Julia and Cassie have been best friends since kindergarten - their early experiences of their small town and their furtive explorations into the larger world at its edges are shared and precious to them both. Their home lives differ considerably but as children they accept without question that things are as they are. When they move up to secondary school they start to drift apart, separated first by lesson timetables and then by a larger pool of potential pals with its hierarchy of coolness and nerdiness.

On the face of it, there is little going on in these girls’ lives apart from school and hanging out with friends but in fact it is a time of huge importance for them. They are learning that life is not fair, not everyone has the same opportunities and some have to look out for themselves more than others. They are also discovering what it is to grow up as a girl, recognising their vulnerability, learning to keep themselves safe. The gap between their respective levels of parental support becomes wider and an atmosphere of foreboding steadily builds up around Cassie with her preoccupied mother and a controlling, rather creepy, stepfather. I was really touched by their stories - Julia suffering rejection yet still hoping Cassie might confide in her, and Cassie searching more and more desperately (and recklessly) for the stability and acceptance she craves. A powerful and succinct piece of writing that reminded me of many things I’d forgotten about how hard it can be to be young and female.

I'll load this review onto goodreads nearer the time of publication. Many thanks for the opportunity.

This book was quietly creepy. As I read on, I got the feeling that it was all going to implode. Beautifully written and real. Very, very clever. Read it! I will be reading all of the author's other books. Don't know what took me so long!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book.

Girls. They're the subject of choice these days. The Girl On The Train, Girls On Fire, Gone Girl... we seem to be obsessed with the inner workings of girls - or women, as the case may be. But The Burning Girl really is about girls - particularly the friendship between girls, and how utterly complex it can be. As close as sisters, as vicious as enemies, the friendships between girls can be stormy and intense, fulfilling and thrilling.

Cassie is a girl on fire, with a rough home life and a deep desperation to be loved. Julia, her best friend, is what you'd call a normal girl, with a fiery feminist mother and laid-back father, and an average, loving home. Julia has direction - she speaks clearly of the expectations placed upon her, that she'll go to university and do well for herself. But Cassie has no such expectations - nobody expects her to amount to anything. And nobody is surprised when she apparently goes off the rails, screaming for attention. Or was she? I was Cassie, once upon a time, but now I'm Julia (and her mum!), so I can relate to both of these girls.

The storyline isn't new, nor is it surprising, especially not to any female readers. But it is fresh, insightful, glorious. Messud is an incredible writer. The Burning Girl is wonderful and triumphant, and will be read in one sitting.

The Burning Girl is a novel about female friendship, growing up, and whether real life lives up to the stories. The narrator is Julia, a girl from a solid middle-class family, as she describes her friendship with Cassie Burnes, whose relationship with her single mother Bev is often tempestuous, especially after Bev gets a strange new boyfriend. As the pair get older they drift apart, but Julia’s penchant for imagining and creating stories doesn’t stop her thinking about what Cassie is doing, even when Cassie goes to desperate measures to find a life beyond the home that no longer feels like one.

The narrative is written with hindsight through the unreliable eyes of Julia, which makes for a strange yet distinctive style and a real awareness of the longing and loss of friendships drifting apart. At first it is difficult to see how the events will become more relevant, but after a certain point it is quite easy to work out how they will fit together. Despite this predictability, the novel captures very well a sense of growing up and being aware of the adult world in certain ways, a process that can be ominous and confusing. What Messud particularly emphasises is how Julia finds it difficult to deal with the breakdown of her friendship with Cassie—a girl she claims to know better than Cassie knows herself—and the intensity of still knowing all about somebody that you are no longer close to.

The Burning Girl has some captivating moments and a cleverly ambiguous ending reflecting the messages of the book. It can take a little while to get into, but is a novel that can be enjoyed by both adults and older teenagers for its careful evocation of a relatable feeling of lost friendship and imagination.

This was an interesting read, which rather disappointed in its' ending.

This book kept me on my toes the whole time. I thought I knew where it was going, yet I was constantly surprised. This is a touching story about how some friendships just drift apart, yet we don't know why. I really enjoyed this story, as it was character driven, and I really felt for them. I would recommend this book to my friends.