Happy Sunday and welcome to my stop on the Hello Girls blog tour!! I’m so excited to be on this tour! Read on to find my review(!!!), plus more about the authors, book, and tour, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a print copy of Hello Girls!!!
I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro, Emily HenryPublished on August 6, 2019 by Katherine Tegen Books
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 336
Format: ARC, eARC
Source: Edelweiss
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Thelma and Louise gets remade in this powerful, darkly funny teen novel from acclaimed authors Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry. Two teenage girls who have had enough of the controlling men in their lives take their rage on the road to make a new life for themselves.
Winona has been starving for life in the seemingly perfect home that she shares with her seemingly perfect father, celebrity weatherman Stormy Olsen. No one knows that he locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them.
Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there’s more out there for her than disappearing waitress tips and a lifetime of barely getting by.
One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they can’t wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. One hour later, they’re armed with a plan that will take them from their small Michigan town to Chicago.
All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible can’t hurt.
Chased by the oppression, toxicity, and powerlessness that has held them down, Winona and Lucille must reclaim their strength if they are going to make their daring escape—and get away with it.
A TL;DR OF MY REVIEW:
- THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WRITING oh my god
- Great premise, okay execution
- Told us about Winona and Lucille’s friendship more than showing it
- HAVE YOU SEEN THIS COVER it is beautiful
How freaking awesome is this book?!?! The writing is beautiful and the characters are amazing and I 100% believed every single part of the setting is real. Seriously, the writing is freaking gorgeous. I haven’t read any other Brittany Cavallaro books yet, but I read The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry and just like that book, the writing in this one really was my favorite part. I also loved loved loved the fact that this book really did focus on the friendship, and while there was a slight romance, it wasn’t the focus. Lucille as a character felt more real to me, but I loved reading Winona’s character arc. It was like watching a firework expand and explode. I hope to read more books by both of these authors soon because this book was seriously so good!
From the description, I thought the friendship was going to be … different, I guess? I felt like I was just waiting for Lucille to realize that she had a crush on Winona based on her thoughts and that never happened and I was just… confused? Because seriously, some of these quotes really made me think one thing and then … nope. Also (and I am 1000% aware this may just be because of the way that I read this), the pacing felt a little off? Like, the thing at the end happened and then the book was just over? And I really was expecting/ hoping for more resolution than we got.
So the premise of this book was that two girls become best friends, escape their abusive homes, and steal a car to run away. As I’m typing that out and thinking about what the book was actually about, I’m realizing that I thought there would be a lot more of a thriller/action vibe. There definitely was some, and it may have had more of an impact if I had read it in a few days instead of like three weeks(seriously, fuck endometriosis and also depression), but I’m just not feeling it. So as far as plot goes, I have to say that there was a great premise, but okay execution. 7/10 Stars.
oh. my. god. I love this cover!!! I love the purple, I love the neon font, I love the illustrated girls, I just love all of it! 10/10 Stars!!!
- Road Trips
- Thelma and Louise
- Sadie by Courtney Summers
Brittany Cavallaro
Brittany Cavallaro is a poet, fiction writer, and old school Sherlockian. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte Holmes novels from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, including A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE, THE LAST OF AUGUST, and THE CASE FOR JAMIE (forthcoming in March 2018). She’s also the author of the poetry collection GIRL-KING (University of Akron) and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She earned her BA in literature from Middlebury College and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Michigan with her husband, cat, dog, and collection of deerstalker caps.
Emily Henry
Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World and A Million Junes. She is a full-time writer, proofreader, and donut connoisseur. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrite.
Brittany
Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Goodreads
Emily
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
First off, you need to know that I would die for Winona and Lucille. These two are the absolute best characters in the world and I would do anything for their happiness. Hello Girls is easily one of my top three books of 2019 so far. I haven’t read any of Brittany Cavallaro or Emily Henry’s solo novels, but I’m definitely dying to now. This review and many others can also be found at Musings of a (Book) Girl .