Book Review: The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey

 GOODREADS SUMMARY

In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings—and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks.

Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once-grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?

Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman.

TEE'S THOUGHTS

Ophelia Girls is a story that takes place over two time periods…

1973 when Ruth and her friends have a strange fascination with the pre-Ralphite painting Ophelia. They love capturing themselves on camera as they re-enact the famous painting out in the cold waters of a nearby lake.

1997 when Ruth returns to her childhood home with her daughter Meave, who has just recovered from cancer and resembles the woman in the painting with her pale skin and auburn hair.

Dreamy and dark and times suspenseful, Ophelia was hauntingly beautiful as it bounced back and forth between the present time with Meave and the past with Ruth. It is a coming-of-age story for both the women and the author does a great job navigating between the two summers.

The story unfolds in writing that feels almost lyrical, which made it easy to read and follow along with. The imagery was beautiful and I can not stress that enough, it had a dreamy effect as if you were watching the story unfold through a gauze curtain. There was also sadness in this story, and it was so well written it seemed to hang on to the pages tightly as you read through it.

Ophelia was my first book by Jane Healey and her second publication. I can see why people are drawn to her writing, the descriptions themselves will draw you in. Ophelia was a complex story, yet it was beautiful and unsettling. It's a story full of beautiful prose and dreamy imagery that was topped off with some really interesting family dynamics.

** Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin for the review copy**

THE OPHELIA GIRLS RELEASES AUGUST 10, 2021