Carly’s life was going ok, not perfect, but whose life really is? Good home, great sister and even a decent relationship with her divorced parents. She was even going on an amazing archeological did with her father over the summer. Then the bombshells start falling. Bombshell one, stepmom is preggers, therefore no dig. Bombshell two, mom and boyfriend of over a decade are splitting, forcing a need to change their living arrangements. Now the summer options are work at a camp her mom is running or pass the summer with her dad, waiting on her stepmom. Camp wins and that is where she meets Brian. Brian is different. Funny, cute, and actually nice. He still likes her after he has seen her drunk and sniveling. They hit is off, date, love life.
The summer is an amazing one for Carly, but with the end of the summer, she and Brian don’t last long. Without Brian, Carly has a huge hole in her life. No more late night gigs, no more constant texting, no more ‘I’m with the band.’ Then Carly learns Brian had a new girlfriend. She just wants to see the girl that has replace her with such ease. Taylor is so pretty, kind, and so cool. Carly might even pick Taylor over herself, if forced to. On some level, Carly knows that she should stop following Taylor, but something in her is driven to continue. The real question becomes not will she stop, but will she stop before things go too far.
Stalker Girl was a little bit, ‘what I was expecting’ mixed with a little bit of ‘what I was not expecting.’ Rosemary Graham does an excellent job of making the story believable and Carly’s spiral very intense. The story jumps between several time frames quite effectively. There is now, summer and a time in the very recent past. The story makes it far too easy to see how someone who really and truly seems to normal and even keel could get out of control so fast. In a way, Carly’s tale is cautionary one. Curiosity is natural, but left unchecked can open the door to obsession of the most dangerous kind. If you like realistic fiction, with a dose of some very really creepiness, I would definitely recommend picking up Stalker Girl.
- Author website: http://rosemarygraham.com/
- Publisher: Viking
- Date of Publication: August 2010
