Outer Banks

by Anne Rivers Siddons

They came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus is the '60s: Elegant Kate, walking a tightrope over an abyss of lies ... Sensitive, sensible, self-contained Cecie ... Ginger, the sexy, vibrant heiress, richer than sin ... and poor, hopeless, brilliant Fig.

Four young women bound by rare, blinding, early friendship -- they spend two idyllic spring breaks at Nag's Head, North Carolina, the isolated strip of barrier islands where grand old weather-beaten houses perch defiantly on the edge of a storm-tossed sea. Now, thirty years later, they are coming back. They are coming back to recapture the exquisite magic of those early years, to experience again the love, enthusiasm, passion, pain, and cruel betrayal that shaped the four young girls into women and set them all adrift on the ... Outer Banks.

Genres: Fiction, Southern, Chick Lit, Romance, Contemporary, Beach Reads, Novels

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Born Sybil Anne Rivers in Atlanta, Georgia, she was raised in Fairburn, Georgia, and attended Auburn University, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority.

While at Auburn she wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, that favored integration. The university administration attempted to suppress the column, and ultimately fired her, and the column garnered national attention. She later became a senior editor for Atlanta magazine.

At the age of thirty she married Heyward Siddons, and she and her husband lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and spent summers in Maine. Siddons died of lung cancer on September 11, 2019

Reviews

[Sharon Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book better. Miss/Mrs. Siddons has lovely sentences, and her characters are unique and human, but the book was bogged down by a decidedly gossipy banality, a lack of the poetry of the mundane that made it as much soap opera as a portrait of the human condition; the latter perhaps her failed goal. The drama and events are too contrived to be believable.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Virginians obsesses about the Outer Banks all summer long - telling stories about it, packing for trips, posting pictures. I saw this book on the sale rack last summer and grabbed it. I've never been to the Outer Banks but am itching to.

The book is the story of enigmatic Kate Lee Abrams and her relationship with her 3 college suitemates. Their bond was intense and their eventual betrayal was paralyzing. Kate tells the tale by weaving intricate stories of her college years and giving us a snapshot into her present life as a 42 year old woman - happily married, forever scarred by the tragic death of her 5 year old son, and battling ovarian cancer.

What the author did well -
•Kate is a well developed, interesting character. Unique. Complicated. Both as a college student and as a adult. There are many layers starting with her father's penchant for fabricating a glamourous lifestyle then his suicide.
•The supporting characters (Ginger, Fig, Cecie, and Paul) are also spot on. These are not your run of the mill, prefabricated college characters.
•The majority of the novel's action occurred during their college years in the 60's in Alabama. I was taken in by the girls' relationships and the ways their friendships ebbed and flowed.
•Kate's life is transformed her junior year by her love affair with an alluring, older student, Paul Sibley. I enjoyed the portrayal of the intoxicating and reckless passion of the love at that age.

Weaknesses
•I wasn't sure what kind of book this was. Chick lit. Romance. It started off strong with an interesting psychological profile of a frustrated college gal. Then it ended overly dramatic and all Danielle Steele-y.
•The author tripped over her language sometimes. She'd be rolling along then get tangled in a few sentences or vocabulary that didn't feel congruent with her overall style and tone.
•The ending was off for me - interesting but different than I expected based on the rest of the book.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book back when it first came out and purchased the book in paperback at some point, intending to read it. I got rid of the unread paperback in a move, but when a Kindle deal came up years ago, I purchased it. It sat unread on my Kindle for years until I made a trip to the Outer Banks this week. I expected most of the book to be set on the Outer Banks, but little of it was. The story focuses on four sorority sisters. One girl is quite creepy; another stole the narrator's boyfriend and married him. The narrator suspects cancer returned. She prefers to deny it as the "pacmen" eat her. That references dates the novel's relevance for today's readers. When the one owning an Outer Banks home invites her, she does not want to go. However, her husband talks her into going. By this point, it is well past the 50% mark of the novel. I did not like the turns the novel took from this point forward. Determination to finally finish the novel kept me reading although I wanted to abandon it before the narrator finally arrived in the Outer Banks from New York. This was not the "happy beach read" I expected.

[Brennan Sigel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thougth this book would be a perfect beach read for my summer vacation in the Outer Banks. I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I'd been in a sorority in college...

I'm also kind of suprised that this was an option for one of the "Modern Fiction" choices during my Junior year of high school. I'm glad I chose to read Pat Conroy that year instead.

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many years ago, and I loved it. I would like to re-read it some day.

[Claire Fullerton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of Anne Rivers Siddons and have been steadily moving through her arsenal of twenty four books, often times wondering which book to read next. When a friend recommended "Outer Banks," I bought it sight unseen, thinking anything Siddons writes will be good. "Outer Banks" is yet again another of Siddons' captivating reads. Its first person narrative from the voice of a woman, now in her early fifties, as she reflects on the people involved in the most pivotal phase of her life is resplendent with the kind of poignancy we all can relate to. It is a story that begins in college, where the narrator comes to a small Southern college and is befriended by a group of girls that leave an indelible mark. In the midst of this circle enters Paul Sibley, a slightly older, mysteriously handsome and rather exotic architectural student, who is a standout amidst this staid environment, and who overwhelms the narrator as they enter into a relationship that begins in ecstasy and ends with a wound that never heals. But life carries on, with its scars of disillusionment and betrayal, and although the narrator agrees to a reunion with the players involved in what we learn is her life's painful turning point, "Outer Banks" is a full-circle story with an uncanny resolution. Populated with singular and fully developed characters in a well-rounded group of friends, the reader comes to know each character intimately. We know their backgrounds, their motivations, their unique personalities and their hidden fears. As the setting, Outer Banks, North Carolina is the location of the vacation home of one in this group of friends. It is its own character; this vast, desolate beach terrain, where an opulent beach-side mansion hovers over the crashing waves in an area that feels like the dark side of the moon. It is within these walls that the characters revisit the dynamic set in play thirty years earlier. Though time has evolved, their way of relating to each other has not, and deep seated resentments come to the fore in a manner that provides eventual redress. This book has an ending I can only describe as utter fantastic, and I use this word in the truest sense of its meaning. It verges on gothic in its surreal, dramatic urgency. It frightens and shifts and catches the reader unaware. I recommend this book for its brilliant story development and because Siddons wrote the kind of characters one never forgets.

[tonya_with_an_o · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a stunner!! I never saw the twists and turns coming. It's wonderfully wicked and an engrossing story of friendships, love, jealousy and betrayal.

[Booknblues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anne Rivers Siddons, the author of Outer Banks is comfortable explaining the southern soul, but she also understands the depth of friendships that develop during a young woman's formative years. Many of us can remember the deep friendships we formed when away at college for the first time. We often look at these friendships with idealism and nostalgia.
Kate who is fighting a battle with cancer is asked to attend a reunion with her three closest college friends, Cecie, Ginger and Fig. Kate is unsure that she wants to return or see these friends again. There was a time when she loved them dearly, but that time is long past and betrayals bridge that gap.

Siddons presents a book in which things are not what they seem . There are numerous deceptions and undercurrents beneath the surface of the happy reunion. Each participate has developed their own agenda and their perception of their happy college life differs vastly.

The setting of the outer banks is intriguing and the reader feels the attraction of the sun and ocean. Soon the reader also begins to feel the compelling and seductive force of the waves and is effect on the lives of those of the shore dwellers.

I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy stories about complex relationships

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outer Banks is one of my favorite Anne Rivers Siddons books. She is a middle-aged woman looking back to her college years in a sort of "how did I get here" experience. I always enjoy getting to know her characters and locations and have taken several East coast vacations largely due to the interest in the area that her books left with me. I read this book again when years later I finally went to the Outer Banks on vacation and found a tattered copy where we stayed. Having read everything ARS has ever written, the characters and places get somewhat familiar. She gets me involved and attached to her characters and then stirs everything up for the ending. I read her books for the rich descriptions of her complex and real people and relationships, but am often disappointed by the bizarre twists and surprise endings. But Outer Banks worked for me. And the ending was my favorite of all her books.

[Marni · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK, so the writing was good, even better than good--but I HATED the plot. I particularly HATED the ending. It was stupid, I felt manipulated, and it did not even tie up all the loose ends. I will never read another book by this author again....I really mean it. I actually re-read the last chapter to see if I had missed something, some clue, some word, that would have it make more sense--but nothing, not a shred of comprehension came from it. A cheap stupid ending with a heroine who was always weeping. So 2 stars for writing style but minus 4 for being ridiculous and totally unbelievable. Plus heronie's husband was a frigging saint and she did not appreciate him. Shame on her.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that I ended up liking this book as much as I did. I felt myself pretty drawn in by the story, except for the part at the end. Now that, I thought, was downright bizarre.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, a surprise. Sort of The Awakening meets Rebecca meets Mean Girls meets a Hallmark movie if Hallmark made horror. I can't say this author has ever bored me, which is something.

[Valerie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I still don’t know why I finished this book. I actually felt like I was suffering reading this. The descriptions are endless and repetitive and the storyline so contrived. At a certain point the fluffy extra words become a bit ridiculous. For example: “The dog bayed it’s joyed and we heard the glissando of Cecie’s laugh”....really? Glissando?

Every sentence was as if someone right clicked and changed the words to a synonym that no one has ever heard of. For all the 5 star reviews on here...please, tell me why?!

Also Paul is one of the most unlikeable characters possible yet Kate with her perfect nose and skinny body (we get it) couldn’t resist him (and his European meals that also sound ridiculous) even when he dumps her for her best friend and she’s married for years to someone else. The Fig story line is absolutely absurd and I almost cried of exhaustion when the last few pages became a bad crime/mystery novel.

Don’t read this. Don’t look at this book. I wasted two weeks reading this endless and extremely long book about nothing! In the end, what happened?! Nothing. We were just right back at the first page of the story. I would give this 0 stars if possible. Awful.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate, Cecie, Ginger and Fig were sorority sisters in the 60's. Thirty years later, the group gathers again for a week at Ginger's place at Nag's Head to get caught up and reminisce about old times. All is not as it seems...
I'm sure I read this back in the 90's when it first came out - I read several of her books about that time. So I added it to my Goodreads list without read dates or review. Recently, I found a second hand copy and thought I'd read it to be able to post my thoughts. The first two thirds of the book are the background information from the college years, with current experiences of Kate who is the narrator. It is only the last third which is the actual reunion week in Nag's Head. I'm giving this 3 stars because I enjoyed the majority of it. Yes, it's chick lit, but it was a diversion from heavier things I was reading at the same time. My problem with this was the ending. I can't decide if the whole book was building to that climax or if the author got to a point and didn't know how to finish it off and this is what she came up with.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegant Kate, walking a tightrope over an abyss of lies; Cecie, self-contained, sensitive and sensible; Ginger, the sexy, vibrant, richer-than-sin heiress and poor, hopeless, brilliant Georgina, nicknamed Fig - came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus in the 1960s. Four women bound by rare, blinding and early friendship. They spend two idyllic spring breaks at Nag's Head, North Carolina, the isolated strip of barrier islands where grand old weather beaten houses perch defiantly on the edge of rugged cliffs overlooking a storm tossed sea. Now, thirty years later, they are coming back - back to recapture the magical memories of those early years, to experience again the love, the enthusiasm, the passion, pain and cruel betrayal that shaped these four young girls into vibrant young women and set them off on the courses of their lives.

I really enjoyed this book. I think that Anne Rivers Siddons is perhaps one of my favorite authors and I give this book an A+! A definite 5 and a half actually! :)

[Kerry Hennigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the second Anne Rivers Siddons book I ever bought and read (on the strength of how much I enjoyed "Hill Towns"). Many years later I am belatedly revising it and enjoying it afresh.

Kate is a married woman who has battled deadly ovarian cancer for nearly five years, and now, just shy of getting the 'all clear' she believes it is coming back. Before she surrenders to another round of debilitating chemotherapy, she wants to enjoy one last magical summer with the three friends from her student years.

"Outer Banks" is Kate's narrative of the heady days of Tri Omega sisterhood with Cecie, Ginger and Fig, of a devastating love affair that tore the friendship apart, and finally, of getting back together all these years later.

As is typical of all her books,"Outer Banks" is an effortless read that is full of character insight and atmospheric description. Her people seem real - and their stories and the places they live and visit, are truly memorable.

Which is why I came back, long after my first reading, to enjoy this wonderful novel all over again.

[Sherri Staples · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book, because my family has rented a beach house in Kill Devil Hills for years and I love the Outer Banks or OBX as we call it. I was hoping for a story line with the Outer Banks as the setting, instead it is a boring, tale of college roommates and their lives before, during and after college! (again!) I tried three times to finish this book, but finally gave up this time at the half way point, because it was wasting my time and boring me to tears!

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is probably my favorite of her books, especially since I am from the Outer Banks and know exactly of the raw beauty she speaks. I only wish the cover art was not so basic; the writing underneath deserves a far more appropriate advertisement. I have read and enjoyed this and most of Siddons's books at least twice.

[Karenbike Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reminded of South of Broad. It has the same unbelievable characters and plot. It has a big storm at the end too. The end was phoney and unbelievable. It is only redeemed by some beautifully written passages. The woman can write but she needs to get to some kind of reality.

[Kellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was the first Siddons book I read that got me hooked.
Plus, I love to visit the Outer Banks.
I need to read this one again.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this several years ago, and loved it. Fantastic. I love her stuff though. This one had lots of suspense toward the end, and lots of electricity between characters.

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anne Rivers Siddons has written a book that starts in a women’s college in the 1960s, and that covers at least the first 27% of the novel. That is all I have read of it—so take this review with that caveat in mind. I simply cannot continue on. In the 1960s, I was an undergrad at a women’s college for three years before transferring to a large coed university. My experiences were very different from those of Kate, Cecie, Ginger, and Fig (especially). For one thing, academics were WAY more central to the everyday life of the students. But so much for that. Different schools, different norms, different motivations—I’m sure a reader 50 years younger would probably enjoy it much more.

[Tara DuBose-Schmitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siddons writes beautiful descriptions and sucked me in with the interactions of this disparate group of women. That’s why I rated this a 3. Otherwise, it is a soap opera of mostly unlikable characters, and only the last three pages attempts any measure of redemption.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gifted and descriptive writer and thorough character development. Surprise ending that I didn’t love but otherwise good read and didn’t want to put it down.

[Rachelle Ayala · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book better than Peachtree Road up to 98%. The story theme was about false appearances, people acting on the surface in civilized and splendid fakery, like the elegant dancing of 18th century Baroque minuets. The setting is four middle-aged sorority girls and a reunion at a grand house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We have Kate Stuart Lee, neither a Lee of Virginia nor offspring of General Stuart. Her boyfriend Paul Sibley, a prostitute's son whose mother took the last name of a construction company her brother worked for, who dumped her to marry the rich Ginger Fowler. Then there's Cece Hart, a girl we never really got to know, and the dumpling Fig Newton who was made fun of and grudgingly accepted.

The story jumps between flashback and the present day, when a sick Kate Lee gets an invitation from Ginger Fowler Sibley for a reunion. Kate's husband, Alan, for some inexplicable reason urges her to go. This felt like a set up to me. Why would he want Kate visiting the very house she was supposed to marry Paul in, especially after Kate calls Paul's name in their last lovemaking session? Incomprehensible.

Okay, so suspend disbelief of Alan, the hapless husband. Now the four aged cronies are gathered together and all they do is drink and reminiscence, while the enigmatic Fig watches and waits with catlike anticipation. The similarities to C. S. Lakin's Innocent Little Crimes begin to arise as the memories become more pointed, jabbing and setting off one friend against the other. The climax comes when Paul, who was supposed to be staying elsewhere, arrives at the eve of the storm. Literally the gloves come off and once again, four women fight their feelings at his presence.

It turns out that underneath all the veneer of friendship and affection lay great ugliness. This book really does make you think. While you're feigning affection to me, can you tell that I'm pretending to like you? At the end, the one true friend is the one who would risk your displeasure and her own life to drag you out of the pretend world you mired yourself in.

[4.5 stars] Up to 98% this book was 5 stars. But my biggest question is unanswered. Who shot ***? If anyone knows, please comment or tell me. It seems to me the author dug herself into a hole and came up with a convenient/cliched solution that does not keep with the character she created. I would have thought this character would want to stick around and enjoy the mayhem she worked so hard to cause. This little twist ruined the entire story for me. And honestly there are better ways to work the plot to achieve the same result. Instead, it feels like the story ran out of steam and she just wanted to end it. And sadly, the coverup and lies continues.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Rivers Siddons has a gift for story-telling. Her use of language is unsurpassed in this era in which just about anyone can write a novel and get it published. Her stories have the ring of truth. You believe they could have actually taken place.

Outer Banks was the first is Siddons novel I ever read. Actually, I listened to it probably 20 years ago and I never forgot it. Years later, I took it out from the library and read it again. Recently, I bought a first edition at a local library book sale and I just re-read it for the second time. Even if you know the story, even if you know the characters, even if you know how it ends, this book will grab you and hold you. You will have to force yourself to put it down. I read its 300+ pages in less than 24 hours although it was my third go-round.

This novel tells the tale of four women - Kate (the narrator), Cece (Kate's best friend), Fig (the difficult and odd character) and Ginger (the girl everyone loves). They come together as sorority sisters in a southern college. They are friends, close friends, although Fig is an outcast, ugly, annoying, irritating. She constantly writes in a diary in front of others. Everyone, including Kate and Cece laugh at her behind her back. at least they think it is behind her back. Kate is the first to find a serious boyfriend and the first to graduate. Because of something one of them has done, they do not see each other again for 28 years until Ginger invites them to her home on the Outer Banks where everything comes to a head.

And the twist is something you will never see coming and will not soon forget.

If you have not an Anne Rivers Siddons novel, you are missing something very special.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have wanted to read this book since college, but I just never got around to it, and I think I also was a bit embarrassed to read a book by Anne Rivers Siddons. When I saw it in the bargain section at the Tattered Cover, I decided to give it a chance. I'm so glad that I did, because I'm truly surprised by how much I liked this book, and for all the reasons that it appealed to me when I first read the reviews back in my Davis days. It is all about female friendship and the complex, unpredictable nature of life, but really the Carolina coast is central to everything that takes place in this book. It will make you want to rent a beach house in Nags Head on the Outer Banks, a place that I have never visited, but feel I can vividly imagine after reading this book. If you can't take a summer beach vacation, this book, along with a glass of Southern sweet tea, would be a good substitute. This was a good lesson to me to check my occasional snootiness about mass market books that you can buy in the grocery store.

[TBML · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the August 2005 Branigan BookClub selection.

Kate, Cecie, Fig and Ginger were college roommates. As grown women, one summer, they meet at Ginger's beach house on North Carolina's Outer banks for an informal reunion. After some bittersweet reminiscing they discover unsettling things about their friendship. And when Paul, the one true love of Kate's life, and whom Ginger married, shows up, they are forced to confront the truths about their past.

Siddons has an unerring eye for the emotions, mores and souls of her characters. She has been compared to Jane Austen, and I can see why.
--Mark Pendleton
http://chile.las-cruces.org/search/t?...

[Ginny · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. I picked it up because I love the Outer Banks and I thought it would be a nice way to reminisce about family vacations. It was also a book about sorority women, of which I am one. I thought it might be nice to view sorority life from a middle-aged perspective. No. There is absolutely zero plot and the syntax is jumpy, with very little contextual interplay. Flashbacks in literature should be seamless; these are jerky and unwarranted. The drama and events are unrealistic and unbelievable, and not in a good way. I read the first 100 pages and gave up. If it's not good by then, it's not going to be good. Don't waste your time on this one. I did and was extremely disappointed.