Graffiti Girls – Elissa Soave

 

I remember reading Ms. Soave’s first novel Ginger and Me , and believing it to be something of a coming of age story. 

(I wrote about the book on this blog - https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2023/04/ginger-and-me-elissa-soave.html)

 

Graffiti Girls looks at a completely different female demographic – women in their forties looking back at their lives and wondering if they are past their sell by dates! Very different from the previous book. There’s an element of the feminist novel here but it’s also about friendships and how different women react in given situations. I found it a keen observation of the misogyny in our society. 

 

I should say that I don’t actually approve of graffiti! There are ways to get your points across, I think, particularly nowadays, but ultimately some poor sod has got to clean the graffiti off! That takes resources and manpower and detracts from the intent of the graffiti artist, I believe. I have no arguments, though, with what these four women are saying in their graffiti.

 

The four women, Amy, Carole, Elenore and Susan are friends since schooldays. They have a tight supportive friendship despite their very different characters. I liked the format of the book where each woman had a section devoted to her and the reader leant more abut her as an individual. And there were chapters that were general to all the women. They are all likeable characters, so the reader is invested in their stories and their motivations.

 

The book has an easy flowing narrative with much appeal to those of us who are older and can identify with some of the situations described in the book.  

 

Ultimately, it is an uplifting read that has a point to make but not in a preachy, hard or angry way  (even though Amy is pretty feisty!) 

 

My thanks to HQ Stories for my gifted copy.