The Body of a Girl

by Leah Stewart

As she investigates the kidnapping and brutal murder of Allison Avery, novice Memphis crime reporter Olivia Dale is forced to reassess her own life as she probes deep into the dark secrets of a young woman so much like herself and is drawn into a seductive and dangerous world that could threaten her own life.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Crime

311 pages, Hardcover

First published August 7, 2000

About the author

I'm the author of five novels: BODY OF A GIRL, THE MYTH OF YOU AND ME, HUSBAND AND WIFE, THE HISTORY OF US, and THE NEW NEIGHBOR. I teach in the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati.

Reviews

[Monique · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me an unheard of week an a half to finish this book and I felt forced to read it out of curiosity and a need to finish, but definitely not because I wanted to..I never felt or liked any of the characters, absolutely hated the "heroine" and felt the whole story just fell flat masquraded in good writing..This story follows a nosy, annoying and silly reporter Olivia Dale as she writes for the crime beat of a newspaper and ends up at a crime scene of a young, pretty dead girl Allison Avery who was raped and killed. Olivia immediately becomes drawn to this girl because of their physical and personal resemblances and entrenches herself in her life and the reasons for her death. She takes it way too far and it gets messy and unreal as she investigates Allison's family and friends for clues as to why she was murdered. Despite having a boyfriend and cush job as a reporter she dangerously goes all in by becoming friends with Allison's friends, flirting with Allison's old boyfriend, falling in love with her little brother, snooping through her apartment, wearing her wig and a host of other stupid and reckless activities..When Olivia decides she wants to also try heroin to get closer to Allison I was pretty much done with the book and with Olivia as a character, she seemed so mean, stupid and self absorbed--I was not a fan at all..I honestly wanted to like this book but there were too many moments of " why is she doing that", Olivia stayed out of control the whole novel as she threw herself into another girl's life when as the end showed was really for no reason, the ending was random and forced to me..One of the worst moments in the book is when Olivia calls her longtime friend and closet homosexual a "fucking faggot" (ugh I hated to even type those words) for no reason other than he was trying to help her, she was a bitch to everyone basically because of her infatuation with a girl she didnt even know..I despised the way Olivia treated her friends, her roommate, her boyfriend, herself..and despite the writing which was actually quite good I could not get with this story and had to give a one star..just keeping it real...

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It kept me reading and the writing was good, but the lead character’s peculiar mix of naïveté (oh, whoops, I shot heroin!) didn’t jibe with her experience as the lead crime reporter in a major American city. I-book.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only rated this one star to write this review. I COULDNT GET PAST THE FIRST 20 PAGES. I wanted to try to hard to power through but I tried 4 times. at some point I knew I just couldn't do it. for some reason I just got the "small girl" vibe from the main girl and I couldn't do it 💔

[Renae · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of the story starts off interesting but towards the end I REALLY disliked the main character. She started just being mean and making dumb decisions (HEROINE?? A 17-YEAR-OLD??) and the killers revealed is so out of left field. It left me scratching my head and feeling unsatisfied.

[Ashley Grattan · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok my biggest issue with this book is that the story….. does not do anything at all. there are absolutely 0 plot points that are satisfyingly resolved, there‘a no reveal that pulls all the threads together, there’s no real explanation for absolutely insane and unfounded character choices. if you want to siphon through page after page of waxing lyrical about a Memphis summer, i suppose there’s a point to be found about the perfect victim through the media lens and the ‘less dead’ that get pushed out of focus, but that isn’t what this story is about. this story is a woman who is (was?) objectively good at her job, making a bunch of bizarre choices because she “got in too deep” after a girl who looks like her turns up dead, and then continues to make bizarre choices after the case is closed because…. reasons? yikes

[VDM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely enjoyed this one, actually more than I liked The Myth of You and Me. Though, I could do without a grown woman having an emotional and (slightly) physical affair with a boy. Also, the way that hotel rooms and apartment numbers were always number #13— I get it, I get it - but it’s still annoying. If you’ve ever been to South or even read about it, you know they remove the 13 floor, room, etc., elevators in Memphis don’t have a 13 floor. So I’m not sure of the purpose of adding that glaringly fake detail except to build an eerie suspense.

Otherwise, loved the book, can’t wait to read more by Leah Stewart. Loved the twists, loved the turns, and the characterization was riveting. 👏🏻

[David Doel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful -- AWFUL! I don't remember buying it, but I did.

Before starting it I read a couple of reviews. One reviewer stated that they developed an intense dislike for Olivia Dale, the protagonist. Part way through, I didn't see how that could be, but by the end, I found her to be detestable as well.

The only good news about this book is that it's guaranteed to make the next one seem better than it is.

[Denise Goodin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, although some parts of the story seem unbelievable.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great, not bad. More a light read than intense mystery.

[Christie (The Ludic Reader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Leah Stewart’s novel The Myth of You and Me a couple years back and I had a lot of problems with it. I had a lot of problems with Body of a Girl, too.

Olivia Dale is a crime reporter for a Memphis newspaper. She’s not a rookie, but she’s young and it shows despite her best attempts to hide her reactions to the horrible things she’s called upon to write about. When the novel opens, she’s at a crime scene. Timing allows her to be closer to the body of a girl than she would normally be allowed.

“I’ve learned to stomach the photographs they show me,” Dale says, “but now I know it’s nothing like being so close you could lean down and touch that dead, dead skin” (2).

Perhaps because the dead girl is similar in age, or perhaps she’s just the final straw in Dale’s precariously constructed life, either way, she becomes obsessed with finding out everything there is to know about the dead girl. Not only does she throw her personal safety out the window, she chucks out her common sense as well. As the book chugs along I felt less and less sympathetic and more and more annoyed with her.

I think Body of a Girl attempts to answer some of the questions we all ask: what makes us the same, what makes us different? How close to the edge can we walk without toppling over? Can we ever really know someone? The problem with Dale is that, despite her profession, she’s a piss-poor judge of character and doesn’t seem to have a compass of any sort. Her journey, ultimately, seems self-destructive, rather than a real attempt to understand the human condition. Dale just seems reckless and stupid by the novel’s rather sappy ending.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book - quite different from Stewart’s more recent novel, The Myth of You and Me. It reminded me a lot of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, actually. Though this was less of a literary mystery, and the protagonist wasn’t as intriguing. It just lacked... something... The characters weren't hatable, and the plot wasn't boring, but it lacked something that would have improved it. I was a little disappointed in the ending, but, really, it was the only thing that made sense. I enjoyed the book, but just didn't love it the way I expected to after enjoying The Myth of You and Me.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well written first novel. The descriptions, strong suspense and the unraveling of the clues throughout the book are skillfully done. Olivia Dane is a newspaper reporter on the police beat in Memphis. Young, attractive, hip and yet somewhat naive, she is learning the journalism ropes with the help of her collegues at the newspaper, when she ends up at the scene of a rape/murder and identifies with the victim of the brutal crime who is uncannily similar to Olivia herself in age and appearance. A very hot Memphis summer almost becomes one of the characters in the tale. Olivia, in a quest to keep this particular victim on the front page in order to impel the police to catch Allison Avery's attacker/killer, delves deep into Allison's background and last days to fully understand what happened to this victim who reminds her so much of herself. Olivia strays perilously close to the edge and is sucked into the situation herself.

[Diann Blakely]

Fans of both Memphis and noir issue won’t want to miss Stewart's début volume. The novel, on one level a thriller about a young female journalist, Olivia, and her pursuit of truth, not to mention the true identity of her murdered doppelgänger, Allison, is on another level a Raymond Chandler-esque drama about the heart’s dark realities and the even darker shadows they cast. On yet another level, Stewart’s debut presents a very intelligent and incisive look at the way in which girls become women and women become bodies, and on still yet another level, the Vanderbilt graduate’s book asks us to behold a tragedy in which the Bluff City is so hauntingly, dangerously, and humidly limned it begins to talk and sing and whisper not only to its compelling—literally—cast of characters, but also to its new and returning readers.
























(originally published in the *Nashville Scene*/Village Voice Media)

[John Kues · Rating 4 out of 5]

She writes a good story, believable and interesting. The main character, a young newspaper reporter,isn't particularly likeable,as she waffles, says she isn't going to do something, then she does it. Basically she will do most anything to get a story, including breaking into a house and stealing evidence. Covering the murder scene of the title, she wants to know so much about the victim, she tries to imagine herself in the girl's shoes, and finds that there is even a certain resemblance between the victim and herself. I plan on reading more of her work and hope that I find more sympathetic characters. This book is her first, and she recently won a $10,000 prize for her writing.

[Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very well written and very entertaining. I liked how it dealt with a sense of identity while maintaining the excitement and thrill of crime scene investigation from a reporter's point of view.

I also found it interesting that she uses phrases and sentences in the second person, but it mostly stays in first. I definitely recommend it for a quick read (quite literally, you won't be able to put it down) :)

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rookie reporter is trying to learn the ropes. She is on the police beat. In trying to keep her articles about the murdered girl on page one, she digs into the victim's life. She interviews family and friends. The reporter almost becomes the person of the victim, changing her life and behavior. There are times when actions are opposite what she believes in. However, she does find the true story of who the victim was.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Stewart's second book, I had to read another book by her. I found this a bit bumbling in places (it felt like she wanted to add elements to this novel, with which she wasn't quite ready to be as successful as possible), but still beautifully written with a great story behind it. An excellent first novel!

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

it didn’t occur to me until just now that she is the same person who wrote the myth of you and me. such completely different books.
this book wasn’t amazing, but it kept my attention. it was kind of like those sue grafton books i used to read like n is for noose or whatever they were called. a murder mystery kind of with a lot more going on in it.
quick and easy read

[Diane Swiben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I knew up front it was about a personal journey. I kept waiting for that big climactic event that never happened. I think I've read too many serial killer - murder mystery type books and expected this to be of the same genre. However, I did enjoy the book and it was a nice change of pace for me.

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. I really enjoyed the authors other three books, but this one was not so good. Not a believable story, too many f words, the main character got too mixed up with the dark side of other characters. She was supposed to be a reporter investigating a murder and got involved in thief drugs, breaking and entering, etc. I would skip this one.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really had a great time reading this book. Takes place in Memphis Olivia Dale is a novice crime reporter. She comes upon a twisted body of a girl who has been kidnapped and gruesomely killed. She wonders if she could have been that girl. She follows the story of the girl and her own wild side of danger. A really great book!!!!!

[adrienna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to like this book - a journalist covering a crime is pretty much been there, done that. But it's a little deeper than that. Plus, I used to be a journalist, and I could identify with Olivia and her job, although I never became so entrenched in a story.

[Sue]

This is the 2nd book I've read by Leah Stewart and I loved them both. Body of a Girl was full of surprises, right up to the end. I think she(Leah) does a terrific job with her characters: they're so believable! I'll be reading her other book soon!

[Maggie Downs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third time I've read Body of a Girl, because I keep forgetting that I already read it. On the one hand, maybe it's a bad sign that this novel was not distinctive enough to be memorable for me. On the other hand, each time it has been good enough to keep me reading right until the end.

[Russ Colchamiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoping to see another great book like this from Leah Stewart. A page turner about a young, female reporter who chases a murder and winds up going down dark paths. Hooked me right from the beginning until the very last page.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a debut novel and I found it disappointing after reading 2 of her novels, The New Neighbor and The Myth of You and Me - both of those were immeasurably better and much more polished...Am looking forward to another novel by Leah Stewart.

[Abu khalifah]

thanks

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't believe this is the same girl who wrote "The Myth of You and Me." A little disappointing.

[Jadine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reviewers liked this book way more than me. I kept thinking I was missing some aspect of he characters taht would make me like them better.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh

that's all I have to say

almost

but- I really very much enjoyed 'The Myth of You and Me'- Leah Stewart's second book.