Neighborhood Girls

Reviewed by: Brooke Faulkner - McArthur Library, Biddeford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 13, 2017

Review

A searing, intelligent novel about high school junior Wendy Boychuck, whose former police officer father is serving a seventeen year sentence after being prosecuted for corruption and abuse charges - a scandal that has made her family’s name known throughout Chicago for all the wrong reasons. When Wendy and her classmates learn that their private Catholic all-girl school is soon to close, Wendy is the only one among her mean girl group of friends that mourns its demise. Generations of women in her family have attended the school and this serves as a sort of catalyst for a reckoning between her and the cruel friends she has chosen — in the hopes that their Queen Bee, cut-throat image will help protect her from the ridicule directed at her because of her dad. This beautifully written, rich novel from Printz Honor winner Foley mediates on themes of faith and family strife and though it features a nicely built romantic subplot, keeps the focus firmly on Wendy and her friends and her struggle to find the courage to be true to herself. Details of her working class neighborhood, her school, her job at a Polish deli and depictions of other parts of the city of Chicago help bring the setting to life. Poignant, lovely and heartbreaking, this is not to be missed and should appeal to fans of authors like John Green, Andrew Smith and Rainbow Rowell.

Overall Book Score: excellent