Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel

In an instant you are drawn into Shobha Rao’s novel GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER and in a second, you feel the need to look away. A harrowing look at two poor girls, Poornima and Savitha, who do not deserve the lives they are born into. Despair, hatred, violence, all in a world where women are treated worse than an unsuspecting bug crawling on the ground, not knowing it is about to be stomped on. Each girl is a shining light and by mere chance they meet each other and become like one, until they are torn apart due to the cruelest of occurrences. The story unfolds as they continue to endure hardship that I warn you is often unbearable to read. While reading the cruelty that is besieged upon them, their endurance shows that their lights do, in fact, continue to shine. There is hope even under the worst of times. Physical and emotional pain cannot break someone. The two young women are raised in a rural town in India where poverty is rampant, customs are adhered to without question, but they see a way out. Determined to help themselves. Their story is very telling of our times today. Told without holding back a single emotion, raging with determination, not hatred, GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER longs to take you to the other side of humanity. To a world where women are treated with respect, where they can be accomplished and not subservient.

"That lamp glowing from within. How had it survived. . . it was greater than her body. It was greater than all else." This book is horrifying, eye-opening, well written, and above all hopeful. It literally made my heart explode. On multiple levels and it is not one you would soon forget. The good: very well written with strong characters and a plot that keeps you on the enge of your seat. Taught me a lot about India and human trafficking- something I was aware of, but knew very little about. The best part is the strength of the two heroines throughout the novel and the relationship between them. The bad: this is an ugly topic with some very horrifying scenes throughout the book. It is not a light read and there are not too many times one will smile (though I did a handful of times). The ending was also very abrupt and not too believable. Seemed like there needed to be at least another 30 pages or so.

I ordered this book for book club and found the first half engrossing. Beautifully written. The second half was not as well conceived. The amount of awful things happening to the characters become onerous. I didn't see where they helped with plot nor story. Overall, meh. However the plight of girls in Asia is one we should pay attention to and the horrors of human trafficking need to be brought to light. I hat wish the second half of the book Lee us on the journey the first half did.

This is a remarkable book. It is a big book in some ways, taking on not one but two distinctive, powerful protagonists as well as some Big (and troubling) Ideas: racism, sexism, human trafficking, invisibility and marginality, disability. All of that could weigh down a book written by a lesser author. But this book never gets unwieldy or abstract, because down to the smallest detail, Rao’s sentences are perfectly tuned, perfectly economical, perfectly taut. I will not spoil the ending, but I will say that Rao has a masterful sense of pacing and ended this book in a way that steered clear of both pat resolution and limp open-endedness. This is probably my favorite of 2018 so far. Highly recommend.

If you enjoy reading about female friendship, the kind where a girl meets someone that answers a missing part of their soul, then this is a really good book. In fact, one of the reasons I read this book is because it was suggested after Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend series. They are very different books, though, except for examining how girls become best friends and the hardship universal to women. However, the violence and struggles the main characters face means this is not something everyone can read and walk away okay. I struggled to put this book down in the short two days I read it, because it was that good. Learning about Indian culture exposed both the beauty of the wedding ceremonies, the traditional dress, and local cuisine, while also examining the struggles faced by the fairer sex in that country. These problems are rather universal to many cultures throughout the world; alcoholism, poverty, death of a parent, the arranged marriage of young girls, domestic violence, rape, the import of human and sex trafficking in America, forced prostitution, and vitriol attacks are just some of the issues examined in the novel. Rao makes you care about the characters, though, and actually want to bear witness to both their suffering and their humanity in the face of such pain. I felt like even if I couldn't save the girls in the novel, I could at least read about their suffering and yet managing to live through it. Besides friendship, I think one of the major themes of the novel is that life is full of much pain but also much joy. Another is that to become the master of our own fate, we must go to extraordinary lengths, whether it means leaving family or friends behind. I've bought countless books on Amazon and think this is my first review. If not, there are few other books I have reviewed. As noted in a journal and probably other reviews, their is a rather unlikely ending, but I was personally satisfied and felt that closure had occurred. I rarely give out five stars, so four stars means I would recommend it to people. I would choose this book for a book club or to suggest to a friend or a family member.

I became lost in this book. The characters of the two girls were captivating and I found myself almost holding my breath to see if they found one another.

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The social system at every level tries to look down upon women in the environment social and individual freedom. A woman who can develop inner strength can withstand any challenges in life.

This is such a wonderful book, altitude so sad too. It's made me really think and take a good look at myself too. That people have to live this way, even now makes me angry. Also can't help but feel responsible. Highly recommended

I loved the language despite the painful and heart-breaking realities that confront some of the poorest in India.