Girl's Girl

"Secrets and desires are at the heart of our selfhood, and no one can be your best friend if you don’t let them see who you are."

Girl's Girl so perfectly and evocatively captures the emotional highs and hells of summer girlhood. More specifically, privileged, white, suburban, midwestern girlhood. At fifteen, Mina, Margaret, and Eleanor are best friends and a universe unto themselves. They orbit and inhabit each other. But when Eleanor unexpectedly kisses Mina and then ignores her after, Mina’s knocked off her axis by the realization that there’s a marked difference in the love she experiences for each of her friends. Even if Mina chooses not to tell Margaret about any of it, everything is changed, and it’s Mina’s introspection that creates an aching intimacy as she navigates her identity, desire, and the shifting dynamics of her most precious relationships. Feldman’s perceptive and beautiful writing evokes nostalgia for this era when friendship is everything, especially the mundane: days spent idly gossiping poolside, playing Sims together for long hours on the computer, nights getting dressed up with nowhere to go, taking too many pictures of hangouts to prove that you exist socially, and also the indignity of youth that is being grounded. An especially stunning read for Pride Month.