ARC Review: Those Girls by Lauren Saft

Those Girls by Lauren Saft

Expected publication: June 9th 2015

“Some girls will always have your back, and some girls can’t help but stab you in it.

Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl, and her debut novel is raw, honest, hilarious, and thought-provoking, with a healthy dose of heart.”

In the synopsis of Those Girls on GoodReads, it says “Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl, and her debut novel is raw, honest, hilarious, and thought-provoking, with a healthy dose of heart.” This is a very interesting way of describing this book because I didn’t find of that to be true.

Right away, I felt like I was suppose to hate the characters. Now, I’m not a fan of unlikable main characters because I want to like the main character. I want to connect with them and relate to them in some way. Or I want to be like them, I want to feel empowered by them. None of the characters in Those Girls are likable or empowering in any way. Each of the three girls are amazingly mean. Like, holy crap these girls are mean. Not just to everyone around them but also to each other. I have no idea why they’re friends because they are so mean to each other. I couldn’t even understand why they were so mean. I’m still confused as to why they were so mean. By the end of the book, I hated each character so much.

I couldn’t really find the main point of the plot. I was kind of lost in the overwhelming meanness of the characters to really pay attention to much else but towards the end of the book, I started looking for “the point” but I couldn’t really find it.
I feel like this book was suppose to be some sort of insight on teenage girls but if that was the case, it was very poorly done. This book does not “masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl”. I don’t know any teenage girls that could relate to these characters. I would never have connected with these characters as a teenager. I’m curious to know why the publishers think Those Girls’ characters convey any sort of reality of the main population of teenage girls.

The writing was actually really good though. If I rated this book purely on the writing, I would give it 5 stars. But those characters are what brought it down to a 2.

Overall, I didn’t like Those Girls. The characters were over the top mean and just nasty to each other. I was vaguely entertained at first but maybe that was because I started this book late at night and I wasn’t thinking clearly. I wouldn’t recommend this book but I am still interested in the author. I’ll be checking out her future books but I’ll remain hesitant with her characters.