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What Girls Are Made Of

Elana K. Arnold (Goodreads Author)

3.83 · Rating details · 1,782 ratings · 425 reviews

A 2017 National Book Award for Young People's Literature Finalist

This is not a story of sugar and spice and everything nice.

When Nina Faye was fourteen, her mother told her there was no such thing as unconditional love. Nina believed her. Now Nina is sixteen. And she'll do anything for the boy she loves, just to prove she's worthy of him. But when he breaks up with her, Ni ...more

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Hardcover, 200 pages

Published April 1st 2017 by Carolrhoda

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Lists with This Book

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3.83 ·

Rating details

· 1,782 ratings · 425 reviews

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Apr 15, 2017 Emily May rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, 2017, contemporary

“As long as there have been women,” Mom told me, “there have been ways to punish them for being women.”

4 1/2 stars. Oh god, I can already imagine how hated this book will be. I've seen Arnold's books in the past, noted their starred reviews from popular journals, and then turned away when GR reviewers pulled the average rating down to 3.6, 3.5, 3.4. After reading this book, I took a closer inspection and I see over and over again: “unlikeable narrator”, “depressing”, “disturbing” “fucked up”.

N ...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Mary McCoy rated it it was amazing

When I was growing up, I always loved books that allowed me to learn about things that the adults in my life didn't think I should know. This is a book like that.

It's not an easy read. The main character volunteers at a high-kill animal shelter, punishment for something horrible she did to another student at her school. The book is full of caged animals and stories of female saints violently martyred for Jesus.

At the same time, the book also normalizes, demystifies, and brings into the open the ...more

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Sep 02, 2017 Tatiana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: national-book-award, 1, 2017, ya, starred-2017

Such a short book, and upsetting and painful in so many varied ways. I liked it and I think it's important, but I am getting weary of such a dire view of womanhood. Maybe too many feminist stories back to back? I am ready to read about healthy realationships and some non-beastly men.

Explicit.

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Oct 20, 2017 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: coming-of-age, contemporary, favorites, young-adult

I literally just finished this so maybe I will get around to writing a comprehensive review. (Though, let’s be honest, unlikely...)

I will say the Author’s Note at the end was one of most powerful and honest things I have ever read. If you read nothing of this book but that note you won’t be disappointed.

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Aug 09, 2018 Francisco rated it it was amazing

What Girls are Made Of is a great example of how empathy should work in literature and, in particular, that genre we call Young Adult literature. Empathy is not just an identification with, or a “stepping into the shoes of”, nor is it our simple “liking” of the fictional character. Empathy may contain all those emotional elements but if there is no appeal to the mind and to the understanding, then you end up with what feels like sentimental manipulation on the part of the author. Arnold’s portra What Girls are Made Of is a great example of how empathy should work in literature and, in particular, that genre we call Young Adult literature. Empathy is not just an identification with, or a “stepping into the shoes of”, nor is it our simple “liking” of the fictional character. Empathy may contain all those emotional elements but if there is no appeal to the mind and to the understanding, then you end up with what feels like sentimental manipulation on the part of the author. Arnold’s portrayal of Nina, a young woman who hungers for unconditional love and slavishly worships her boyfriend is such that, we, as readers, respond with a kind of wholeness of mind and heart that goes beyond the weak kind of empathy sought after by so many Young Adult novels. This portrayal of Nina’s inner and outer world is realistic in the best sense of the word. We recognize as real Nina’s mental state because we have experienced it in ourselves and the book becomes, depending on our level of self-awareness, either the discovery or the reminder that we too have felt that before and have thought the same kind of thoughts that Nina is thinking. In that discovery or reminder of common humanity lies the true value of empathy. Nina has a hunger for unconditional love that we all have. But the book is not so much about this hunger or about whether there is such a thing as love without conditions as it is about the inner sense of unworthiness from which the hunger springs and our willingness to do some pretty crazy stuff to satisfy it. It explores with subtlety some of the possible origins of that inner shame without beating us over the head with psychological truisms (the portrayal Nina’s mother, for example, leaves you with a sense that something is wrong with that relationship and with the mother but you still have to figure out exactly what this is). When I finished reading the book, I thought that maybe the title was wrong. I’m not a girl and I am made very much like Nina. But no, the title is correct. The difference between Nina and me is that I do not have hanging over me years and years of history, culture, social norms that say that I should love another human being with unconditional obedience. One of the most impressive things about the author’s art in this book is how she manages to enhance the particular story of Nina’s martyr-like love with the universal story of women whose souls and bodies were destroyed by a man’s (as in the human male) demands for a woman’s adoration. And ultimately, I think, being a man and being able to see how a woman sees, is the kind of seeing that empathy is all about. I am grateful to Elana K. Arnold for the clearer vision she has given me. ...more

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Apr 24, 2017 Kelly added it

Shelves: ya-fiction, read-in-2017

Well, damn.

I thought I loved Infandous, but this, THIS, is a killer story about being a girl. It's raw and gross and unsettling and perfect.

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Jan 30, 2018 Canadian rated it liked it

Shelves: young-women, art-and-artists, psychological-fiction

“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, why not?” Ruth says.
“Do you believe in unconditional love?”
“Absolutely,” Ruth says. “It’s one of the most dangerous forces in the universe.”
“What do you mean?”
“Unconditional love is how dogs feel about their masters. Dogs love their masters no matter how badly they’re beaten, how rarely they’re fed, and how terribly they’re cared for. They don’t know any better than to love without conditions.”
“That’s not what I mean,” I say. “I mean, between people.”
“There is ...more

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Apr 04, 2017 Figgy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 100-rock-reviews, review-copy, arc-or-netgalley, one-hundred-percent-rock-reviews, reviewed, publisher-walker, review-2017

If you’re looking for something that is going to push boundaries, and not hold back on much of the goriness of being a girl, this could well be the kind of book you’re after.

In What Girls Are Made Of, Nina Faye journeys from obtaining birth control through to the gory details of going through a medical abortion. Readers are shown her obsession with a boy named Seth, both before, during, and after dating him.

Is reciprocity a condition for love? I have always accepted that my mother is right – tha

Is reciprocity a condition for love? I have always accepted that my mother is right – that no one will love me without conditions. But I reject the idea that I must set conditions for loving Seth. I want to love someone no matter what. I want to love someone even if it hurts me. Am I a saint? A broken dog in a cardboard box?

She talks about miscarriages, masturbation, and martyrs. About self-induced orgasms vs. unsatisfying sex with the object of her affection. She works in a high-kill animal shelter and talks openly about the dogs that are more likely to be adopted than others, and what happens to the animals who are put to sleep.

Then the bodies are boiled. Yes, boiled. To separate the fat, which is sold through a bidding process to whoever can pay the most for it. The fat is used to make lipstick. Household cleaners. Dog food. Cat food. The bones are ground up, and they end up in pet food, too. Like the Soylent Green of the animal kingdom.
Only when everything useful has been stripped from the dog’s carcass is it burned to ash.

She talks about the way women have been and continue to be treated by society.

“It was used to punish women who had sex with Satan,” Mom said, her voice matter-of fact, “and to punish women who allowed themselves to miscarry.”
“Allowed themselves to?” I didn’t know which sounded more insane – thinking that women were having sex with the devil or blaming women for their miscarriages. But then I remembered with a twinge how I had felt when my mother’s crystal tumbler reappeared after she had lost the baby I’d named Chloe. Part of me had been angry. Part of me did blame her, even though I had never spoken about it with her, with anyone.
“As long as there have been women,” Mom told me, “there have been ways to punish them for being women.”

In between chapters, readers are given a taste of Nina’s own writing, in the form of short or flash fiction of a magical realism flavour, but with a revisited theme of the way women have been and continue to be treated and used by society.

So far I have written one story about a girl who grows vaginas all over he body, a couple of weird little things about chickens and eggs, and I have a growing collection of stories I’ve written about the deaths of virgin martyr saints, but I’m not ready to share any of it with him, or anyone.

For this reader, these in-between bits were the most enjoyable part of the book.

The rest, while confronting, while discussing things that are definitely important in this society which is still often squeamish about the bodily functions of women, just doesn’t seem to get where it’s trying to go.

The rest of this review can be found HERE!

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Pre-Review
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Review to come.

Rather unsure of what the point was, limited motivation to keep reading, and it all felt rather preachy and edgy for the sake of being edgy. ...more

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May 26, 2018 Zyra rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, self-help, young-adult

A very serious book. but must read for all the girls & women out there.

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Apr 01, 2017 Austral Scout added it

Shelves: contemporary

Arnold is witty and sharp and not for me.

Excerpt from full review:
I'm disappointed the answer to "What Girls Are Made Of?" is not, "A diverse spectrum of things -- conservative, adventurous, beautiful, brave, shy, capable, worthy of love and respect -- we are all so different and all deserve to be loved as we find our way." Instead it is more like, "We're sexual, subordinate, spiteful, lonely and did I mention, sexual? And we are d*mn-well allowed to be!" The problem with this answer is that som ...more

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Jun 27, 2019 Mara YA Reader Reviewer rated it it was ok

Explicit but in a more educational way. Reminds me of Forever by Judy Blume.

Depressing and blunt and to the point.

I enjoyed the author’s note at the end more than the book. But I’m 20 years too late to gain much from it.

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Aug 23, 2017 Book Riot Community added it

Arnold’s author note in her book talks about the inspiration coming from the idea of girls being “sugar and spice and everything nice.” She talks about the shame she felt about the idea of never living up to that standard growing up, that things like her body and its normal functions were shameful things for her to even think about. This plays out in her powerhouse book.

Nina’s boyfriend Seth is her world. She’ll do anything to make him happy. To have his attention. But when the relationship ends ...more

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Nov 22, 2016 Karina rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, netgalley, for-review

*Thank you so much Netgalley and Miss Libby Stille from Lerner Publishing for providing me an egalley in exchange of an honest review. The electronic galley received by any means didn’t affect nor influence my review.

Trigger Warning: Teenage Pregnancy, Abortion

Before I share my thoughts, I just want to say that I DO really love the cover and the title of this book. They’re more than enough to convince me to grab this one immediately. They made quite a good job on making me be intrigued right fro *Thank you so much Netgalley and Miss Libby Stille from Lerner Publishing for providing me an egalley in exchange of an honest review. The electronic galley received by any means didn’t affect nor influence my review.

Trigger Warning: Teenage Pregnancy, Abortion

Before I share my thoughts, I just want to say that I DO really love the cover and the title of this book. They’re more than enough to convince me to grab this one immediately. They made quite a good job on making me be intrigued right from the very first time I saw it. The title and the cover is what really caught me here because some of you guys know that I don’t usually read synopsis.

“As long as there have been women,” Mom told me, “there have been ways to punish them for being women.”

Okay, I don’t know. WHAT DID I JUST READ?

What Girls Are Made Of is a character-driven story and was written on Nina’s point of view.

Nina was a 16 years old teenager who had a boyfriend named Seth and they were sexually active. At the age of fourteen, her mother once told her that “love is conditional” and that at any moment she even could stop loving her. And that’s what Nina knew and believed since then.

It’s the opposite of beautiful, sparks and glitters shinning everywhere book. There’s no holding back in showing the ugliness, the implausibility of the characters.

From the very start, I already felt heavy while reading this book and that’s what I felt until the very end. This book talks about so many sensitive issues. It has quite a lot of sexual contents but this is NOT an erotic one. It talks about sex, abortion, miscarriages, birth control and almost anything concerning sex. What Girls Are Made Of shows us the reality about sex, love, teens and tries to answer questions in between.

(view spoiler) This book makes us question what we always thought true about true love and make us see the painful reality side of it. I also learned so many things about birth control and abortion. I liked those parts because realistically, that’s one of the things many teenagers should be aware of – especially those who are sexually active just like Nina and Seth. But what I’ve learned about abortion can also be made as a “reason” or as an “excuse” by some teenagers to have sex and do abortion because you’ll basically learn many ways of aborting a child in this book. That will make you be aware how easy the procedures really were.

This book also portrays bad parenting. What Nina had become was mostly because of her mom. First, she thought her that love is conditional, that’s why when she fell in love with Seth she took care of the relationship by following the unsaid conditions that was only said by her, and then she told her stories about the Virgin Martyrs and so many things about sex and art and sex and everything in between. Nobody even stood as Nina’s parents. They were just named as parents, that’s all. There wasn’t even a trace of love in their home. I felt really bad for it. Nina grew up like she doesn’t even have parents at all. She lives in a huge house – the one where rich people lives – but her parents were not always around. It was clearly showed on Nina’s character especially the way she thinks how bad parenting can affect a life. This aspect of the book serves as a lesson that clearly shows how parents take huge part on their children’s lives.

This book, indeed, portrays realistic perfectly flawed characters. It also tackles timely situations where some teenagers find their selves in. It also has opinions that somehow a little bit related to religion and – of course, again – sex that the interpretation may vary from reader to reader. Personally, I felt that this book was too much. I just felt bad most of the time because of what I was reading and the ideas I was conceiving. And the story of Nina, no matter how realistic and timely she and her situation was, it was dragging and just seemed like going nowhere. The plot really didn’t please me as a reader.

The very sensitive issue I personally dislike the most in this book was that thing about the Virgin Martyrs and how Nina said that they were actually being aroused by God. That what they were feeling was lust and not the holiness of God. I am wholeheartedly offended and as a Catholic and I see it as very disrespectful. Even though I know that not all people believe in Him, I still really felt so disrespected at that time. It was like she’s saying that those Virgin Martyrs were having sex with God. That was so AWFUL.

I can’t say that I really hate this book but I personally didn’t enjoy this either. I don’t wholly like Nina BUT I like the fact that she was perfectly flawed and shows a very realistic portrayal of teenagers who got bad parenting from their parents. I do not wholly dislike her because I understand that what she had become was just because of her parents and not just because the author wants her to be like that with no apparent reason. This book has many things to say concerning so many sensitive issues that are really timely but not every message this book conveys was suitable for everyone, some were even hard to accept or even comprehend and it just really depends on how the reader will interpret those messages.

I felt really disconnected with this book. And there were so many beliefs or ideas I do not personally agree with which is maybe one of the reasons why I just felt REALLY unattached. And I felt no sense of direction where the story was going. It just feels like the talking about sex and Nina’s mother’s implausible beliefs about love will never end. I can’t find it in me to like this story. It was just okay. It was JUST OKAY for me.

The end wasn’t properly closed and it leaves so many questions in my head. I honestly don’t know if I should feel happy or sad because it already ended. “What girls are made of?” is the very question this book aims to answer. And the answer is actually satisfying enough. That’s the reason why I am giving a 2.5 rating for this book. It was okay. But this is just definitely not for me. ...more

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May 04, 2018 Beatrix rated it it was amazing

Shelves: inspiring, real-problems, young-adult, beautiful-writing, realistic-fiction, favorites, 2018-favorites, read-in-2018, favorite-ya

What are they then, this horde, these women, if they are not the fawning lovers of their god? Who are they, free of the conditions they have accepted like layers of chains?
Wake now, beauties. Rise and look around. Shake off the chains. Give up the ghost of love.

Wow, wow what a weird, honest and beautiful book. I wish I could've read it as a teenager. It's been a few days since I've finished it, and it's still on my mind. I loved this bit from the author's note: I don't write books to teach le ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 ~ℑ rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, realistic-fiction, favorites, contemporary

I just finished this and I'm so glad it was my first read of 2018, I don't think any review will do this book justice. I loved it.

It's not what you think, it's not only based on love or unconditional love, there are many others things, it's entirely different and I can tell not so many are going to like what it's about. I found myself relating to a lot of situations that was mentioned in the book just like any 16 years old girl would do! some thoughts that we all shared, things we would have do ...more

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May 11, 2017 Chelsea rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2-star

I’m pretty conflicted on this one. I loved the brutal honesty and the message, but I really didn’t enjoy reading this much at all. 2 1/2 stars

This is a coming of age story of Nina, a teenage girl with a crappy boyfriend and a crappy mom who once told Nina that unconditional love does not exist. We watch Nina grow and find herself over this short novel of less than 200 pages.

Honestly, I only picked this up because the blurb mentioned the main character volunteering at a high kill animal shelter, ...more

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Apr 16, 2017 Melissa Stacy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: unlikeable-protagonists, 2017-reads, family, ya, literary-prose, women

"As long as there have been women," Mom told me, "there have always been ways to punish them for being women." (page 156)

The 2017 YA contemporary novel, "What Girls Are Made Of," by Elana K. Arnold, is a masterwork. The plot, character arc, thematic story elements, and prose style all combine in a tour de force of literary prose -- deceptively packaged and sold as a Young Adult book.

If you enjoy reading the poetry, short stories, novels and nonfiction of Margaret Atwood, and/or if you love to re ...more

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Apr 20, 2019 Latanya (CraftyScribbles) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, audiobook, ya, realistic-fiction

Whoa this book's good! Well worth a read. Odd. Fascinating. Truthful in what society expects from girls, but never what girls actually feel.

Stay for the author's note. It shot my rating up by half a star.

Good stuff. 4/5

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Oct 28, 2016 Ashley Blake rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult

No one writes about the visceral, terrifying, gory experience of being a girl like Elana K. Arnold. Gorgeous language, vividly imagined stories within the main story, heartbreaking reality of what it means to grow up as a girl. So good and necessary.

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Oct 14, 2017 PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps rated it liked it · review of another edition

***WARNING many sick, dead and abused animals. MC works in a high kill shelter***

I hate hate hate books that include abused or dead animals. Maim or kill all the humans in any way possible but don’t hurt the animals. Minus one star for animal abuse.

Nina defines herself by her ability to please her boyfriend Seth and his love for her. Perhaps because at age fourteen, her mother told her unconditional love doesn’t exist and she could stop loving Nina at any moment. Perhaps because of her parents l ...more

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Oct 22, 2017 Donalyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-realistic-fiction, 2017-nerdy-book-club-picks

Second read. Brilliant and important. Don't miss the author's note.

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Jun 23, 2017 Debi G. rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

What Girls Are Made of is realistic fiction that is both poetic and blunt, vulnerable and guarded. It may not be an enjoyable read, yet it is riveting.

I am filled with admiration for the author and her ability to represent adolescence and incorporate gritty, personal details of ordinary, physical life using neither clinical terminology nor slang. Certainly, readers will trust in and feel reassured by representations of unexpected menstrual blood and independently achieved orgasms. Surely, reade What Girls Are Made of is realistic fiction that is both poetic and blunt, vulnerable and guarded. It may not be an enjoyable read, yet it is riveting.

I am filled with admiration for the author and her ability to represent adolescence and incorporate gritty, personal details of ordinary, physical life using neither clinical terminology nor slang. Certainly, readers will trust in and feel reassured by representations of unexpected menstrual blood and independently achieved orgasms. Surely, readers will glean accurate information about largely unspoken elements of life, like what actually happens to the corpses of euthanized animals and what medical abortions and their aftermaths are actually like. Likewise, readers will acquire a lens for the effects of emotional absence, for the futility of suppressing the self in search of love, and the positive results of creative expression. In Nina, readers will find a warning rather than a hero. She will inspire girls to grow into a strength of self that she lacks.

I am also feeling fear for this book, which will either go unnoticed and unread by those who could benefit from the story, or which will be challenged by censors whose goal will be to protect teen readers from the world they already walk. The other potential future for this book is a trajectory like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, an unflinching story that reigned the word of mouth canon.

The language and structure of this book are exemplary, even if the characters are deliberately distasteful. Perhaps the largest theme is this: "You can't make people love you. Love isn't something you earn, or something you deserve. Love just is. Or it isn't" (180). As painful as it is to watch Nina (or a real person) manage her every expression in a misguided effort to attract a lasting affection, it is necessary component of the characterization and plot.

The author's note is absolutely worthwhile and appreciated.

Although I respect the writing and I continue to ponder the story and its implications, which is the trait of a good story, I can't shake the awareness that this is a book to recommend with prudence. ...more

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Nov 03, 2016 D. George rated it it was amazing

I first encountered this author's work when I was able to request her children's book "Far From Fair" from Amazon Vine. Which I loved. And when a request went out for reviewers for her new book, I jumped on it, not even knowing what this title was about, or that it was for older audiences.

I was grabbed by the descriptions in the first paragraph of this book, and saw the narrator, Nina, and her mother, in the simple but important dance that all women do: fold sheets.

And then I could not put the ...more

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Sep 19, 2017 Hiba rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, 2017, reviewed, to-read-again-in-2018

So I've been thinking about this book for a while now and I still can't untangle my emotions I felt while reading this book. But I do have few things in mind that I need to say. While I liked how author was bold and wrote in detail about periods, abortion etc etc, I think somewhere she went into too much detail that really made me uncomfortable. Like there was scene where (view spoiler). But I no l ...more

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May 10, 2017 Kristina Hunter rated it really liked it

Grotesquely beautiful.

This is not a book for everyone. Especially the pro-life/religious sect. It is raw and honest and downright depressing at times. Kind of like the life of a teenager.

I liked What Girls Are Made Of for the same reason I didn't: It brought back some turbulent memories. Would I have appreciated reading it 20 years ago when I was around the same age as Nina? I don't know. I don't know if I could have appreciated its wisdom back then. Then again, it may have saved me from some p ...more

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Mar 24, 2018 ellie rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-book-release

Consider-what are you made of? Also, remember - you don't owe anyone a slice of your soul. Not your parents. Not your friends. Not your teachers or your lovers or your enemies. And you don't have to listen to anyone who tells you what girls are made of. Decide on your own what your heart is. Protect it. Enjoy it. Share it, if you want. You get this one body and this one hundred years. Love it, love it, please, love it.

This book made me severely uncomfortable. And as someone who is okay with bein Consider-what are you made of? Also, remember - you don't owe anyone a slice of your soul. Not your parents. Not your friends. Not your teachers or your lovers or your enemies. And you don't have to listen to anyone who tells you what girls are made of. Decide on your own what your heart is. Protect it. Enjoy it. Share it, if you want. You get this one body and this one hundred years. Love it, love it, please, love it.

This book made me severely uncomfortable. And as someone who is okay with being uncomfortable, especially when it is in relation to the horrors young women have to go through, this was a disappointment. I had such high hopes for this book, which, in hindsight, was probably not a good idea. Putting expectations on a book that does everything in its power to break against expectations is almost redundant, so I am sorry for that. I just found it...messy. It wasn't the terrifying imagery that kept being brought up - I saw the point in the messy, traumatizing scenes of the women being tortured. I sat through all of the chicken vs egg metaphors, the pining for a boy, the alcoholic mother, and the pet shelter stories. I read it all.

There it is - my own beating heart. I listen, I try to understand what it means, what it wants.

The problem is that it was laid out in this mishap of events, and that was confusing. I didn't know if we were in the current timeline or the past several times throughout the book, and many scenes felt structured and didn't flow with the story at all. There is a scene where she stalks her ex-boyfriend for a whole chapter, and that is all. They just look at each other, and then she leaves. This is never brought up again. I don't even know. I have to confess that I prefer the author's note to almost everything written in here; her explanation of why she wrote this was the thing I was expecting when I read this book. I see many elements in this book that I could've liked - the girls supporting each other, the discussion of girls being whatever the hell they wanted to be, breaking free from an emotionally detached mother...but it didn't work well together. I didn't like the random Christian imagery scattered throughout the book. That was definitely the worst part.

"As long as there have been women," Mom told me, "there have been ways to punish them for being women."

Anyway, the problem wasn't that Nina was unlikeable or some parts were gross, but that as a whole, the storyline went in a bunch of different directions. It was like I was reading from a diary, but out of order, and I could never keep track of what had already happened, or what was about to happen. I don't like that. I do appreciate Nina, though. I enjoyed her voice. She was almost so open with her thoughts that it felt like she was confessing them to me, in real life. Every single thought, even the horribly judgemental ones, that everyone thinks. I appreciated that. I just wish her story was told more coherently, without mentioning Jesus every 50 pages. Still a good book, though! ...more

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Jun 02, 2017 Maddie Tiare rated it it was amazing

Shelves: p-or-pc, pub-carolrhoda, first-person-pov, own, stand-alone, realistic-fiction

A lot of people are going to hate this book. It's brutal, it's weird, it's gruesome, it's depressing. Nina, the main character, isn't likable. She makes bad decisions (although it's important to note here that I'm talking about the decision that got her court mandated community service). Hardly anybody in the cast is likable (although there are a couple of gems in Nina's life).

Nina isn't a person I would have liked if I had gone to high school with her. Honestly, I probably would have talked ab A lot of people are going to hate this book. It's brutal, it's weird, it's gruesome, it's depressing. Nina, the main character, isn't likable. She makes bad decisions (although it's important to note here that I'm talking about the decision that got her court mandated community service). Hardly anybody in the cast is likable (although there are a couple of gems in Nina's life).

Nina isn't a person I would have liked if I had gone to high school with her. Honestly, I probably would have talked about her behind her back. Although, I wouldn't have liked Apollonia either. Or Seth (especially not Seth. Ugh.). Louise, maybe. But I don't know.

That doesn't mean that Nina isn't a character who should have been written. She's real. She exists (even if not in the exact form of Nina Faye). Girls like Nina exist, and they're worthy of existing. Her father is largely absent. Her mother is distant (and constantly gaslights her. The amount of times Nina's mother says to her "I never said that!" when she totally did was enough to drive me up the wall.). Nina wants attention and affection and she's been taught that her body is the only key to that door.

I wouldn't have liked her because I didn't know what that felt like. Hating Nina Faye is a privilege.

Some people are going to be mad because Nina has an abortion. (view spoiler)

If you liked this book, I would recommend Mindy McGinnis' A Madness So Discreet (although it is very different, since it's historical fiction and has a murder mystery aspect) and also maybe Mindy McGinnis' The Female of the Species (although I didn't love that as much as AMSD). My recommendation also goes in the opposite direction (if you liked this, maybe check those out). Also, I have a music recommendation. I think this book pairs well with Melanie Martinez's music. Also, TV recommendation: The Fall and Top of the Lake. Both of those shows are equally brutal and gruesome (especially The Fall so please look into any trigger warnings before you embark!) but important.

Okay, that's enough recommendations. But I think the sheer number of recommendations this book inspired is a sign of how much it affected me. ...more

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Apr 04, 2018 Whitney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, read-in-2018, hub-challenge-2018

What Girls Are Made Of was not easy to read, but I am so glad that I did. It centers on Nina, a teenage girl in an unhealthy relationship, whose skewed view of love was handed down from her inattentive mother. Nina is grappling with her burgeoning sexuality and womanhood while putting in community service hours for a terrible act she committed to a classmate. She moves through life like a puppy or a paper doll, waiting for someone to tell her that she is pretty, that she is loved, that she matte What Girls Are Made Of was not easy to read, but I am so glad that I did. It centers on Nina, a teenage girl in an unhealthy relationship, whose skewed view of love was handed down from her inattentive mother. Nina is grappling with her burgeoning sexuality and womanhood while putting in community service hours for a terrible act she committed to a classmate. She moves through life like a puppy or a paper doll, waiting for someone to tell her that she is pretty, that she is loved, that she matters.

This book is messy and ugly and real. I can imagine a lot of readers disliking Nina because she, too, is messy and ugly and real. She makes mistakes that will make you cringe. She doesn't stand up for herself. She is needy and sad and doesn't understand her own feelings. But, then again, that describes most teenage girls, and that is the crux of Arnold's novel. Girls who are expected to be "sugar and spice and everything nice," will eventually crumble. They cannot be swallowed whole, again and again, without turning sour. This is what Nina is coming to terms with: the ugly, sour parts of being a woman, the things that she cannot and should not hide. There is no sugar and spice here, but there is flesh and blood and anger and pain.

Arnold doesn't gloss over a single female experience. She describes in detail things that will make readers mildly to severely uncomfortable: menstruation, sex, masturbation, abortion. The ugly things that we still instinctively want to sweep under the rug are explored in depth. And maybe, this makes them a little less ugly.

I don't know if I would have enjoyed this book as a teenager, if I would have understood that I hated Nina because I was so much like her. But reading her story both broke my heart and made me feel seen. I hope it does the same for others.

"I'm more than any of the parts of me—I am more than my good parts, and more than my bad ones. I am more than my mistakes. I am more than my memories. I will say these words again and again, like an anthem, like a prayer, until I believe them." ...more

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Jan 04, 2018 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge

Yes, this book is upsetting, disturbing and at times even gross but it is also brutally honest. And I love it. Being a teenage girl is not all sunshine and roses, folks.

Between the main story there are Nina's short stories about female martyrs, those bits I liked especially.

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Nov 07, 2018 Marie the Librarian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was a weird but interesting book. What are girls made of? So much more than sugar and spice and everything nice, thats for sure! I think I liked this book, at least it made quite an impact on me.

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About Elana K. Arnold

Elana K. Arnold

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ELANA K. ARNOLD writes books for and about children and teens. She holds a master’s degree in Creative Writing/Fiction from the University of California, Davis where she has taught Creative Writing and Adolescent Literature. Her most recent YA novel, DAMSEL, is a Printz Honor book, Her 2017 novel, WHAT GIRLS ARE MADE OF, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her middle grade novel, A BOY ...more