The Girls
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Cady McClain
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By:
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Emma Cline
About this listen
The instant best seller
An indelible portrait of girls, the women they become, and that moment in life when everything can go horribly wrong
Named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post • NPR • The Guardian • Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Financial Times • Esquire • Newsweek • Vogue • Glamour • People • The Huffington Post • Elle • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out • BookPage • Publishers Weekly • Slate
Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie it is exotic, thrilling, charged - a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence.
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award
Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Emma Cline - One of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists
Praise for The Girls
“Spellbinding...a seductive and arresting coming-of-age story.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“Extraordinary... Debut novels like this are rare, indeed.” (The Washington Post)
“Hypnotic.” (The Wall Street Journal)
“Gorgeous.” (Los Angeles Times)
“Savage.” (The Guardian)
“Astonishing.” (The Boston Globe)
“Superbly written.” (James Wood, The New Yorker)
“Intensely consuming.” (Richard Ford)
“A spectacular achievement.” (Lucy Atkins, The Times)
“Thrilling.” (Jennifer Egan)
“Compelling and startling.” (The Economist)
©2016 Emma Cline (P)2016 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“[The Girls reimagines] the American novel... Like Mary Gaitskill’s Veronica or Lorrie Moore’s Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, The Girls captures a defining friendship in its full humanity with a touch of rock-memoir, tell-it-like-it-really-was attitude.” (Vogue)
“Debut novels like this are rare, indeed.... The most remarkable quality of this novel is Cline’s ability to articulate the anxieties of adolescence in language that’s gorgeously poetic without mangling the authenticity of a teenager’s consciousness. The adult’s melancholy reflection and the girl’s swelling impetuousness are flawlessly braided together.... For a story that traffics in the lurid notoriety of the Manson murders, The Girls is an extraordinary act of restraint. With the maturity of a writer twice her age, Cline has written a wise novel that’s never showy: a quiet, seething confession of yearning and terror.” (The Washington Post)
“Outstanding... Cline’s novel is an astonishing work of imagination - remarkably atmospheric, preternaturally intelligent, and brutally feminist.... Cline painstakingly destroys the separation between art and faithful representation to create something new, wonderful, and disorienting.” (The Boston Globe)
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Inequality. Influence. Fraud. Sabotage. These are the themes of great fiction and our modern economy. In this collection of short stories by some of today’s most scintillating writers, the rich get poorer and the poor get richer. Yeah, right! From the heartbreaking to the hilarious, here are eight instantly classic battles over currency, class, privilege - and social distance.
By: Kiley Reid, and others
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Brutes
- A Novel
- By: Dizz Tate
- Narrated by: Eleanor McCormick
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In Falls Landing, Florida—a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes, and scorched bougainvillea flowers—something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of thirteen-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older, and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.
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No idea what was happening at any time
- By Amazon Customer on 04-02-24
By: Dizz Tate
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I'm a Fan
- By: Sheena Patel
- Narrated by: Sheena Patel
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Sheena Patel’s incandescent first novel begins with the unnamed narrator describing her involvement in a seemingly unequal romantic relationship. With a clear and unforgiving eye, she dissects the behavior of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world. I’m a Fan offers a devastating critique of class, social media, patriarchy’s hold on us, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.
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Razor sharp cultural commentary
- By E. Espinoza on 05-14-24
By: Sheena Patel
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So Sad Today
- Personal Essays
- By: Melissa Broder
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Melissa Broder always struggled with anxiety. In the fall of 2012, she went through a harrowing cycle of panic attacks and dread that wouldn't abate for months. So she began @sosadtoday, an anonymous Twitter feed that allowed her to express her darkest feelings and that quickly gained a dedicated following. In So Sad Today, Broder delves deeper into the existential themes she explores on Twitter.
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Gross and poorly written
- By T on 12-31-18
By: Melissa Broder
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Bunny
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort—a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny", and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon"....
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Chuck Palahniuk in Pearls and Ballet Flats
- By Arlis Dorne on 06-29-19
By: Mona Awad
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Fruit of the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Lyon
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Joy Osmanski
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America’s late-capitalist mythos. Lyon’s reinvention of Persephone and Demeter’s story makes for a haunting, electric novel that readers will not soon forget.
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Imaginative and Beautiful Reimagining
- By Kenneth Skipper on 04-26-24
By: Rachel Lyon
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Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
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A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
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Animal
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Emma Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child - that has haunted her every waking moment - while forging the power to finally strike back.
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Should come with a lot of trigger warnings
- By Harry on 07-13-21
By: Lisa Taddeo
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Acts of Desperation
- By: Megan Nolan
- Narrated by: Lauren Coe
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first scene of this provocative gut-punch of a novel, our unnamed narrator meets a magnetic writer named Ciaran and falls, against her better judgment, completely in his power. After a brief, all-consuming romance, he abruptly rejects her, sending her into a tailspin of jealous obsession and longing. If he ever comes back to her, she resolves to hang onto him and his love at all costs, even if it destroys her.
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Wonderful and tortured
- By Dr Sophie Henshaw on 05-01-21
By: Megan Nolan
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Rouge
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.
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What a fun romp!
- By Barbara S on 10-10-23
By: Mona Awad
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Penance
- A Novel
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Hollie-Jay Bowes, Anna Gilthorpe, Emily Goldie, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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On a beach in a run-down seaside town on the Yorkshire coastline, sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson is set on fire by three other schoolgirls. Nearly a decade after the horrifying murder, journalist Alec Z. Carelli has written the definitive account of the crime, drawn from hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves. The result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.
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she did it again!
- By mina on 10-04-23
By: Eliza Clark
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Death Valley
- A Novel
- By: Melissa Broder
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path discovered on a nearby hike. Out along the sun-scorched trail, the narrator encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door.
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Broder is the perfect narrator!
- By Barbara S on 10-22-23
By: Melissa Broder
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My Dark Vanessa
- A Novel
- By: Kate Elizabeth Russell
- Narrated by: Grace Gummer
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: Remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past.
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I apologize
- By Judy George on 03-13-20
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Cleopatra and Frankenstein
- By: Coco Mellors
- Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
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Refreshing
- By Sadz on 11-22-22
By: Coco Mellors
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Acts of Service
- A Novel
- By: Lillian Fishman
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Eve has an adoring girlfriend, an impulsive streak, and a secret fear that she’s wasting her brief youth with just one person. So one evening she posts some nudes online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia the charismatic Nathan. Despite her better instincts, the three soon begin a relationship—one that disturbs Eve as much as it enthralls her.
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Just Awesome
- By Stephen D. Sloan on 03-29-23
By: Lillian Fishman
What listeners say about The Girls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Susan Worley
- 06-29-16
So disappointed
I kept waiting for more - the words were written beautifully but the story just never got there. The ending was nothing.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Jeana
- 07-27-16
Memorizing
Loved this book. Takes place in the counterculture era and so entertaining and a good laid back "read"
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2 people found this helpful
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- digeon
- 11-14-16
excellent
an excellent book that you can't stop. loved it. A must read and we'll read
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2 people found this helpful
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- stacey b
- 07-22-16
Fictionalization version of real events?
I need to preface this by saying that I was a criminology major and ingested every bit of material about Charles Manson I could get my hands on. This book is kind of a rip off in my mind of what happened in the Manson family right down to the cult living on a ranch, and a murder in the fancy part of town. I might have enjoyed it more had I not known so much about that story. The narrator is kind of a peripheral member of the cult so that did provide an interesting perspective. I felt that the Author may have gone back and added more flowery descriptors than necessary, but it was an entertaining
listen just the same.
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- beth
- 08-02-16
Meh
Wasn't that interesting to me. Not what I expected and didn't keep my attention well.
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- Lis
- 08-09-16
Moody, psychological, but a familiar story
Would you recommend The Girls to your friends? Why or why not?
Maybe. It's an easy read, but can drag a bit at times. Depends on what they are looking for.
Have you listened to any of Cady McClain’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
This was my first time listening to a Cady McClain performance. I feel like it fit the mood and time period of the book well, especially when told through a 14 year old perspective for most of it. Very dreamy. It was a bit exaggerated, and that drew me out of the story at times, but overall it was fine.
Any additional comments?
I found this book moderately intriguing, and enjoyed how it made me question "What are the waves of thought that suck me in, for the sake of being liked or accepted? Do I get entranced by any ideas so much that I lose sight of the full picture, that may actually be ugly?" I like stories that make me question, and I liked this one because of that. I enjoyed Emma Cline's poetic style of writing, but I can see it being irritating if that isn't your taste. I thought she did a fine job for a debut novel. The whole book I felt like I was reading something familiar, but contrary to other reviews saying it was copying the Charles Manson story, I almost wonder if that was the point. That's why it felt familiar the whole time, because the plot is that story, but regardless, I enjoyed it because it gave me insight as to what it may have felt like to get sucked into a scenario such as that. If the plot resembling the Charles Manson family wasn't intentional, then that is weird for sure and not that cool haha.
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- Maureen McDaniel
- 10-17-16
Hated the characters and story, loved the writing
Where does The Girls rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Mixed emotions: the writing is stunning, amazing and so vivid. I kept wanting to care about the main character, but she was so shallow, spineless and void of personality. Most of the characters, in fact, came across to me as cardboard stereotypes. But, I kept listening because the writing was so fabulous.
Has The Girls turned you off from other books in this genre?
No. I grew up in the era -- and I live in the area, and I was glad to see the topic in a well-reviewed book.
What about Cady McClain’s performance did you like?
Her voice is cool but vivid and emotional. Very believable in all of the characters' voices.
Any additional comments?
Spoiler! The fact that the main character, in the end, says nothing of what she knows about the crime seems incredible, but looking back, one sees little sign of any nascent character arising within her. She is utterly dull and unadmirable, really.
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- Lauren
- 09-15-16
Book was just OK
What did you like best about The Girls? What did you like least?
The whole story builds for something to happen, yet, nothing ever happens.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The last hour of the book was the only interesting part.
Would you listen to another book narrated by Cady McClain?
Yes
Could you see The Girls being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
Maybe a movie.
Any additional comments?
I'm a tad bit disappointed.
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- Dana
- 08-16-16
Predictable & Disappointing
Nothing really happens and when it does the narrator isn't there to tell us about it.
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- W Perry Hall
- 06-18-16
Woe Be, the Male-volent, Male-ficent Male-factors
"Snuffed-out Story of the ... Fugitive Without a Crime, Half Hoping and Half Terrified that No One was Ever Coming for Me" E. Cline, The Girl, p. 361.
If a novel maintains verisimilitude to the human condition, I do not have a problem if it negatively depicts a certain religion, race, gender or disability. It is art reflecting life so I hesitate to criticize painting good and evil into it. I say this to preface my thoughts, as a guy, on the underlying theme.
There's no doubt the protagonist Evie Boyd, at a very impressionable age of 14, had negative experiences with men and the only love of her life was a 19-year-old girl. I can understand her hatred of men. But, Geez Louise, every male that appears in the book, either in her long ago past, recent past or currently is portrayed as either evil or amoral. I do not recall a book so negative toward ALL men other than A Handmaid's Tale, with which I of course had no problem given its dystopian setting of a world ruled by despotic sexist men; yet even there Offred's husband was shown in a kind light. Not so in The Girls, not one man or boy is not wicked or weak, even the baby boy is bad.
I'll quote one passage in which it all became clear to me:
"The hatred she must have felt to do what she’d done, to slam the knife over and over again like she was trying to rid herself of a frenzied sickness: hatred like that was not unfamiliar to me. Hatred was easy. The permutations constant over the years: a stranger at a fair who palmed my crotch through my shorts. A man on the sidewalk who lunged at me, then laughed when I flinched. The night an older man took me to a fancy restaurant ... a famous filmmaker ... [joined our table]. The men fell into a heated discussion with no entry point for me: I fidgeted with my heavy cloth napkin, drank water. Staring at the wall. “Eat your vegetables,” the filmmaker suddenly snapped at me. “You’re a growing girl.” The filmmaker wanted me to know what I already knew: I had no power. He saw my need and used it against me. My hatred for him was immediate. ...The filmmaker laughed at me, and so did the others, the older man who would later place my hand on his dick while he drove me home. None of this was rare. Things like this happened hundreds of times. Maybe more. The hatred that vibrated beneath the surface of my girl’s face—I think Suzanne recognized it. ... There was so much to destroy."
I don't have a problem with the number of male monsters in this book. Frankly, my issue was not obviated until near the end in the above-quoted. At that point, I saw that not only did Ms. Cline use all the negative stereotypes (in itself, no big deal), but the entire tenor of the novel is an outright hatred of men as evil incarnate. Even this wouldn't put me off but for the fact that her casting (or any author's casting) all of a kind or type as culprits significantly diminishes realism and truth within the novel. That, I cannot forgive. As such, I'm knocking down to 3.3 stars, a story I'd otherwise give 4.1 stars.
Unlike other reviewers, it doesn't bother me that parts are over-written as tends to happen with newly-bronzed MFAs, or that the publisher probably overpaid (IMO, that's the publisher's problem, not the reader's).
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6 people found this helpful