Story of a Girl

Story of a Girl

Sara Zarr

For me, this book was powerful. Some of the description and the language used was magnificent. I could really feel myself in that town, surrounding myself with those people.

When she is caught in the backseat of a car with her older brother's best friend - Deanna Lambert's teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of "school slut," she longs to escape a life defined by her past.

With subtle grace, complicated wisdom and striking emotion, Story of a Girl reminds us of our human capacity for resilience, epiphany and redemption.

(Goodreads)

I thought that some characters needed more development. There was more of a potential storyline that never really ended up fulfilled. I could relate to Deanna because some of her thoughts were so irrational, and her ideas of what could be were so far off from reality. I mean, that happens to everyone, whether we’d admit it or not. That was written very well.

There were some other great moments. My favorite parts of the book were the ones that included The Girl on the Waves. (Read the book to see what I mean!) Those parts were so poetic and lovely.

I absolutely loved how Deanna let one little moment in her life define her forever—I thought that was something really relatable. And it was such a huge deal to her and it affected her family. They really let it get to them. It was incredible to see the gradual journey of acceptance and forgiveness and compassion within this broken family. Zarr’s striking emotion really capture the depth of the circumstances. It was a great debut novel, and I will be reading more soon!