MY BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
This beautiful, beautiful thing is my book of this year. But before I do go ahead and explain why, I just need to note that the book doesn't actually hit the shelves until next March, so you will have to hold your excitement until then (I couldn't personally and I am going to write this article any way to get you really excited because that's what this book deserves - excitement and the highest of praise).
Let me tell you why I think this book is the best book I've read this year...
1. It looks like the Regina George of the proof world. I mean look at it. It's flawless. I hear the pages are insured for $10,000... I don't think they are... I was just quoting... ANY WAY. It has the characters names slyly imprinted down the spine, it has this jazzy holographic effect with the nice words and bad words and it asks you a rhetorical question... It's just pure genius.
2. The story has a misunderstood teenage girl at its heart who is quite frankly a lovable bitch. I mean, who doesn't love hating a book character and then kind of relating to them at the same time? I do!
3. There is a lot of sex in the book. Not necessarily comfortable-reading sex, but still.
4. It's short. You can read it in a couple of days. And boy you can read it in a couple of days. Once you've started, you won't be able to stop. This is the true reading / heroine experience.
5. It's a thriller, it's a contemporary coming-of-age novel, it's a cult novel. It's a novel for this year. A this year's, this times' novel. It's a modern classic. It's everything you want. It's the sexy dreamboat guy of the fiction shelf.
6. It has the word 'Girls' in the title. Need I say more? I mean, who hasn't read a book in the last year with the word 'Girls' in the title? And notice they have all charted at some point...
7. It feels wrong to like it so much... Read it and you'll see why. But that makes me like it even more.
8. The way it unfolds is as beautiful as the writing itself. It's told in a bouncing narrative of past and present but it's intertwined with perspectives of the other Roanoke Girls. I thought this was such a great touch and really gave the novel depth... Ok. English Lit nerd point over.
9. The writing. OH. THE WRITING. I've said this a lot lately but it's depressing to read such a great book sometimes because all I can think is: why didn't I write this first? This is one of those books.
10. The ending is both satisfying to the plot and satisfying to the reader which I think is one of the biggest challenges and where a lot of books in this genre fall down.
So, you still don't believe me? Then you'll just have to wait and see what all the hype is about when you wake up in March and realise that the world has gone completely Roanoke crazy.
My review of The Roanoke Girls will follow shortly.
