their insight and wisdom better reflected the adult author. But far be it from me to suggest that a novel should dumb down on sophistication just to be more believable. In any case, these girls were 'broadening their minds' (shall we say) much younger than I did.
One last thing: it' not really 'young adult'. It's just a book. It would be a real shame if people were put off reading it because they thought it would be too young for them. Meredith does not talk down at all, in the way that many YA authors seem to. Maybe this is a UK v US publishing thing, but usually I can't get beyond the first page, and if I do, I abandon it half way for something more fulfilling. No fulfilment issues here.
PS It is really annoying to see that neither Totnes Library nor the Totnes Bookshop stock the book, even though the author lives in Plymouth. Don't bookshops and libraries research and promote local authors?
I am interested in the concept of three protagonists, all as viewpoint characters rather than omniscient. I have been mulling over why I got them muddled, and I have come to the conclusion that it is voice. Although they each have different modus operandi, different interests and increasingly separate paths, I am not sure that any of their voices were distinct enough for me to be certain at any point who was speaking. This is an observation not a criticism, because I think this might accurately reflect the homogeneity of teenage girls (or boys, but we are discussing girls here). You only have to overhear a few contemporary teenage girl's saying "And I was, like..." to be reminded of this.
However, although, technically, each chapter started with the character clearly identified, I think it did contribute to me not being quite sure who had done what, or which family they came from (did they have a mother hidden behind the settee, or had their mother left?). At times I felt I would have liked a small spreadsheet, but that's just me! I think on second reading (and there definitely will be a second reading) I will be clearer, and spot things that didn't register the first time. Because there is a lot in this book.
The other thing I specifically liked is how it felt such a 'complete' book, despite not knowing what happened to poor Lefty, nor what Henry had to say about Magda's departure. Psychologically everything felt really tied up and rounded off at the end ). I love that they took the weed back - there are just so many little pointers to these being good people. Teenagers get such bad press, and on the surface you can see why. But this books is a brilliant depiction of burrowing into the reasons behind 'delinquency'.
I did wonder, a little bit, whether the girls' precociousness was a true reflection of the teenage characters, or whether their insight and wisdom better reflected the adult author. But far be it from me to suggest that a novel should dumb down on sophistication just to be more believable. In any case, these girls were 'broadening their minds' (shall we say) much younger than I did.
One last thing: it' not really 'young adult'. It's just a book. It would be a real shame if people were put off reading it because they thought it would be too young for them. Meredith does not talk down at all, in the way that many YA authors seem to. Maybe this is a UK v US publishing thing, but usually I can't get beyond the first page, and if I do, I abandon it half way for something more fulfilling. No fulfilment issues here.
PS It is really annoying to see that neither Totnes Library nor the Totnes Bookshop stock the book, even though the author lives in Plymouth. Don't bookshops and libraries research and promote local authors?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2017
(I received an ARC from Harper Collins via Edelweiss.)
An achingly familiar coming of age story about the friendship of three teenage girls—Isabel, Ruth, and Magda. The story gives an insight into what each character is experiencing and their reactions to the predominantly patriarchal culture in their town of Highbone. While the main storyline deals with the plot to steal the local drug dealer's marijuana to obtain money to get out of their town, the underlying reflections on what it means to be a girl becoming a women in society both past and present is where the power of this story truly resides. There is something gritty and tragic yet lyrical about how Isabel, Ruth, and Magda view the world around them and the experiences they go through in this book that compels you to keep turning the page. Reminiscent of Midy McGinnis' The Female of the Species through it's brutal honesty and darkly idiosyncratic story telling and writing style—this is a great book to spark conversations on gender politics, sexual identity, and physical/emotional abuse.
An achingly familiar coming of age story about the friendship of three teenage girls—Isabel, Ruth, and Magda. The story gives an insight into what each character is experiencing and their reactions to the predominantly patriarchal culture in their town of Highbone. While the main storyline deals with the plot to steal the local drug dealer's marijuana to obtain money to get out of their town, the underlying reflections on what it means to be a girl becoming a women in society both past and present is where the power of this story truly resides. There is something gritty and tragic yet lyrical about how Isabel, Ruth, and Magda view the world around them and the experiences they go through in this book that compels you to keep turning the page. Reminiscent of Midy McGinnis' The Female of the Species through it's brutal honesty and darkly idiosyncratic story telling and writing style—this is a great book to spark conversations on gender politics, sexual identity, and physical/emotional abuse.
August 6, 2019
What a beautiful book!
This novel is beautifully written and the characters so clearly defined and engaging. I love the character Virgil Mackie, the spirit guide! ... and the idea of fire as the cleansing element. Too, how can you not love Lefty? Of the girls, there is something in all of them that resonates with me. I am middle-aged and grew up on the north shore of Long Island. Reading this book was like revisiting my teenage years through the eyes of three girls who were each like a little part of me.
Also, the imagery and poetry in the writing grounded the story firmly in place and time for me.
I love how Henry is the tether that they all need to keep them grounded. Especially, Magda. But Magda!? I too love how Ruth comes to such a wonderful moment of realization and self-affirmation.
I really enjoyed this book and I'm really looking forward the next one from this author.
This novel is beautifully written and the characters so clearly defined and engaging. I love the character Virgil Mackie, the spirit guide! ... and the idea of fire as the cleansing element. Too, how can you not love Lefty? Of the girls, there is something in all of them that resonates with me. I am middle-aged and grew up on the north shore of Long Island. Reading this book was like revisiting my teenage years through the eyes of three girls who were each like a little part of me.
Also, the imagery and poetry in the writing grounded the story firmly in place and time for me.
I love how Henry is the tether that they all need to keep them grounded. Especially, Magda. But Magda!? I too love how Ruth comes to such a wonderful moment of realization and self-affirmation.
I really enjoyed this book and I'm really looking forward the next one from this author.
August 23, 2017
This should have been right up my alley but I don't know what happened - it just didn't work for me. It didn't help that the three protagonists have so much in common that halfway through the book I was trying to figure out which person was the current narrator in that particular section.
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June 2, 201775% unrealistic dialogue, 25% three girls trying to figure out what to do with a bunch of stolen weed.
December 27, 2017
I feel really strange after finishing this book; is unhinged the right word? I’m not sure but that’s how I feel. I’m also having a reaction to the writing style. I don’t know exactly how to describe it but it’s written with a distinct and structured grammatical style and it sticks out to me because I don’t typically read books written how this one is written. Essentially this book is told during the last seventies and is about three girls in a small town with a plan to escape their crap lives by selling stolen weed and using the money to leave. The parents in this novel are mostly absent. Isabell’s mother is mentally ill and her father refuses to admit it. Magda’s Mom left years ago because her father is abusive (he also abuses her in the novel) and she’s (Magda) trying to take care of her six year old brother Henry. And Ruth’s mother is a hippy who brings in boyfriend after boyfriend after she got knocked up by a rich guy she cleans for an had Ruth. Everyone in this small town knows this and everyone refuses to talk about it and pretends it didn’t happen. There’s a lot of abuse and patriarchal violence in this novel. Charlie sleeps with Isabell and continuously fantasizes about raping her. Jeff hits Magda and actually does rape her at one point. Magda’s father beats her, and all of these girls have essentially had it up to their breaking point. They start to bite back because they are extremely aware of the fact that no one (especially not the useless cops or their parents) is going to do anything about all the shit happening to women in this town. Later in the novel Isabell beats a man over the head with a pipe assaulting him after he tried to feel her up in a Dunkin Donuts and the police catch her and put her in Juvie. Personally I was upset by this because it just shows how once again men can beat the shit out of women and do whatever they want to their bodies but the women are the crazy and the ones that need to be punished and locked up. Ruth then messes with the breaks on her mother’s boyfriend’s car causing an accident. Magda tired her hardest to raise Henry but after the wanders off one time and can’t be found her father finally starts paying attention and blames the whole thing on her. He slaps her in the face in front of the cops who don’t do anything about it and then he tells her he’s going to send her away to live with distant relatives but keep Henry for himself which pushes her to the edge. The book ends with Isabell in juvie, Magda on a water tower contemplating suicide, and Ruth discovering for the first time that she can be a person separate from Magda and maybe just maybe she will be the one to get out of this town and go to college and leave it all behind. Their futures are left uncertain and the ending is ambiguous. The whole book is also heavily filled with metaphor and contemplations of the meaning of life and the constant fear that you won’t be able to break out past the family structure you were born into. 4/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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February 15, 2020i honestly have absolutely no idea how to describe my thoughts on this book. i can’t even think of rating it’s just... i don’t know?? i cannot describe how i Feel!! this is so frustrating trying to explain just
it’s definitely an important book! and i enjoyed the underlying messages and the characters stories!! i just i don’t know i don’t know i don’t know
i can describe to u that the book is about these three angry teenage girls wanting something more. but i cannot express my thoughts!! it’s definitely good but so confusing i’m just blanking
sorry this review has basically been incomprehensible but this book? deserves a read??
it’s definitely an important book! and i enjoyed the underlying messages and the characters stories!! i just i don’t know i don’t know i don’t know
i can describe to u that the book is about these three angry teenage girls wanting something more. but i cannot express my thoughts!! it’s definitely good but so confusing i’m just blanking
sorry this review has basically been incomprehensible but this book? deserves a read??
September 12, 2021
i bought this book at the dollar store a year ago bc i thought "hey why not try this $1 book"... well i finally read it and it was fine lol i dont really have any opinions about it either way
February 27, 2022
The ending :(
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November 13, 2023i couldn’t finish this. i don’t think i’ve ever had this bad of an experience with a book 😋
July 7, 2024
So boring!
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August 24, 2017DNF
SUUUUPER slow. I might pick it up later but couldn't get into it. Premise was neat. Execution not so much.
SUUUUPER slow. I might pick it up later but couldn't get into it. Premise was neat. Execution not so much.
April 23, 2018
I loved this book about three teenage girls living on Long Island in the seventies. Bored with their lives and tired of the social hypocrisies that surround them, they decide to dole out their own brand of justice to get even with the world. This ignites in them a strong desire for change and for progression in the society in which they are rooted. A love of quirky clothes and books, smoking pot and a strong sense of loyalty binds the girls together in their desire to escape suburbia for an independent life somewhere new. The characters develop depth through their relationships and by how they react to the usually tangled situations that they find themselves in.
When the town of Highbone is introduced in the opening chapter of Little Wrecks, we are introduced to a place that hides hypocrisy, corruption and decay through a shiny veneer of middle-class respectability. The girls kick against this society’s norms and plan to commit the perfect crime. I loved Meredith Miller’s imagery, the rhythm of her language and the literary references that pepper her prose. I enjoyed hearing the voices of three protagonists in dialogue. The girls’ fresh attitudes, developed sense of loyalty and feminist outlook on the world contrast sharply with the sad and stagnant lives that are led by some of the other members of the community, particularly the post-Vietnam war vets who wander the town’s streets. Little Wrecks left me with a sense of melancholic nostalgia for the past, for lost innocence and for the little wreck that was my own teenage self.
When the town of Highbone is introduced in the opening chapter of Little Wrecks, we are introduced to a place that hides hypocrisy, corruption and decay through a shiny veneer of middle-class respectability. The girls kick against this society’s norms and plan to commit the perfect crime. I loved Meredith Miller’s imagery, the rhythm of her language and the literary references that pepper her prose. I enjoyed hearing the voices of three protagonists in dialogue. The girls’ fresh attitudes, developed sense of loyalty and feminist outlook on the world contrast sharply with the sad and stagnant lives that are led by some of the other members of the community, particularly the post-Vietnam war vets who wander the town’s streets. Little Wrecks left me with a sense of melancholic nostalgia for the past, for lost innocence and for the little wreck that was my own teenage self.
August 6, 2019
I loved this book. I loved Miller's writing style and the intimate and complex world she creates for her characters. She captures the period without fuss or over description but enough telling detail to draw you in. I found my heart in my mouth much of the time reading this. I identified with the girls frustrations, the dangers they put themselves in the ambiguities about the life, the town they want to leave and the options open to them to do so. Set on Long Island in the 70s but many of the attitudes these girls have to endure are not unlike many [Western] girls from similar small towns face today. Isabel, Magda and Ruth are compelling characters, all distinctly drawn and transform in some way during the course of the story. Just what I love to bear witness to, as a reader. I have read a few comments on the writer's style; that it hasn't clicked with some readers, and maybe it is something that will either be loved or not loved. I'm in the latter camp, and without apology. I found this novel visual, poetic, quietly clever, visceral and powerful in its story-telling. Miller has a way with words. I'd like to see Sophia Coppola get her hands on this. It was written for her to film. [Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation in particular spring to mind]. Treat yourself to something a little out of your comfort zone.
February 1, 2022
I did not enjoy anything about this novel. I feel bad, because I don’t ever want my review to be what stops someone from reading something, but I did not like it at all. The POV is all over the place and annoying and I couldn’t, for the life of me, tell the 3 protagonists apart. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter which “friend” was which because they were all awful/unlikeable humans. I’m not sure what the point of the book was, other than “it sucks to be a girl”. The entire novel is sad, sad, sad and not much even happens. It’s about girls being screwed by life and being sad they’re girls being screwed by life. (Oh, and lots of getting high. Lots & lots of that.) I actually had to Google the setting halfway through because I couldn’t even tell when this was supposed to be taking place as far as the time period. And then the ending was unnecessarily sad. The entire thing is extremely depressing. Every character is awful (with the exception of a six year old boy and even he got screwed.) I’m sure there is someone out there that would be all about this angsty, sad, whiny story; but it’s not me. (It reminded me of “Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls”, if you enjoyed that). Warnings include: drugs, rape, mental health, domestic abuse, assault, sexual harassment, general misery & hatred of all things.
April 29, 2020
I have a hard time understanding why this one has such a low rating. I loved this book. It's not YA. Not by any means. The girls live in a world that is set up to break women down, with few positive role models and not much parental supervision, but the 1979 setting really spoke to me and I came to care for these girls. I wanted them to reach beyond the hand that life dealt them. The end kind of gutted me. Beyond that, the writing is gorgeous. This really captured how being an outsider young adult felt when i was one, so long ago.
August 18, 2022
i really wanted to like this book but it was disappointing. it seemed up my alley but i could not wrap my head around it at all. confusing writing and even more confusing characters, very much "i'm edgy and cool and not like other girls so i'm gonna get out of my stupid hick hometown and never look back". so sick of that narrative. the prose was so purple it was practically a bruise. a book i finished purely out of spite. read if you want to nourish your superiority complex (or just be confused as hell).
August 10, 2017
I could not get into this at all. There wasn't a real plot. I guess it was supposed to take place in the late 1970s, but it didn't seem like it took place in the past. It could've been any time period for all I knew. I just didn't care about any of the characters, I thought something horrible was going to happen, and while bad things did take place, there was not that big moment.
June 7, 2021
There's a line in this book that reads "she tried to read The Great Gatsby once, but it was written like a grocery list.". That is an extraordinarily good way to describe this book.
This book didn't capture me even once. There were no surprises and when the author tried to foreshadow it felt transparent and obvious. The characters felt one dimensional and rather shallow.
This book didn't capture me even once. There were no surprises and when the author tried to foreshadow it felt transparent and obvious. The characters felt one dimensional and rather shallow.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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September 8, 2017I got 12 pages in and didn't feel anything for any of the characters. And as others said, the dialogue already felt unrealistic and forced. Not nearly far enough in to give a rating. However, my TBR is crazy right now so I'm not going to read this when so many other books are calling my name.
May 3, 2021
DNF
this was such a painful read because it was so hard to follow the story and care about the characters. I've honestly read too many books about people in small towns feeling trapped and thinking that they're above everyone else.
All 3 of the MCs seemed flat and I just couldn't tell them apart
this was such a painful read because it was so hard to follow the story and care about the characters. I've honestly read too many books about people in small towns feeling trapped and thinking that they're above everyone else.
All 3 of the MCs seemed flat and I just couldn't tell them apart
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