The Secret Place

What’s it about?
This is one of a series of Irish mystery/crime novels written by Tana French.  “In the Woods” was the first novel I read by French, and I have enjoyed each subsequent book.  The Secret Place revolves around the murder of a young man and the involvement of a group of teenage girls from a nearby boarding school.

What did it make me think about?
This book made me think more about how women relate to each other; our friendships, our loyalties, even our lack of kindness towards each other at times.  The mystery was a backdrop for what Tana French had  to say about women, especially young women and friendships at this important time in their lives.

Should I read it?
In my humble opinion this book was 50 pages too long.  It was still an enjoyable book but some parts were painfully wordy.

Quote-
“You forget what it’s like.  You’d swear on your life you never will, but year by year it falls away.  How your temperature ran off the mercury, your heart galloped flat-out and never needed to rest, everything was pitched on the edge of shattering glass.  How wanting something was like dying of thirst.  How your skin was too fine to keep out any of the million things flooding by; every color boiled bright enough to scald you, any second of any day could send you soaring or rip you to bloody shreds.”

Question-
Do you really think teenage girls are this competitive and mean to each other?