Shobha Rao

A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, for readers of Rupi Kaur, about the EXTRAORDINARY BOND BETWEEN TWO GIRLS driven apart by circumstances but relentless in their search for one another. Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them. They are poor. They are driven. And they are girls. When Poornima was just a toddler, she was about to fall into a river. Her mother, beside herself, screamed at her father to grab her. But he hesitated: "I was standing there, and I was thinking...she's just a girl. Let her go...That's the thing with girls, isn't it...You think, Push. That's all it would take, Just one little push." After her mother's death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to take care of her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to secure for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls' perspectives as they face ruthless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them.--Amazon.

A Novel

Girls Burn Brighter

Stas

Forget what I said about women who won't listen. The worst thing is a woman who knows what she wants.

«What happened to the girl who asked for the banana?»

I AM SOBBING AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE OKAY AGAIN

I am many things, Poorni, but I will not be your stepmother. Poorni, I am the one with wings. 

What is there to see? Spoiled fruit is spoiled fruit. 

Ryan Mateyk

Poornima and Savitha are two poor girls from a small village in Central India who quickly forge a deep and lasting bond. This is a story of relentless tragedy contrasted by a fiercely burning sense of hope and love.

Heather Margaret

And she heard her say, “Don’t forget a thing, not one thing. If you forget, it’s like you joined the stone at the bottom of the sea, the one we’re all tied to. So, remember everything, press it press it between the folds of your heart like a flower. And when you want to look, really want to look Poori, hold it up against the light.”

4.5 stars, the ending made me feel so incomplete! The stories of these two girls hurt. It was an emotional challenge to get through parts of this story. You can feel the pain, humiliation, hunger, needs, wants of these two girls. The feelings are all so loud, especially with a backdrop of being born in a county that easily violates a women's rights. It made me feel horrible and sad just as much as angry and wanting for change. There are also many sweet moments between the two girls. In the end, we all need a friend like Poornima.

Avery Baumel

so so good!!! remember it being a slow build but once i got into it i couldn't stop

jiaqi kang

Felt a bit like the kind of book a white woman at a dinner party would bring up and say "It really opened my eyes, it was soooooooo poignant"

Sheila

This book needs to come with trigger warnings for the following: rape, slavery/human trafficking, abuse & amputation

Now if those warnings didn't tell you enough of what you were getting into with this book, let me just say that this was a violent experience. It was unrelentingly brutal - and the fact that the reality of the lives of Poornima and Savitha never once gave them a crumb to cling to was what led me, about halfway through, to pause during (view spoiler)[the scene where Savitha decides to have her left hand amputated in the hopes of being sold at a high price to a Saudi with "particular tastes" for amputees (hide spoiler)] and think out loud, "But why?!"

There is never a narrative reason given for Poornima's and Savitha's suffering, but perhaps that was Rao's point: these awful, disgusting things happen to real girls in this actual world for no reason other than virulent misogyny and greed. There's no hope, there's no peace. But is that the kernel we should be keeping within ourselves about our reality? 

Ultimately this story read like a timeline of disturbing events (and with graphic detail) wherein the author just recounted horror after horror, which is then completed with a final slap to the face with an ambiguous ending that leaves you frustrated and hollow. I think this is the main reason why I keep reading so much fantasy: I need to see that single ray of hope in order to make it to the other side. I, simply, can't live like this.

Corey White

For someone of stronger heart, this book is at least worth 4 stars, but mine kept being broken chapter after chapter. Beautiful writing, very heavy story.

'A treat for Ferrante fans, exploring the bonds of friendship and how female ambition beats against the strictures of poverty and patriarchal societies' Huffington Post An electrifying debut novel - the story of the unbreakable bond between two girls driven apart, and their journeys across continents to find each other again. Poornima and Savitha, born in poverty, have known little kindness in their lives until they meet as teenagers. When an act of devastating cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend. Alternating between the girls' perspectives as they face apparently insurmountable obstacles on their travels through the darkest corners of India's underworld and across an ocean, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who refuse to lose the hope that burns within.

Katie LaMarre

Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, NPR, Shelf Awareness, Paste, LitHub, Real Simple 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist: Best Fiction Longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Incandescent...A searing portrait of what feminism looks like in much of the world.” —Vogue “A treat for Ferrante fans, exploring the bonds of friendship and how female ambition beats against the strictures of poverty and patriarchal societies.” —The Huffington Post An electrifying debut novel about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstance but relentless in their search for one another. Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. After her mother’s death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face ruthless obstacles, Shobha Rao's Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within.

Girls Burn Brighter A Novel

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