girlsintrucksTitle: Girls In Trucks
Author: Katie Crouch
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary:
The heat of the South is no match for the Camellias, Charleston’s most elite debutante society.  In it girls are groomed to be perfectly mannered socialites from the youngest age.  Sarah Walters is one such girl navigating between her mother’s will for her to follow in her footsteps and her own desire to avoid society such as this at all costs.

Of course, as Sarah ages we see how even though the expectations of her are clear she is unable to navigate them in the way a good Camellia would.  She keeps the tenants of behavior in mind as she weaves through varying situations yet she never quite follows through by living up to the very high standards of propriety.

This is exemplified most through the series of relationships Sarah wades through as she comes of age; first with a local townie as a teenager then via a series of not so right for her men.  When she moves to the big city and tries to create the life for herself that she always dreamed of she sadly falls short in every way imaginable both personally and professionally.  It isn’t until she finally comes back home to Charleston that she gets the slightest piece of clarity and perhaps her first real taste of what happiness could be found there.

Opinion:
I’ll start my review by stating I didn’t like this book.  Not because it is bad in the grand sense of the word but rather just bad for me.  I wholeheartedly admit that I felt slightly deceived by the synopsis on the back cover.  The way I read it the story was made to sound lighter than it actually was.  In reality the biting-humor advertised fell short on me as I waded through the darker tone and dysfunctional situations.  It was simply not what I was expecting nor would it have been a book I would have chosen to read had the notes on the back portrayed that darker tone a bit more.

Despite the above, Crouch did a great job of developing an extremely complex set of characters.  Most importantly her protagonist Sarah Walters is as multi-layered as it gets as she struggles to find what she considers the perfect life for herself.  It is she that the reader follows from an awkward girl through her coming of age as part of the Cammelias and then into womanhood.  It is this dysfunctional journey that shows how skilled Crouch is as a writer as she portrays Sarah with a sensitivity that makes her rootable.  Often times I found myself hoping things would finally turn around for her and that she would finally work through her myriad of addictions (men, alcohol, etc.) to find peace, solace and ultimately happiness.

If you are looking for a book that delves a bit more into social structures and how they influence our psyche and the way we navigate life I think this book would be a good selection for you.  Further if you are interested in intricate character development you’ll enjoy Girls in Trucks a great deal.