Summary: Alice Marshall is a boarding school smack dab in the middle of a huge wilderness area, where troubled girls are sent to straighten themselves out while living in the wild. What do I know, though, because in many ways, Alice Marshall was what Lida needed.Genre/Audience: Young adult, contemporary Then, when Lida’s “Thing” is shared, I didn’t see how her parents thought that Alice Marshall was the answer. Because Lida is telling the story, not every reader will realize that Lida’s isolation is partly of her own making. A quick disclosure: reading this as an adult, I began with a greater sympathy to Lida’s parents than Lida herself had. She’s built up a lot of walls, but one gets glimpses of her humor and intelligence.
What is it? The suspense builds as the dynamics between the wounded Lida, edgy Boone and ethereal Gia are gradually revealed. So, the book begins with an “Epilogue,” and that epilogue is sprinkled throughout the book, with the final chapter named “Prologue.” It is the Epilogue to the events that happened at Alice Marshall, and a prologue to the rest of Lida’s life. The Epilogue tells the reader, from the start, that Lida has survived as the novel continues, and that Epilogue continues, the reader not only begins to discover what happened at Alice Marshall but also that the Lida in the present is healthy, has friends, yet is haunted by what that happened. The Girls of No Return is told with flashbacks, with the Lida now (roughly two years after the events at Alice Marshall) telling the story that happened then.
Some do offer friendship others, honesty, no matter how blunt or brutal and some people’s needs can only be met by using or hurting others. Or are they real? The girls are here for many different reasons while what Lida needs is friendship, or, rather, to be chosen, to be wanted, to be someone’s “best,” that is not what other girls want or need or offer. The small world of Alice Marshall ironically offers Lida an opportunity to develop real connections and real friendships. For Lida, this is doubly true because while at Alice Marshall she is physically isolated from the world, just like the other girls, Lida has always been emotionally isolated. There is the story of love and friendship between teenage girls, with emotions heightened because of their isolation.
Why is Lida like she is, so shut off from others? What could she have possibly done? There is Lida and her Thing, the Thing she did to warrant being sent away to an isolated wilderness school.
The Good: Different story threads are woven through The Girls of No Return.
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