Every now and then I am introduced to an author who has been around for a while but who has fallen under the radar for me. I’m always delighted when that author turns out to be one whose style I absolutely love and admire.
Such is true of Elana K. Arnold. While I have been making my way through her backlist, my favorite novel so far is What Girls Are Made of, which was a 2017 National Book Award finalist.
It’s a phenomenal book. It was interesting, important, and a great contribution to young adult literature—proving to teenage girls that they are seen and they can be more than who they are told to be. I wish a book like this had existed when I was a teenage girl.
Here are three things I enjoyed the most about it:
The intermissions. That’s what I’ll call them. They were stories that the protagonist, Nina, had written about chickens and eggs and female saints and all the ways, metaphorically, that women are devalued. These intermissions interrupted the flow of the narrative but served an important purpose.
The character. Though some of Nina’s decisions were not ones I would have made myself, I really enjoyed her personality and the growth and change she experienced in the story—one that showed her she was good enough on her own, as a young woman.
The structure. Not a whole lot happened in the book, but what did happen was intriguing, and it was interspersed with such interesting flashbacks and the stories that Nina had written for her English project. So even though not a lot happened plot-wise, a lot happened theme-wise, which are sometimes the best stories.
The first line was compelling and intriguing:
“When I was fourteen, my mother told me there was no such thing as unconditional love.”
What? You have to know more about this woman and her fourteen-year-old daughter.
Overall, What Girls Are Made of was a book I would likely read again. I loved its message and its shape and its truth. Lovely, real, hard, and ultimately necessary book for today’s teen readers.
The above is an affiliate link. I only recommend books that I personally enjoy. I actually don’t even talk about the books I don’t enjoy, because I’d rather forget I ever wasted time reading them. But if you’re ever curious whether I’ve read a book and whether I liked or disliked it, don’t hesitate to ask.
