What a brilliant book, both full of hope but also full of heartbreak for these brilliant women.

Not the type of book I would normally read but I am so glad I did.

A group of girls that all have one thing in common. They got pregnant as a teenager.

Simone has twins and is raising them basically all on her own after being kicked out of her house.
Emory just got her little baby and tries to raise him while going to school and trying to keep her life together.
Adela has recently moved to Florida where she meets the girls. She’s forced by her parents to deliver the baby and give it away to another family.

Their lives aren’t going as any of them expected. Choices are being made for them. Choices they don’t have control over and don’t always agree with.
How do you deal with it all as a young woman?
You have to keep going.
At least they have each other.
They’re more than just friends. They’re family.

Their story is so raw and so heartbreaking at times but also heartwarming and beautiful at other times.
It’s not just a story about pregnancy. It’s about friendship, family, love, motherhood, being a woman, grief and most of all, finding your own place in the world.

At times it was a bit slow but I still kept wanting to pick it up and continue it. The one thing that bothered me a little bit was the writing in accents. Something I’m not a big fan of, but I’ll say, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would in the beginning.
It’s not a story that did anything special for me necessarily, hence the 3 star rating, but I also have nothing bad to say about it. Just an overall good and entertaining book.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the arc

Mottley paints a triumphant portrait of a group of young women who support each other and take control of their own narratives despite society looking down on them.

The main characters are 3 girls at different stages of young motherhood. All 3 muddle their way through not only motherhood but also the ups and downs of being a teenager. The characters are well rounded and it's hard not to empathise with the girls, despite their actions sometimes being frustrating to witness. The narrative has its ups and downs, the pivotal moment in which the tension peaks was incredibly fraught and it took me a while to be able to relax.

Definitely a book to read when you need to restore your trust in the strength of women.

The Girls Who Grew Big is a book I will remember for a long time. It starts off so raw and slightly shockingly, which had me instantly hooked. The story follows three teenage mothers and their personal lives. Each character is distinct, strong and real. Being teenagers sometimes I find authors portray them as being too young and naive. But this book seemed to be age appropriate and balanced. There is character development and growing up that occurs but it felt very natural. I loved the exploration of Southern American Culture, marginalised groups, societal expectations and abortion.
The differing experiences complemented each other, there is messy life happening and awful treatment at the hands of others. Despite these things ‘the girls’ have each other. The story is heartfelt, hopeful and brimming with friendship. I found it a very engaging read and will be following this authors next works.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

This was an interesting read - I found it hard to read initially but once I had learnt more about the young woman I found it both heartbreaking and hopeful.

‘The Girls’ are a group of teenage mums in a small town in Florida setup by Simone - mother of 4 year old twins - as a support and bulwark against the negative assumptions of the locals. We learn about Simone - her fight for her girls but also her dilemma as she finds herself pregnant again; Adela sent to live with her grandmother until her baby is born when her promising swimming dreams can begin again; and Emory determined to graduate despite the odds against her after the birth of Kai.

Each have dilemmas to face but each provides a safety net for each other as they face their futures and make the best choices for themselves and their babies.

A story of love and hope despite the secrets and betrayals.

To be wholeheartedly recommended.

This book was such a delight to read. Thanks NetGalley for giving me the chance t oread an ARC.

I chose this book because I’m really interested in reading about maternity, it’s a topic I never learn enough about. When I saw that «The Girls Who Grew Big» by Leila Mottley was about a group of teen moms, I knew I had to read it. And I’m so happy I did!

The book is written from 3 points of view: Simone, Emory and Adela. Simone is the veteran mum, meaning she’s the one who started building a girl’s community from her red truck in a small town in Florida. She had her twins, Luck and Lion, five years ago, when she was 16 and now that’s she’s 21 she’s helping teen mums to raise their babies. That’s how the reader meets Emory, who had Kai a few months ago, and Adela, who just arrived to town.

I loved how, though them, we get to know different kind of experiences around teen’s maternity. Simone is the oldest one and she’s really mature, she always has the right words to say to the girls; she’s also really sincere and has no fear in saying what she thinks. Tooth, Lion and Luck’s father, doesn’t act like it. Emory wanted to be a mum but when she is going through maternity, she realizes it was not how she pictured it would be; Jay, the father of Kai, is a good dad and he’s in love with Emory. Unfortunately, Emory doesn’t feel the same way. Adela is pregnant at 16 and is new in town. She gets to know the girls and, little by little, becomes one of them. She’ an athlete, a swimmer, and her parents sent her with her grandmother until she gives birth and gives the baby in adoption; then, she can return home and keep on with her life as if nothing had happened.

The book is amazing in giving you lots of perspectives on the same topic: teen pregnancy. Besides the experience of these girls, we get to see how society treats them as pariah, how they judge her without knowing them or their situations. «The Girls Who Grew Big» also talks about sorority, girl’s power and how we are stronger when we’re together.

Although it felt a bit slow at times, this is a book I would recommend anyone who’s interested in these topics. I really hope it gets translated to Spanish too so people in my country who can’t speak English can enjoy it as well.

Leila Mottley’s debut “Nightcrawling” was started when she was 16, finished when she was 17 and published when she was only 19 with its Booker Longlisting the same year (2022) making her the youngest ever author to achieve that accolade.

My review of it (prior to its longlisting) said “To write an accomplished literary novel at the age of 19 is an impressive feat. For it not to be (as one might thing) autobiographical but instead based on a real life example of institutionalised misconduct (here by the Oakland Police Force) and aimed at giving a voice to the voiceless victims even more so. But to do that with such an originality of phrase and language in a way which not just gives that voice (here a seventeen year old) a level of articulation, but also effectively confronts the structural sexism by disassembling conventional writing is I think close to astonishing.”. I did have some reservations – as with many novels where the writer is from a more privileged educational background than their protagonist – that protagonist had a potentially unrealistic eloquence here so much so that phraseology was favoured over clarity with in addition the book permanently dialled up to a 10 (leaving the author unlike Nigel Tufnel no where to go to add additional emphasis). But overall I concluded that while far from flawless, it was the first novel of what will be a famous and fresh new voice in fiction, and worth reading for that alone.

And now we have the author’s second novel – still at the ridiculously young age (even for a debut) of 23.

It is set in a rather marginalised area of the US which for me as an English reader was a rather unknown one culturally but captured really clearly in the novel: the panhandle of northwest Florida – with a Southern style culture bordered as it is by Alabama and Georgia, and with (at least for me) something of the run-down coastal setting and “left behind” social malaise of the English seaside, left behind not just by the country as a whole but also on a yearly basis as the seasonal holidaymakers (here typically spring breakers) depart. It is also one exposed to the risks of alligators and hurricanes both of which prove a real and metaphorical threat in the novel.

And concentrates on a marginalised group of individuals (again in the US as much as the UK) – pregnant teenagers.

It’s a book which like her debut opens with a striking image – there an excrement filled swimming pool here a teenage mother (who has just given birth to twins in the back of the truck of her unreliable boyfriend) chewing through her placenta in the absence of anything hygienic to cut them with.

That mother is the 16 year old Simone – who was thrown out by her trailer-living family after her pregnancy, estranged from them all other than eventually her younger brother Jay, and finding the surfer-bum Tooth a less then dependable father to her twins. Instead – 4 years later when the novel is set - she has formed a community of other teenage mums and pregnant girls who congregate around her (in)famous red truck and support each other despite the town (Padua Beach)’s censorious views with Simone as something of a mother figure to them even at her 20 years.

Rather cleverly the novel is written in three trimesters and each begins with a really impressive collective chorus of all of the girls which links the stage of pregnancy to the meta-narrative.

And each section alternates in short chapters between three voices:

Simone herself who to her horror finds herself pregnant again (again by Tooth) but due to the latter’s unreliability and her own need to focus on her young twins (Luck and Lion) and perhaps start building some stability for them decides to get an abortion only to clash with Florida’s strict (and post novel completion even stricter) laws – when a tropical storm damages the only clinic she can assess she and her girls decide to use more traditional methods.

Adela – a high school swimming star, when her well off family find she is pregnant she is sent to her paternal grandmother in Padua Beach to have the baby in secret and immediately give it up for adoption, but falls into a relationship with a local man Chris and decides to let him believe the baby is his.

Emory – a new mother (with Jay as the father – much to the horror of her grandfather who she lives with after her mother abandoned her years before). She regrets her ill-thought through decision to have a baby as soon as she realises the consequences for her future but is at the novel’s opening determined to continue at school (where she had been hitherto something of a star) and takes her baby (Kai) with her despite the staff’s attempts to get her to a school for teenage Mums. But she then falls in love (not I have to say entirely convincingly) with Adela and reconsiders her plans (and then has to reconsider further as she realises that Adela may not reciprocate. Emory also has something of an Orca obsession which ends up as a recurring set of images in the novel.

All three are strong characters and their voices sufficiently different to keep the story engaging even if the narrative does seem to drift – I was unclear that there was really enough going on to fully justify the novel’s length.

As with her previous novel I did have a slight doubt about the protagonist/writer gap - here less due to the narrative voice(s) not least as 2 of the 3 are well educated but more due to the experience gap as she clearly had a rather different teenage experience (studying at a famous college and then being a full time writer) and Oakland is I think a long way from the panhandle in every sense.

Further, having as a plot device a man who has relationships with two of the three girls without for much of the novel either of them (or him) knowing (and even us not knowing for some time) is never great anyway but especially in a town where we are told repeatedly of its small size and get the sense that everyone knows each other’s business.

But this remains I think an author to follow.

Happy publication day to one of my all time favourite authors and a truly outstanding new book. I read this a while ago now and it’s really sat with me. I haven’t felt able to review the book in a way that would do it justice, so let me try keep it short and sweet.

The book is about a group of teenage mothers who are surviving and trying to provide for their children, and themselves, in a small town on the Florida panhandle. They face judgements from everyone around them, but they’re also fiercely loyal and protective, and are ferocious in leading a life on their own terms, despite the external challenges and internal tensions! As young women themselves, they experience all the challenges of motherhood, with the added complexity of still figuring out who they are and what they want, because who knows that at 19?

I fell for these characters in a big way. They are bold and loving and strong and vulnerable, and there is beauty in the lives and friendships they create.

It is also written by Leila Mottley, so I don’t need to tell you how high quality the writing is. She just has a way of capturing the emotional depth of people living on the margins - tender, raw, and unflinchingly real.

I highly recommend diving into this one, relishing every word and passing it on. ❤️‍🔥

Absolutely no doubt in my mind going into this that I wouldn’t love it. After reading Nightcrawling I knew how captivating @leilamottley writing was.

The Girls Who Grew Big focuses around a group of young teenage girls who are pregnant/have had children young. Adela Woods moves to a new town (after being forced into hiding due to her pregnancy) and she hears rumours about “The Girls” determined not to become one of them. Although the girls have been abandoned by those who should love them, looked down on and shunned by the town, Adela can’t help but feel the community, love and support for eachother and this was palpable throughout the whole book. I was literally so happy that these young ladies had eachother 💖 They are not perfect, they make mistakes but that’s what makes them so relatable and you can’t help but root for them all. I especially enjoyed Simone’s character and her progression through the book, seeing the realisation that she doesn’t need a man and her troublesome relationship with her family.

I loved how this book captured the concept that just because you had a child young you don’t need to give up on your dreams. The girls paths took different directions towards the end of the book but I loved how they all supported eachother and the sense of this is where I’m meant to be.

I knew Leila Mottley was a talented writer after Nightcrawling but The Girls Who Grew Big just double confirms that. I loved this book.

I absolutely loved Mottley’s debut (I still can’t believe it was a debut!) novel Nightcrawling, it was bleak but fantastic so I was very much looking forward to her new novel.

Nightcrawling is an extremely tough act to follow and I don’t think The Girls Who Grew Big quite manages it. The novel follows Adela, Simone and Emory ‘The Girls’ who are a group of teenage mothers who have found refuge with one another.

The narrative explores each of the girls and their story whilst having an overarching theme of found family and female friendship.

Personally, for me, I think it may have been a bit too ambitious with the characters and their layered backstories, complete with families and side characters. There was a lot going on a story that could’ve been simpler and more effective - i’m sure a lot of people will love it though but it wasn’t for me.

This book relates a powerful experience, delving into the lives of those girls who are abandoned by society because they became pregnant before they were married. Despite being rejected by family for the most part and treated with scorn by their community they find a way to survive and prosper at least in some cases. It is a story of human resilience and love. The purest form of love between mother and child but then a warped form of love where a man can impregnate a girl yet take no responsibility for his actions. In fact it is fine to move on to another ‘model’ in some cases. Yes there are times when the girls were immature and should have known better, but at others they are remarkably astute. It is of course an age old story and one likely to be repeated ad nauseam, a girl gets the blame and often has to fend for herself. However, this book makes a hugely important point, despite being flawed, every individual is precious and needs to be cherished and allowed to flourish, even if their actions disgust others

Gotta be honest- I wanted to give all of these young women-Simone, Emory, Adela, and the others-the hug their mothers did not. Motley takes you into the lives of teen mothers living below the margins in a Florida beach town in an emotional and thoughtful way that never exploits but rather makes you root for them. Simone, the oldest, is raising her twins in the bed of a pickup truck. Emory is defying the principal at her high school and bringing her son to class. Adela, a competitive swimmer has been sent by her parents to live with her grandmother Noni (the only sympathetic adult). Her arrival upsets the carefully balanced relationships of the Girls. They clash but they also come through for one another when there's a crisis. These are tough young determined young women who each have the chance to tell their story. I liked that the voices were distinct and that they defy expectations. It's both heartbreaking and heartwarming. And it's about the family we make. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is just terrific.

Sometimes it takes a while to get into a book, but I was totally captured by this from the very first page. I thought the writing was absolutely beautiful (no surprises when I found out the author is also a poet) and the voice really captured all the Girls. They all felt so real. They were so young for the responsibility they had, yet very mature in how they raised their children and stood up for each other. However, in other aspects they were very obviosuly still kids themselves, which led to this being a wonderful coming of age style novel. I really loved the unique outlook and how it explored teen pregnancy and young mothers, which is not often spoken about. My only criticism is that the story did lose momentum for me a bit in the middle and I lost motivation to read it, but I fell in love with it again by the end.

This book has such a dramatic first "chapter" which I think will either encourage a reader to continue or give up on straightaway.! I'm so pleased I continued as its a story full of heart and strength, and of young women beating the mpoverished, patriarchal, religious society they live in. Not in a poverty porn way but pragmatically with relationships that don't always work but a strong bond linking the Girls. I thought the writing was almost lyrical at times even when describing some of the most visceral events and was amazed at how young the author is and that she has no children of her own.
I haven't read nightcrawling, but now can't wait to do so and any future books by this talented writer
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of this book

It was with trepidation that I started to read this book. It is definitely not the kind of reading I would normally tackle.
I would imagine that this is probably the best book of its ilk every written.
The reader is involved in all of the happenings whether they wish to be or not.
I have certainly a much better understanding of what teenage girls go through, and how it feels to be pregnant.
The characters are awesome, the storyline hard hitting. I enjoyed the book very much, and certainly much, much better than I expected because of the main subject.
My thanks to the author for the hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I absolutely love this novel about friendship, sisterhood and motherhood and
honestly don't think I've read anything like it. I loved all the strong female characters.
The story is about a group of teenage mothers bound togethr by motherhood. They help each other and accept each other for who they are.
Adela is sent to the small town of Padua Beach-banished by her parents who are ashamed of her being pregnant at 16.
She meets Emory, another teenage mothers
determined not to let being a mum hinder her studies.
Simone, leader of the girls finds herself pregnant again in addition to the towns she already has.
Jutcast by the best of the town the girls have to tuck together and find their own way
Bound by their 'unfortunate'corcumstances is their isolation really a negative or a beautiful bond of strength and courage.
A beautiful novel about being true to yourself and who you are. Learning to accept and be kind to yourself.
Thank you NetGalley, Leila mottley ans penguin books.

Have you ever read a book about teen moms? I hadn't, until I read The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley. As someone who is definitely not a teenager anymore and also doesn't have any children, I wasn't expecting much of this book. Perhaps some high school romance gone wrong. Leila Mottley proved me wrong.

In The Girls Who Grew Big the story is told from the perspective of three young women, girls really. The first is Simone. She is more or less the first teen mom in Padua Beach and mother of twins, Luck and Lion. Then there is Emory, young mother of baby Kai, whose father is actually Simone's brother, who is a teenager himself too. And then there is Adela, a pregnant girl, who is shipped off by her parents to her grandmother in Padua Beach. Adela's parents had no idea what they were sending their daughter into!

So what happens when you cast a girl out when she gets pregnant at an early age? Of course, lots of things can happen, but in this town those girls all flock together, becoming The Girls. They live their lives as best they can and help each other out all the time. So far it sounds like it's going to be one happy book, but that is not the case. Yes, there is high school romance and there is friendship, but there's also anxiety, despair, depression, financial problems. Place those problems on the shoulder of a teenage girl without any adult to help her, you can imagine that sometimes not the best decision is made.

I enjoyed reading The Girls Who Grew Big immensely. I was very much impressed by it. Its style is raw, but also beautiful. Even though I had never read anything by Leila Mottley before, I now understand why she was a Booker Prize nominee. Pick up The Girls Who Grew Big, meet its great character and experience their heartbreak, weighty decisions and love for each other for yourself!

Outstanding!
The girls who grew big by Leila Mottley is a fantastic example of courage and strength, when it seems the whole world is against you.
Each character we are introduced to has their own individual troubles but what pulls them together is hope. True friendship and determination is packed into this story and it has been a pleasure to read.

The story is written well, explained brilliantly and to get a clear view of how these young girls have lived is something very special. Judgement is always just around the corner and to live within this area and fight through the hard times is nothing short of inspirational.
An eye opening read. I will definitely be reading more by this author.

Many thanks to the Author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC I. exchange for an honest review.

One of the best writers of character voice I have read.

This is a story about teenage mothers who found each other from our singular aloneness, made family out of a truck bed and the milky delight of watching their babies grow through the fog of distant shame.
We follow three main girls from different walks of life - race, family, wealth, ambitions…

This book will shift the way you think and speak about young motherhood, girlhood. I was surprised to learn the author is not a mother herself because I felt every single emotion and struggle in her writing.

<b>Judge us if you want, but first you have to witness us contort and expand. First you have to watch us become. Then, when you have seen the war we wrestled just to be here, the lives we created out of the void of this place, you can decide whether you want to talk to us about how we were too young, too ravenous, too susceptible to grief. But we bet, once you look out across the water we drank from, you’ll decide we were exactly what we always said we’d be. Girls. Mothers. Big, small, endless.</b>

Every single character is strong in personality, unique in voice, and extremely distinct. The use of dialect and language and internal monologues is used to put you in these young women’s minds.

There is a strong supportive community they cultivate between themselves, despite the shame and stigma surrounding them - pushed on them.

<b>Unrequited love is like believing in fairies for a little too long, past the age it’s acceptable. Sure, there’s the eventual devastation that this thing you thought was real suddenly evaporated into nothing. But the worst part of it is the shame that you ever believed at all.
</b>
Finally, the location of Padua Beach is very vivid. You will feel the heat, shake in the storms, splash in the water.

If you liked books like Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors, even the spotlighting of women by Kristin Hannah, you will enjoy this!

Arc gifted by Penguin Books.

"A fierce dedication to be what no one wanted them to be. Abundant, knowing, big"

This is a story about finding motherhood and finding your own way and the importance of community that you make for yourself.

The story is set in a small town in the panhandle of Florida and follows three girls, Adela, Simon, and Emory. Adela is sent to the town to live with her grandmother after her parents discover she's pregnant. Simone is the mother of twins and discovers she is pregnant again. Lastly Emory is a new mother and is determined to manage school and motherhood.

I'm honestly shocked that the author is only 23, what an incredible talent. The writing is beautifully descriptive that is so full of heart and soul. It's powerful and oh so very real.

The girls all have are fully fleshed out with distinct voices and wants. The characters are so resilient and have a lot of courage and ferocity. You can picture these girls vividly, you're rooting for them, and are with them every step of the way, through every stumble, challenge, and triumph.

Having this book set in small town Florida really adds to the trials and tribulations that these girls go through and just adds to the evocative nature of the story.

I think the content of this book was handled with a lot of love and care which makes the reader leave their judgements at the door.

Overall, I haven't read anything like this before and the story is so far removed from my life but yet I was completely immersed and really cared about what happened to these girls, which truly is a testament to the author.
The book is out July 10th in the UK and recommend everyone read it! Thank you Netgalley and Penguin General for the arc, very very grateful for this opportunity.