Short Review: This book should have taken me three days, not three weeks.
My excuse: It’s the holidays, sue me.
Leila Mottley’s “The Girls Who Grew Big” is a testament to the power of the family you choose, in this case, a circle of teenaged girls forced to turn to each other when their respective families shun them after unintended pregnancies.
I was being super intentional about the last couple reads of the year, mostly because I try to stay on top of what’s showing up on “Best Of” lists so that I can at least pretend I’ve got it together. I had heard about Mottley’s story of three young women — Simone, Emory and Adela — and immediately was taken in by the twists and turns of their respective storylines.
Set in small town modern day Florida, Simone is the de facto head of the group known as “The Girls” — a band of young mothers forced into living on the street, or more accurately, in the bed of Simone’s truck. Simone is the mother, sister, caregiver and friend these girls didn’t have at home and coaches them through pregnancy and young motherhood.
Emory is Simone’s sister and the mother of her brother’s child. Emory is the only one in the group that is not a person of color and is trying her best to graduate high school, determined to go to college.
Adela is the new Girl in town, sent from her Midwestern home where she is a rising competitive swimmer to live with her grandmother during her pregnancy. Very old school of her parents, and maybe the best thing that could happen for someone that is desperate for a fresh start.
The ties that bind Emory to Adela and Adela to Simone should feel soap opera-worthy, but Mottley’s ability to craft a realistic narrative transcends that — it’s emotional and compelling. In lesser hands, Simone becomes a caricature, but Mottley is able to define a fierce, even terrifying personality that resides in one of the most caring, nurturing and calm-in-the-literal-face-of-the-hurricane protagonists I have come across in a very long time.
This story illustrates the power of women that circle the wagons and support others when they are most in need, even when that care and concern isn’t always justified or easy to summon to the surface. It’s about finding what’s true to you when it comes to being the mother you want to be in spite of the mother you had, and the friendships that can save you.
And, let’s be honest, it’s also a rollercoaster of a story. Men, I swear. They are …. something.
“The Girls Who Grew Big” deserves all the “best of” flowers it gets this season. Don’t pass on this, especially if you need a book club pick. Lots of angles to explore here.
LitzyDitz 