Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

You would think after so many years of reading and reviewing books I would have gone past the stage of judging a book by its cover. Not so, I’m afraid, and when Some Girls Will by Denise Sewell popped through the letter box I instantly classed it as chick lit. How wrong I was.

Some Girls Will follows a family living in inner city Dublin for one year of their lives. The family itself is probably typical in that it is a dysfunctional family, most of the women have experienced abuse of some sort and our first narrator is a teenager, Marcella, who is determined to better herself and escape the traps that have caught her two older sisters out.

Our second narrator is Marcella’s aunt Teresa and although there are few years between niece and aunt, the two stories are as different as can be. Teresa is a single mother battling alcoholism and self abuse, stemming from a childhood incident. Although filled with self loathing she seems incapable of stopping the downward spiral she seems to be on, no matter how much it hurts those she loves.

Marcella and Teresa are the strong women in the family standing up to the men who would abuse them and the general hardship of life that could and, in some cases, has taken away the will to live. They focus mainly on helping the weaker members of the family: Bernie, whose husband beats her; Marcella’s mother, who is so overcome by depression getting out of bed is a huge task; and 12-year-old Clint who struggles to deal with his mother’s erratic behaviour.

Brilliantly written, Some Girls Will is achingly honest. While some may deem it predictable, Sewell has written a captivating novel that will keep the reader absorbed from start to finish.