A solid thriller from debut author Emma Styles, No Country for Girls is soaked in the dusty, eucalyptus-scented atmosphere of the Australian outback. Tomboyish scrapper Charlie and suburban girl Nao find themselves thrown together and on the run, their friendship growing along with the danger that faces them. A pacey, well-written and promising read.

One of my favorite television series is an Australian one, named Wanted. It features two women that flees from the police after committing specific crimes. The television series brought some Australian scenery in mind that I really enjoyed combining with this thrilling read! I enjoyed the book and will read more by Ms Styles in future. Recommended.

A gripping outback thriller, well written and a real page turner - Emma Styles has a great talent for conjuring up believable characters in nightmarish situations.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

📖 Charlie and Nao are strangers living very different lives, until one day a devastating incident binds them together. Unwilling accomplices in a man’s murder, they find themselves outlaws on the run across Australia’s remote outback with a bag of stolen gold. What will they be willing to do to evade capture and escape with their lives?

💭 Dubbed as ’Thelma & Louise for a new generation’, this book offers a gritty, fast-paced thriller of two young women on the run across the red hot, unforgiving landscape of Australia’s outback.

I don’t know why, but I just love a plot that revolves around roadtrips, crime, and unforgiving landscapes. Dusty towns, dirty motels, ripped Levis and old gas stations🤌🏼 I know that sounds quite niche, but it’s essentially a character on the run - and on the road.

Strangely enough, my most similar comparison to this story (and I wonder if there’s a deliberate link here) is the 2007 Coen Brothers' film, No Country for Old Men (originally based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel).

The difference here, however, is that our main characters are women: two feisty, strong teenagers, who are willing to do whatever it takes to save themselves. As the story develops, and the numbers on the truck's mileage clock increase, their friendship grows - and so does the lengths they’re willing to go to save each other.

A great debut book, full of tension and action, and I’ll definitely be looking out for Emma Styles’ next book when I need a bit of travel escapism!

Overall I found this debut well written, thrilling, and steady at a good pace. I thought the two main characters were strong, relatable, and also fleshed out great. However, like I’ve seen a few other reviewers saying, the secondary and supporting characters honestly felt nothing more than occasional depth drowned in paper-they didn’t jump off the pages with life like our two central females did.
I feel that the descriptions of the landscape were very vivid and rich, the dialogue was realistic and not at all too purple or too cringey, the thriller part itself was written with enough tension and depth that it stood on its own against the character development and also wasn’t weak enough to become lost in the landscape and personal, inner journeys.
Overall it was a solid, descriptive read that I would like to retry one day and hope another star would be added whenever that reread happens.

Two girls go on the run in Emma Styles’ No Country for Girls: a man is dead and they leave the city in his ute, still strangers but now accomplices to murder and with a bag of stolen gold at their feet.

When she encounters a barefoot and bloodied Nao outside her house late one night, Charlie is understandably reluctant to let this stranger into her home. Especially with older sister, Geen, not there. But doing so arguably saves her life before sending these two strangers off on an unexpected and fractious road trip together. I liked how seemingly random their first encounter is, and that we meet the girls at the same time as they are warily circling each other. Emma Styles drops us right into the action. When Charlie opens the gate and leads the way into her house, we follow her and Nao up that path. And later, we’ll leave the house with them and bundle ourselves into that stolen ute, staying with these two young girls every red dirt step of the way.

Charlie and Nao get off to an inauspicious start and it’s unsurprising that these two girls are wary of each other after their lives suddenly collide, setting them off on a trajectory neither one of them could have seen coming. But seeing how they cope with this, being cooped up in the ute together and trying to stay ahead of their pursuers, was an aspect of No Country for Girls which I thoroughly enjoyed. They’re two different characters—one feisty and combative, the other, more thoughtful and intuitive—forced to rely on each other. I also loved how this difference is reflected in the choices they make along the way.

We spend the vast majority of time with Charlie and Nao, except for the odd chapter when we hear from Charlie’s older sister, Geen, which allows us to see their relationship develop over the course of the book. It helps us understand their decisions and makes us root for them to survive this shared adventure. I needed to know how their story would turn out. I could sense their horror at the turn of events on the night which sets everything else in motion, the tension and suspicion, the secrets they keep, their own stories of hurt and loss, but also their grudging yet growing reliance on one another. Which is something they’ll need as they head away from the city and further up into Western Australia.

Emma Styles’ description conjures up the landscape they travel through so well that I almost feel as if I’ve been there, after having read the book: heat seems to rise off its pages, road trains blast past us, sucking up what little air there is and stirring up the dust from those red dirt roads the girls travel until it catches in your throat, while the horizon shimmers in the distance. It’s an evocative journey into treacherous country, and one which Emma Styles brings alive. There’s a very real sense that the girls have to keep moving as much because of the terrain and its dangers, as any threat posed by pursuers.

As the girls are propelled ever further away from the city they grew up in, I was far less concerned about who was behind them than their road trip because I knew there had to be a showdown. It was coming somewhere down the road. But first, I wanted to see how far they could get and go along for the ride, wherever that might take us. The final confrontation, when it does happen, comes across as a little clumsy, bordering on farcical. But I could forgive it that. No Country for Girls had more than delivered on its promise of escape and adventure with the potential for friendship and freedom thrown in. Besides, I think Emma Styles redeems herself with the actual ending and the way she leaves things.

Here’s where I need to give you a heads-up before you, too, venture into No Country for Girls. Once Charlie and Nao enter the house, certain events play out which ensure things move at a fair old lick from there and the book whips along at a good pace, as the girls are pursued across Western Australia. They barely have time to think about what to do, let alone any chance to rest. And here’s the thing: given that you’re along for the ride, the same goes for you. Once you start reading No Country for Girls, you’ll find it hard to stop. The short chapters make it all too easy to keep going. (For the girls’ sake, obviously. To make sure they’re alright.) So, carve out some time, get the snacks in, top up your beverage of choice—because it’s important to stay hydrated—and buckle up. You’re about to go on one heck of a road trip. What begins as a terrifying escape for the two girls is a heady, twisty and gritty adventure for the reader.

This has a solid plot, following our two protagonists across Western Australia as the run from their crimes. It did a really good job at capturing the landscape, completely unfamiliar to me but vivid. Unfortunately the style wasn't for me. Completely a personal preference thing, I just couldn't really connect in to any of the characters. But an interesting take on the road trip crime caper.

I enjoyed this book. Interesting storyline that kept you gripped. Great characters. Looking forward to more by this author. Enjoyed the Australian backdrop.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was one that hooked me early on and certainly painted a picture of the Australian setting. Good main characters with an interesting storyline it was a good read.

Told in first from the perspective of three women, No Country For Girls charts a chase across the outback as two strangers flee the scene of their separate crimes.

I couldn't decide whether I liked Charlie or
hated her. She has a unique voice, very common and crass, a stereotype white trash character which unfortunately made her predictable. At times her feistiness was amusing but she quickly began to grate on me, my sympathy for her situation just about balanced her character.

I didnt feel much for Nao either, she was more of a closed book with another cliché history. I did like the way her story intersected with each character and event within the book, probably the most enjoyable part for me.
Geena has a smaller part to tell in the story but showed a little more sense as the eldest of the three.

The setting was interesting and well written, adding the threats of the heat and desolation to the story gave it extra tension. The use of native slang and reference to local plant and wildlife added much needed dimension to No Country For Girls.

Unfortunately aside from this I found the novel to be very much run-of-the-mill, predictable and generic. I didn't dislike it but it wouldn't be my top choice to spend time and money on

I really enjoyed this book, a very good storyline which has all the favourite triggers for me. Looking forward to reading more from this author.📖📖👏😃

I enjoyed No Country For Girls, the two main protagonists are interesting, different and well-rounded characters, and the plot zips along with a good amount of action and tension.

I liked the Aussie colloquialisms, and that together with the descriptive language over the locations really set the scene and gave the novel a great outback adventure vibe.

My only criticisms are that I felt the secondary characters were less well fleshed out, and that there were some characters who felt a little red-shirty, but I did feel at the denouement that all the characters were at risk which made it a thrilling ending.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this one in return for an honest review!

Rating: 3.1/5

In recent years I have read a number of novels written by graduates of the University of East Anglia's creative writing course and I have been impressed to varying degrees by all of them. Emma Styles debut, "No Country for Girls" is the latest example and is another capably written and enjoyable piece of fiction.

As is already indicated in the accompanying marketing blurb, it is impossible not to draw certain comparisons with "Thelma and Louise". There are certainly some clear similarities, but it would be doing the author a disservice to say that this is merely a facsimile of that story, but with the location switched to Australia. Charlie and Nao are two young women brought together by circumstance, who find themselves on the run and being pursued across the country. There is plenty of action and adventure along the way, but at its heart this is essentially a character-driven story. The narrative is predominantly supplied from the viewpoints of Charlie and Nao with Emma Styles generally doing a good job of distinguishing clearly between the two central protagonists.

I have to confess that I didn't warm to this novel immediately and in the early stages I wasn't convinced that I was going to find it to my liking. However, bit by bit I found myself being drawn and I think much of the credit for that must go to the author for delivering a storyline with decent pace and regular tantalisers, but also for moulding characters that became increasingly captivating.

The option to bring this to the screen has already been taken up and it certainly wouldn't be difficult to imagine it replicating the recent success of Jamie Dornan's "The Tourist", which was also set in the wide-open spaces of Australia. In the meantime, you could certainly do far worse than to pick this book up and spend some time in the company of Charlie and Nao.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

I can honestly state that I don't know what i was expecting when I started this book. It's a book I was invited to review and the premise sounded interesting, something a little different to my usual go to police thrillers. Plus I'm always interested in reading new authors and what could be newer than a debut? So how was the book? Tense, packed with action and featuring two of the grittiest and most resilient, ethnically and culturally diverse young women you could help to meet. Fate draws them together, and an overwhelming threat means that, even if they wanted to, they just cannot say goodbye. Well ... that and the small matter one one dead body and a bag full of gold ...

This really was the most unexpected of books. I found that I grew to like the two protagonists almost immediately. They are most definitely chalk and cheese, two people whose worlds would not normally intersect, but when those worlds start to collapse about them the reverberations are felt not just by them but by those all around them. Charlie is the younger of the two but has a real spark within her. A fighting spirit that can only grow within someone who has constantly been faced with adversity. She is spiky, obstropolous, and angry, traits that will both help and hinder her on her journey. She is bright, but with an intelligence born of her environment rather than her education. Nao seems the softer of the two, forced into action for reasons we aren't initially privy to, but there is a strength within her too that her personality and appearance don't immediately make clear. They couldn't be more different and yet they compliment each other and Emma Styles has done a great job of developing them and their friendship which feels both authentic and organic.

There is a feeling of threat and urgency from the very beginning, one which rarely lets up, propelling me onward, turning those pages as fast as my little fingers would allow me. Those opening pages are atmospheric, the threat implied rather than being anything you can put a face to. That doesn't take long to change and just a few short, but intense scenes in, the stage is set for the road trip of all road trips, the two young women finding themselves pitted against a sinister opponent. Whilst most of the action focuses on the Charlie and Nao, on their efforts to get to safety, there is a secondary thread, one which serves to explain more of how the current situation came to pass. It is more overt in threat and intensity, some scenes pushing the tension so far that I found my pulse pounding, wondering just how dark things may get.

There is a fine balance between the action and the story which the author manages well. Although violent in parts, it is never excessive or unnecessarily explicit. The author has done a great job of illustrating the diversity of the landscape that Nao and Charlie have to face in order to reach safety, and of the scale of the journey they are about to make. The long roads, the heat and the sheer space that they have to traverse almost becomes and adversary in it's own right, adding another unwelcome complication to an already challenging quest.

There were times when I did have to suspend disbelief a little, a largely because of the nature of the threat against Nao and Charlie. They were very much out of their depth, often aided by luck more than judgement in terms of coming out on top. So many close calls where the maturity of the two seemed almost too perfect, and yet there is always that question mark hanging over how far someone might go when faced with such an intense threat. Maybe luck alone was just enough to tip the scales in their favour, and maybe that is okay. I liked the story, enjoyed the pacing and the intensity of their adventure, and believed the corruption at the heart of the whole book and the essence of what people might be willing to do in order to take back what they felt was theirs.

Coincidences aside, the book packs a punch and is a very assured and enthralling debut. I'm definitely interested to see what the author has to offer us next as I think Emma Styles is one to watch for the future.

A gritty, gripping novel about two unlikely teenagers thrown together by circumstances. I loved both the pacing of this, as well as the writing. The colloquialisms inserted in the conversations and narrations added a whole lot to the atmosphere. I’m not particularly convinced about the title—I think it could have been more imaginative, but I guess you shouldn’t judge a book by its name!

Yet another sterling Aussie YA novel. I’ve been so impressed by the quality of the work coming from there.

(Review copy from NetGalley)

This has TV adaptation written all over it. A road trip featuring gold bars, murder, chases, dodgy cops and two young girls - it's ripe for adaptation.

The blurb calls this a modern day Thelma and Louise and you can see why but it's not quite there. It does have a cracking start. Charlie comes home to find a strange girl on her doorstep needing to crash somewhere for the night. She lets her in, only to find her sister's dodgy boyfriend Daryl waiting inside. He thinks she has pinched a small bar of gold from him, there's an argument, it gets nasty and physical and lo and behold, there's a body, blood on the floor and a whole bag of gold bars in Daryl's car.

Charlie and the other girl, Nao, go on the run across Australia. Of course, we soon find out that Nao is not there by accident and there's a whole lot more plot to come.

It's a pacey read and you do warm to the two girls, who have had tough lives so far and are tackling their fugitive status with aplomb. At some points I did have trouble working out who was talking - this wasn't helped by the alternating narrator in each chapter - sometimes Charlie, sometimes Nao and sometimes Charlie's sister Geena.

Of course being Australia, there's a supporting cast of nasty critters ready to play their part in the plot and I did think the novel had a terrific sense of place, especially that seedy dark side that you don't get from the surfing adverts. The impact of policies against Aborigines and the legacy of mining in the outback are among the broader themes discussed here but this isn't an issue book - it's a thriller and perfect summer reading.

I enjoyed reading this book. I seem to like road trip type books, plenty going on, and likable characters. Good book, well worth a read.

This is the story of Naomi and Charlie, who get mixed up in a gold robbery, and an accidental death. They were strangers before this, and neither of them trust the other, with good reason, but they go on the run together with devastating effects. It was a bit of a slow start, but I got to really like the two girls, and how their friendship develops. There are a few other key characters but so many plot twists, and backstory to detail in a review. Thoroughly enjoyed this!

4.5*. Wow! What a debut No Country for Girls is. I loved it from beginning to end. An outback noir novel which will have you on the edge of your seat.

Charlie is having a bad day. In trouble at school again and her sister’s boyfriend is trying to hunt her down. Some of her difficulties may be down to the small gold bar she has in her pocket. Charlie comes across the mysterious Nao, who claims to have been in a car accident when she offers Charlie money to sleep on her sofa.

After a night of spiralling bad luck and poor decisions, Charlie and Nao find themselves on the run. Racing further into the wilds to the north of Western Australia, they need to outrun the mess they have left behind and potential pursuers.

No Country for Girls is incredibly well plotted and it remains tense throughout. The characters are fantastic and it picks up and runs with the baton of some superb Aussie crime fiction in recent years.

I picked this book as it’s been chosen as one of Val McDermid’s ‘New Blood’ choices for debut authors at the 2022 Theakstons Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate (Europe’s largest festival for the genre). Previous choices on the same panel have included Jane Harper and Chris Hammer, both amazing writers and now both auto-pre-order authors for me. Emma Styles will rightly sit alongside them and I look forward to her next book.

Huge thanks to Little Brown and Netgalley for an advance copy and Theakstons/Val McDermid for the tip off. I would hugely recommend this book.

On the face of things, No Country for Girls seems like a straight-forward Aussie thriller, there's a ute, and a dust road, flip flops and beer, but once you get reading, NCfG develops a personality all of its own.
It's got a fresh style, doesn't shy away from using vernacular language and doesn’t try to sanitise the Australian Outback or make it more palatable by using traditional or accepted literary styles. It takes a daring approach to telling a gritty story, laser focusing in on those late teenage years and presents these girls in a way that feels genuine. The story and the characters fit perfectly together and even though the main character makes some bad life choices I totally believed those would be the choices she would make.

But this thriller is definitely not a travel guide. I’ve never been to Australia, and literally the only concept I have of the country comes from TV and books and I don’t think it’s that accurate, but Style’s the pics in Australia had never really seen before, warts and all really. I often think Australia is just a warm version of Britain but after reading this book a definitely have a different feel for the place.

At first it can be difficult to read a story that doesn't immediately try to seduce you with beautiful language or some sort of thrilling premise, and There is a little bit of chewing to be done here. on the first two or three pages I wasn't really sure how I'd get along with the story especially mixed with the slang, but a minute later I felt like I had known the place and the characters my whole life I was totally invested in what was going to happen to them.

From plant life scents, to the screen door hanging and scrape of flip-flops flopping, the burnt rubber, along with the mix of vernacular I quickly fell for the girls. I read on because I desperately wanted to know what happens next. The story and the style definitely ended up getting five stars from me.