Three Girls

This hugely enjoyable read features Alice (The Really Tall One), Minnie (The Athlete) and Lena (The Princess) who are brought together by a photographer hired by their school to create a brochure. They are asked to pretend to be friends for a cover shot, even though they have nothing in common and barely know one other. Yet at the conclusion of the book their friendship is genuine as Clapham takes both reader and girls on emotional journeys which lead to this end.

All the girls are compelling – wholly present on the page – and each has her affiliations: Alice her highly intelligent, over-achieving friends, Minnie her boyfriend Daniel and Lena her childhood friend Aimee. However, change is coming for all three girls. When Minnie, the school’s star athlete is injured in a road accident Lena sees it as a chance to shine – now she doesn’t have to play second fiddle to Minnie on the running track. Lena realises that Aimee is no longer the girl she’s always known but has turned into a bully and a malicious gossip. After being unpleasantly kerb-crawled, Alice decides she is going to run – in secret, to avoid the humiliation of possible failure.

As the three girls work their way through big changes in their lives their trajectories come close together and they begin to discover true bonds forged through trust and support. Clapham invites us to understand what it is like to be a young woman, with all the uncertainties, pressures, anxieties and fun that this involves. Young adult readers will find much to relate to – dealing with crushes, moving on from friendships which are toxic, coming to terms with thwarted ambitions. What we see at the end of the book is three young women who have found friendships which nourish and sustain them and who are ready to move forward, knowing what they really want to achieve.