Review: Hyacinth Girls: A Novel by Lauren Frankel

A stunning debut about a young teenager on the brink and a parent desperate to find the truth before it's too late.
Thirteen year old Callie is accused of bullying at school, but Rebecca knows the gentle girl she's raised must be innocent. After Callie is exonerated, she begins to receive threatening notes from the girl who accused her, and as these notes become desperate, Rebecca feels compelled to intervene. As she tries to save this unbalanced girl, Rebecca remembers her own intense betrayals and best-friendships as a teenager, when her failure to understand those closest to her led to tragedy. She'll do anything to make this story end differently. But Rebecca doesn’t understand what’s happening or who is truly a victim, and now Callie is in terrible danger.

This raw and beautiful story about the intensity of adolescent emotions and the complex identity of a teenage girl looks unflinchingly at how cruelty exists in all of us, and how our worst impulses can estrange us from ourselves - or even save us.

Love. Loss. Friendship. Redemption.

Rebecca is raising 13 year old Callie, the daughter of her dead best friend, and who is accused of bullying a classmate at school. Of course, Rebecca can’t believe her girl would be capable of something like that. But, does she know her children? 

Things are not always the way they seem and the story goes, we find out more  about their actions and relationships. You'll think it’s going one way, but you'll be entirely wrong. Callie’s POV takes over then and we are faced with another perspective of the book and the truth of the situation. 

Secrets and lies will haunt all the characters.

Hyacinth Girls is told in alternating points of view and is not just another book about bullying.  It shows the perspectives of both victim and bully, parenting role and friendship. I was completely  moved by it, and believe it is important for both adults and teens to read it. 

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this honest review.

Photo: © Rosalind Hobley

Lauren Frankel received her BA in English from Vassar College. She has worked with young people, as both an educator and a librarian, in the US and the UK. She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, where she won the David Higham Award. Born in Connecticut, she now lives with her husband and son in England.