The Ophelia Girls, Jane Healey
The Ophelia Girls, Jane Healey
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The Ophelia Girls

Author: Jane Healey

Narrator: Alix Dunmore

Unabridged: 10 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 08/10/2021


Synopsis

A mother’s secret past and her daughter’s present collide in this richly atmospheric novel from the acclaimed author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor.
  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.

About Jane Healey

JANE HEALEY studied writing in the MFA program at CUNY Brooklyn College and is the author of the novel The Animals at Lockwood Manor, winner of the HWA Debut Crown Award. Her short fiction has been short-listed for the Bristol Short Story Prize, the Costa Short Story Award, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in Edinburgh.  


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dennis on August 18, 2021

Isn’t the cover of THE OPHELIA GIRLS absolutely gorgeous?! ⁣ 😍😍😍😍😍😍⁣ ⁣ Well, that is literally the only thing that this book has going for it. Slow moving with a lame mystery component, this book really was a struggle because nothing really happened. We get a very very very uncomfortable sexual relatio......more

Goodreads review by Theresa on July 13, 2021

The Ophelia Girls is partially set in 1973, when Ruth and her girlfriends spend their summer days taking pictures of each other in the river with flowers adorning them, reminiscent of drowning Ophelia. It jumps to 1997, when Ruth has a 17=year-old daughter, Maeve, and two young twins. Ruth is barely......more

Goodreads review by Dannii on May 20, 2021

In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four new friends form a fascination with the drama and darkness of pre-Raphaelite paintings. Ophelia, in particular, captures their imaginations and they take to submerging themselves in the cold lake water and photographing themselves as the famed drowned female.......more