Girls on the Verge

by Sharon Biggs Waller

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight .

Wow wow wow this is an important book. As more women's rights are taken away across the U.S., Girls on the Verge shines a glaring spotlight on all the hypocrisy and injustice that accompanies each of these decisions.  And you might be thinking "hey, isn't this supposed to be a book review and not a political rant?", but you'd be wrong. Because it's inherently both. Books have a plethora of purposes: To entertain, to shock, to elicit any number of feelings. But one of the purposes can, and should be, to make a social statement. Sharon Biggs Waller does that here, in a way that still makes for an appealing reading experience.

The book is chock full of information that women in general but absolutely young women should know about their rights. It discusses such horrors as "crisis centers", which are in the business of trying to prey on scared young women in order to push their conservative Christian agenda. It talks about  the amount of people who will try to shove themselves into a woman's personal reproductive decision making. The vast differences in state laws are a big feature of the book, as are the variations in law when it comes to the time period in which a woman is allowed to seek an abortion, the methods she may use, and whether she needs consent. Which is obviously utter bullshit, because exactly zero of the people making said decisions are a woman and/or her physician.

Girls on the Verge tackles this incredibly important topic, but it's also at its core a tremendously heartfelt story about female friendship and growing up. Camille doesn't always see eye to eye with her best friend since forever, Bea. Bea is staunchly religious and is appalled when she learns of Camille's decision. That is when Annabelle steps up to the plate to basically be the most awesome friend in the history of friendship. She's willing to help Camille at, quite literally, any cost. I don't want to go too in depth because this is a story you must read for yourself, and this is spoiler territory. But I promise that Annabelle is complete friend goals. Bea of course starts to come around a bit, and joins them on their journey. But make no mistake, she's going to have to grow a lot as a person if she deserves Camille's friendship. And to be clear, this isn't a bash on religion at all. It's a bash on using conservatism disguised as religion to judge other people. Which is kind of the antithesis of actual religion anyway, right?

There's a slight romantic element, but to me it seemed like its purpose was not a focus on romance, but more a focus on how life doesn't end when you're faced with a really difficult hurdle. That you still deserve and can find love in all its forms. Also, if there's anything I love more in a book than roadtrips, it's a road trip to Mexico with three women who are journeying to find themselves.

Bottom Line: You need to read this book, appreciate its strong feminist message, then you need to make everyone you know read it. And then, you know, get out there and help change the world.