The Hanging Girl

Reviewed by: Noelle Gallant - Saco Middle School, Saco, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 9, 2018

Review

Content warning: This is a book for more mature audiences, for readers who can handle implications of rape and other violence against women.

Skye pretends to be a tarot-reading psychic for cash to help her mom make ends meet. Then, when a rich and popular classmate goes missing, Skye gets wrapped up in helping the police investigate the disappearance. As readers, we learn that neither of the girls is who she appears to be.

As hard as we want to root for Skye, she has a history of lying that makes it really hard to be on her side, and she makes questionable choices so often that it's tough to read her as a protagonist. The book also contains so many examples of girls hating each other and shaming each other, and it felt unrealistically severe based on conversations I've had so often with my students.

In the end, it was an okay read that kept me turning the pages, but the content was too problematic to give a "very good" or "excellent" rating.

Overall Book Score: good