Disclaimer: I received a finished copy from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: A Girl in Three Parts
Author: Suzanne Daniel
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For…: feminism reads and Australian novels!
Publication Date: April 14, 2020 (USA release)
Genre: YA Contemporary
Recommended Age: 15+ (sexism and domestic violence TW)
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 320
Synopsis: Eleven-year-old Allegra shuttles between her grandmothers who live next door to one another but couldn’t be more different. Matilde works all hours and instils discipline, duty and restraint. She insists that Allegra focus on her studies to become a doctor. Meanwhile free-spirited Joy is full of colour, possibility and emotion, storing all her tears in little glass bottles. She is riding the second wave of the women’s movement in the company of her penny tortoise, Simone de Beauvoir, encouraging Ally to explore broad horizons and live her ‘true essence’. Rick lives in a flat out the back and finds distraction in gambling and solace in surfing. He’s trying to be a good parent to Al Pal, while grieving the woman linking them all but whose absence tears them apart.
Allegra is left to orbit these three adult worlds wishing they loved her a little less and liked each other a lot more. Until one day the unspoken tragedy that’s created this division explodes within the person they all cherish most.
Review: For the most part, the book was really good! The character development was well done and the world building was amazing. I liked the setting and the time period this was set in. I think the author did well to bring in themes of feminism and women’s rights into the story. The book was also well paced.
However, I did get a little bored with the plot in some respects and I felt like the main character was a bit older sounding than what she was meant to be.
Verdict: It was really good!
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