Bitch Posse by Martha O'Connor

From the Publisher

These are the confessions of The Bitch Posse.   Cherry, Rennie, and Amy were outcasts, rebels, and dreamers. And their friendship was so all-encompassing that some would call it dangerous. This is the story of three women—as seniors in high school and as women in their mid-thirties—who formed a bond in order to survive the pitfalls and perils of their lives. Their secrets have torn them apart, while inextricably binding them to one another. hat happened to them? And can they survive their shared history, even today?
 
The Bitch Posse is an anthem for friendships that defy society’s approval or disapproval. It’s a novel of secrets, courage, sacrifice, and hope against the odds. It is both a journey back to being a girl on the verge of adulthood, and a journey forward, showing how the events of our past can unearth the best in us today.
 
Dare to jump in. "Compulsively readable."
--The Washington Post
"A riveting and emotionally charged read."
--Chicago Tribune
"Unforgettable, dark…The triumph of this novel consists in its compulsive readability…it feels great, it feels terrible, you want more, you shouldn’t do more, you do more, it’s over, it’s not, it can never be over."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"A book that will walk alongside you, and haunt your dreams, long after you turn the last page."
--Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Publishers Weekly

"You Have Now Entered a Chick-Lit-Free Zone," O'Connor's dark, scabrous debut warns. Given the sassy title and the familiar subject matter of female friendship, readers should be forgiven if they expect Bridget Jones-but O'Conner's heroines resemble that lovable Brit like leopards resemble kittens. The story focuses on three friends, Cherry, Amy and Rennie, as high school seniors and as women in their mid-30s. Compelled by miserable home lives to form the Bitch Posse as teenagers, the three girls ricochet dangerously through their last year of high school, sharing a passionate, almost sinister bond until a terrible secret rips them apart. Still damaged-and separated-by the unspeakable event, the three live equally wretched lives as adults, Cherry in a mental institution, Rennie as a promiscuous failed writer and Amy in a loveless marriage. After pages of vodka, cocaine, "fucking" and "cutting" (in both past and present narratives), the friends' terrible secret finally comes to light, though it reveals logistical and thematic gaps in the narrative. "[H]er past is like a sore that won't ever heal, memories are spurting at her like blood and she can't close the wound" characterizes the level of emotional complexity attained in this heavy-handed novel, but the story fascinates even as it repels. Agent, Mary Evans. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Not for the faint of heart, this debut novel will keep readers glued to the very last page. Three high school friends, united in their feelings of not fitting in, form a club that they christen the Bitch Posse. The Posse gets Cherry, Rennie, and Amy through high school, but a violent incident at the end of their senior year breaks up the friends and casts a long shadow over their adult lives. Told in chapters that alternate among each club member's perspective, the story vacillates between the period of adolescent angst and the present, when they are all dealing, in various but equally dysfunctional ways, with what happened to them as teens. The details of the traumatic incident are not revealed until the end, when the reasons for their problems as adults become clear. This book contains strong language, explicit sex, and some violence. Recommended for public libraries with a following for suspense thrillers and fans of authors like Carol Goodman and Minette Walters.-Karen Traynor, Sullivan Free Lib., Chittenango, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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