The Year of Needy Girls

In the realm of human behavior, there is little that Shakespeare, the bard of Avalon did not illuminate, including the three Witches of Macbeth. They were wise women and seers, and therefore to be feared. But stories and characters continually reinvent themselves. Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Good of Salem, Massachusetts were tried and executed for the crime of witchcraft in 1692, and in contemporary times, Patricia A. Smith gives us The Year of Needy Girls. In the shadow of Salem, the fictional village of Bradley Massachusetts is a bifurcated town composed of the wealthy west end and the working class poor of the east end where neither side trusts or understands the other. In this backdrop, Smith weaves the story of a gifted French language teacher, Deidre Murphy with her needy girls, the incoming class of freshman students. They are girls from wealthy families, girls of privilege. They idolize clothes, pop culture and occasionally a teacher or two. In this story the teacher is gay and lives with her partner SJ, who is a local librarian. And so the witch hunt begins anew. Deidre and SJ become the modern heretics of polite convention—and what better place to illuminate that than in an elite high school for girls? With skilled pacing, Smith’s The Year of Needy Girls is a page turner that is hard to put down. The characters, which include not only Deidre and JS, but the town as well, are well drawn and relatable. Like dominoes, the pieces tumble into the sort of circumstances that defy fiction. In the end, the world is a place where reason and intellect do not necessarily resolve what seems straightforward, but personal resilience, and introspection pave the way forward. Highly recommend!

interesting book. Meet the author yesterday at book club. I can not wait for her next book

The Year of Needy Girls wasn't quite what I expected. From the publisher's description, I was anticipating a mystery/thriller centered on the murder of 10-year-0ld Leo Rivera and the accusations of molestation against teacher Deirdre Murphy. Instead, these events are fairly tangential to the book's true subject matter: the lesbian relationship between Deirdre and her partner Sara Jane (S.J.) Edmonds. This mismatch between expectation and reality caused me to appreciate The Year of Needy Girls less than might have otherwise been the case; the narrative was slower-paced, and I became impatient because I kept wanting to get to the action. The gist of the plot goes something like this. Leo is sexually molested before his murder; therefore, in the town's eyes, the murderer must be gay. Deirdre is a lesbian who is caught apparently kissing one of her students; this serves to confirm that homosexuals sexually prey upon children. As the mother of the allegedly molested teenager tells her daughter, "'Homosexuals are known predators. ... They have to convert children. I know it sounds silly, but that's what they do.'" (No, Mrs. Worthington, this doesn't sound silly; it sounds ridiculously ignorant for a wealthy resident of liberal Massachusetts in 2016.) Therefore, not only must Deirdre be fired, but the town seriously considers a referendum prohibiting homosexuals from working in (and attending?) schools: "'Homosexuals are not safe for our children,'" says Leo's father. I don't doubt that the LGBTQ community suffers from bias. I don't doubt that, at least in some communities, lesbian partners face pressures on their relationships which would be foreign to most heterosexual couples (although, as The Year of Needy Girls makes clear, no relationship, regardless of sexual orientation, is immune from jealousy or work demands). What beggars belief is that anyone in this day and age, particularly in the Northeast, would openly espouse the level of homophobia Patricia Smith attributes to Mrs. Worthington, Mr. Rivera, and the other residents of Bradley, Massachusetts. When Smith focuses on Deirdre and S.J. as a couple, The Year of Needy Girls rings true. The framing narrative she has chosen, however, leaves much to be desired. This review was based on a free ARC provided by the publisher.

I read this book on a lazy day after Christmas. It was fast-paced, and a real page turner. Characters are well defined and multi-dimensional. Settings are perfectly described, and beautifully written. The story gripped me from the beginning as it made me worry about the two main characters, what was going to happen to them? Would they be okay? The bigotry that some people face on a daily basis is well told in this story, and it got my blood boiling a couple of times, especially with Deirdre's work friend and Anna's mother. I've never reviewed a book before, so I hope this okay. I loved the book because it was thought provoking and was so well written. Clearly Patricia Smith did her research and spent some time cultivating the whole story line and building the characters back stories. It was a pleasure to read.

This is a beautifully written and most engaging novel. There is a plot within the main plot that weaves around the two main characters in a Lesbian relationship. The beloved teacher in the story is kissed by a student during a period when a pederast is jailed for killing a young boy. The kiss is witnessed and sets off undercurrents in the already shaky relationship between the two women. The book is a page turner that explores the deeper questions about boundaries and love. And the repercussions that arise from prejudice and fear.

Well written for a first time author, who as a high school teacher, knows her characters.

The story immediately draws the reader in and keeps you wondering about how the various plot lines will intersect and resolve. The characters are real--- very likeable but also flawed --you find yourself cheering them on while also wanting to sit them down and give them advice like you're their best friend. The imagery is great---details about the weather, for example, paint pictures with words, with some sentences you just want to re-read for their ability to perfectly describe something you have personally experienced. A great book that leaves me wanting to know what happens next in the characters' lives. Sequel please!