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The Ice Cream Girls
by Dorothy Koomson
by Dorothy Koomson
Boof's review
bookshelves: british-authors, chick-lit, comfort-reading, read-in-2010, uk
Sep 13, 10
bookshelves: british-authors, chick-lit, comfort-reading, read-in-2010, uk
Read in September, 2010
Despite the appearance of the cover (which although it didn’t put me off, I am convinced that it will disuade others from even picking it up to read the blurb on the back) this is more pyschological thriller than chicklit.
The Ice Cream Girls has two narrators: Serena Gorringe and Poppy Carlisle. The book starts with a newspaper clipping reporting the story of the trial of two teenage girls accused of the murder of history teacher who is reported to have been the victim of a jealous school girl crush and tortured before the final stab that killed him. The paper shows a photo of Serena and Poppy wearing bikinis on a beach and eating ice cream which is how they came to be dubbed The Ice Cream Girls by the press. What the paper doesn’t report is that the two girls were never best friends; in fact they hardly knew each other, and that they were the victims, not the teacher.
Over twenty years later, Poppy Carlisle is released from prison and she vows to clear her name but in order to do that she must get Serena to confess. Serena is happily married with two children and the last thing she wants is the past raking up, especially as she believes that the right person went to jail.
The book alternates between the two girls and also between time periods so that the reader learns only snippets of information at a time, and is kept guessing. This format works really well as it kept me turning the pages and guessing what had happened to the girls to bring them to that fateful day back in 1989.
I have to say one last thing about the names of Serena and her sisters, Faye and Medina but only because I have seen so many reviews point this out – I am about to show my age now In the book, when talking to each other, the three sisters call each other Sez, Fez and Mez, which hasn’t gone down well with some reviewers. However, growing up in the 80′s I can report that name abreviations of this kind were pretty much the norm in the UK at that time. School playgrounds were littered with Caz, Daz, Baz, Shaz and Maz’s. It’s more that likely that Serena and her sisters would have called each other by these names back then.
Anyhoooo…
I read this book on holiday and I have to say that it was a perfect sunlounger read: it was pacey, engaging and entertaining. Recommended.
The Ice Cream Girls has two narrators: Serena Gorringe and Poppy Carlisle. The book starts with a newspaper clipping reporting the story of the trial of two teenage girls accused of the murder of history teacher who is reported to have been the victim of a jealous school girl crush and tortured before the final stab that killed him. The paper shows a photo of Serena and Poppy wearing bikinis on a beach and eating ice cream which is how they came to be dubbed The Ice Cream Girls by the press. What the paper doesn’t report is that the two girls were never best friends; in fact they hardly knew each other, and that they were the victims, not the teacher.
Over twenty years later, Poppy Carlisle is released from prison and she vows to clear her name but in order to do that she must get Serena to confess. Serena is happily married with two children and the last thing she wants is the past raking up, especially as she believes that the right person went to jail.
The book alternates between the two girls and also between time periods so that the reader learns only snippets of information at a time, and is kept guessing. This format works really well as it kept me turning the pages and guessing what had happened to the girls to bring them to that fateful day back in 1989.
I have to say one last thing about the names of Serena and her sisters, Faye and Medina but only because I have seen so many reviews point this out – I am about to show my age now In the book, when talking to each other, the three sisters call each other Sez, Fez and Mez, which hasn’t gone down well with some reviewers. However, growing up in the 80′s I can report that name abreviations of this kind were pretty much the norm in the UK at that time. School playgrounds were littered with Caz, Daz, Baz, Shaz and Maz’s. It’s more that likely that Serena and her sisters would have called each other by these names back then.
Anyhoooo…
I read this book on holiday and I have to say that it was a perfect sunlounger read: it was pacey, engaging and entertaining. Recommended.
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Sep 15, 2010 05:08pm
Thanks...Ice Cream Girls and the cover initially made me think it could be XXX. Second look maybe think chic lit. so your review has me looking a third time.
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