Synopsis

When Beth met Jackie, she was fifteen and shy, living in the shadow of her mother: talented artist Heather Sarandon. Jackie—wilful, cheeky and confident, made Beth see things in herself that she’d never imagined, and do things she never thought she would. As memories of Beth’s last night with Jackie grow more like waking nightmares, Beth does everything she can to forget the girl who was so much more than a friend.

Beth has a self-destructive ritual she swears she’ll keep secret, even from the psychologist trying to help her. But Dr. Nancy Sullivan doesn’t have time for secrets. In fact, she doesn’t have much time at all. She’s been charged with helping Beth break through the barriers of her past, knowing very well that her own demons might end her career before she can get through to the stubborn young woman.

Meanwhile, a young foster child with a wicked sense of humor, and a devastating past, reminds Beth that secrets seem powerful, but can destroy the person who holds them too close.

A haunting and evocative story about redemption, identity, and learning to let go of secrets that scar.

My thoughts

Beth is a complicated teenager, but it doesn’t simply stop there. Beth’s life is complicated. Her mother, who she refers to as ‘Heather’ is dedicated to her art and is an absent mother for all intensive purposes. Beth’s father, who lives across town in an apartment, is a freelance photographer and is often overseas taking pictures of the Masai warriors in Kenya, photographing aquatic life in the Great Barrier Reef and therefore rarely occupies his apartment. A traumatic event (not to be revealed in this review!) incites emotional conflict between Beth and her mother and the book starts with Beth describing leaving her mother’s house and deciding to move into her father’s apartment at the ripe age of 17. Beth practically lives completely alone in her father’s apartment, with no supervision, no human interaction, and no one to observe and intervene when she begins to spin out of control.

Beth has a secret. It’s not an outright obvious secret at first, but the author lets the reader in on that secret in a very gentle and unobtrusive way. Rather than revealing the secret in a climatic event in the book, we learn about Beth’s secret, the secret about herself that makes her feel wrong and abnormal, in a measured way. For open-minded readers, the secret will not come as a shock, nor will it seem like such a life-defining secret, but to the socially conservative reader, the secret will seem quite defining. Beth’s journey is an emotional one. The Jellicle Transformation is a deep and complex psychological coming of age story. The story is marvelously written, presenting great insight on the conflicted teenage psyche. For readers who enjoy reading about complex characters and experiencing their tumultuous and – at times – catalytic life events then I highly recommend reading this book!

My favorite passage

“Love makes you stronger because the two of you can face the world together; but relying on somebody so much that you can’t feel like a whole person without them makes you weak.” – Kindle location 1928-1929

Jellicle Girl: A Review by Eva Márquez

Synopsis

My thoughts

My favorite passage

My rating