Boring Girls

by Sara Taylor

[Leah]

Boring Girls by Sara Taylor is one of the most disturbing, chilling books I’ve ever read. You know right from the off that there’s something wrong – it’s clear Rachel is recounting something horrific, but you’re just not sure what. Boring Girls surprised me in a number of ways. First, Rachel’s narrative was both incredibly compelling and totally scary. See, when we first meet Rachel she’s this lonely girl, different from everyone else at her school, and it’s only when she discovers metal music that she begins to feel powerful, and vicious, and very, very angry. Her love for metal music leads her to Fern, and that has devastating consequences.

It was a very absorbing novel. I’ve never listened to a metal song in my life, it’s just not my type of music at all. I’m a pop girl at heart, and I adore Taylor Swift. The idea of people screaming and wailing isn’t appealing to me; if you can’t make out the lyrics, what’s the point? But I can see how the music appealed to the very angry Rachel. Because Rachel was a very angry girl, and that was clear from the very beginning and as you see her progress, and as you see her flourish with the band she and Fern start, you see that that’s somehow making it worse. It somehow makes Rachel angrier, being in the band, because it gives her the ability to do as she pleases with her anger, including vomiting on a person, for heckling. It’s hard to read about, but you also can’t really tear your eyes away.

I really don’t know how I felt about Boring Girls. It most certainly was not boring, and it was certainly very compelling, but it was also car crash reading. The type of novel that should be made into a film, because it would just translate really well (perhaps except for the whole metal music part). Rachel was a very compelling character. I liked her narrative a lot, she’s a girl anyone can relate to, because we’ve all felt lonely or lost or alone at some point in time, right? If not, you’re a very lucky person.

Boring Girls is a novel that will stay with you long after completion, it was certainly an eye-opener for me and while I can’t say I enjoyed Rachel’s descent or her anger, it was intriguing. And even though her friendship with Fern clearly wasn’t what it was supposed to be, there were a lot of parts of it that I enjoyed, because sometimes those types of friendships are just the most strangely compelling! This was definitely an interesting read, and I applaud Sara Taylor for using her background as inspiration – she’s in a metal band herself, and it’s definitely opening my eyes to the fans of that scene (and not only in a bad way).