Nice Girls, the well-plotted, emotional debut from Catherine Dang has some of the elements of dark academia (though our main character, Mary, has been kicked out of Cornell prior to the opening of the novel) mixed with mystery, missing persons, and that difficult, uncomfortable era of life when you are chronologically an adult, but find yourself back in the environment of your childhood.
This is a story that centers on Mary, who grew up in a small town in Minnesota feeling unpopular and out of place but was always seen as exceptionally smart. She received a scholarship to Cornell University, which she undoubtedly believed would be the way she left all the awkwardness of childhood firmly in the past. Unfortunately, her senior year at Cornell begins with Mary’s expulsion, though she refuses to tell anyone “back home” the reason why.
Trying to figure her life out all over again, Mary gets a job in a grocery store, which she seems to view as an enormous step down from the Ivy League path she was on. Mary soon becomes obsessed with a missing person’s case linked to her childhood. She then learns about another missing young woman who is being ignored.
There are times when this story seems like it is trying to go in too many directions: telling a suspenseful story, commenting on racial inequalities, dispelling myths about social media influencers, and examining how far the expectations put on us in childhood can follow us are just a few of the concepts that it feels like the author reached out for, but did not always fully embrace.
Mary, also, is an unlikeable character, in my opinion, and I had great difficulty getting invested in her struggles. She came across as very self-centered and over-dramatic and at times it was difficult to understand her motivations for some of her behaviours. It is entirely possible, however, that my age difference from this character could be to blame. Someone closer to Mary’s age might have a much easier time connecting with her and feel completely differently.
Catherine Dang’s writing style in enjoyable and with quick, short chapters her pacing of the story was excellent. I would absolutely choose to read something from this author again in the future.
Fans of All The Missing Girls or The Luckiest Girl Alive will likely enjoy Nice Girls, but readers who need to truly like and connect with a main character are apt to struggle with it.
Nice Girls is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A pulse-pounding and deviously dark debut, written with the psychological acuity and emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls, that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask what is most dangerous to a woman: showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?
What did you do?
Growing up in Liberty Lake, Minnesota, Mary was chubby, awkward, and smart. Earning a scholarship to an Ivy League school was her ticket out; she was going to do great things and never look back. Three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, and restless failure. Kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of senior year, she won’t tell anyone why. Working at the local grocery store, she sees familiar faces from high school and tries to make sense of the past and her life.
When beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand, a rising social media star, goes missing, Mary—like the rest of Liberty Lake—becomes obsessed. Best friends in childhood, Mary and Olivia haven’t spoken in years. Everyone admired Olivia, but Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hid a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the world worries for perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary can’t help but hate her. She also believes that her disappearance is tied to another missing person—a nineteen-year-old girl named DeMaria Jackson whose disappearance has gone under the radar.
Who was the true Olivia Willand, and where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary delves deeper into the lives of the two missing girls, old wounds bleed fresh and painful secrets threaten to destroy everything.
Maybe no one is really a nice girl, after all.
