Just Jennifer

Hyacinth Girls by Lauren Frankel (Hogarth, May 2015)

Rebecca has been raising her best friend Joyce’s daughter Callie sine Joyce was killed in a car accident.  Now at thirteen, the quiet, polite girl is accused of bullying a classmate.  Rebecca cannot believe the accusations and with the help of Callie’s friends, gets Callie exonerated.  Soon after, Callie’s alleged victim leaves school and Callie begins receiving threatening notes from the girl after which Callie’s demeanor and behavior change in a way that Rebecca cannot understand, but in a way that brings to mind Rebecca’s own teenage years when she and Joyce were best friends and her cousin’s fiancé’s best friend went missing and found drowned and the secrets that arose from these events, secrets that still haunt Rebecca and have unsettling effects on Callie.  As Callie’s truths emerge, so does the story of Rebecca and Joyce, a story that is eerily reflected in Callie’s story, a story that it is time Callie learned, one that may help her gain a better sense of herself.  Both heartfelt and brutal, The Hyacinth Girls will touch something in everyone who remembers being young.