The Book:
One Of The Girls by Lucy Clarke
Published June 28th 2022 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Date read: June 17, 2022
The Characters:
Lexi
Bella and her girlfriend Fen
Robin
Eleanor
Ana
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
It was supposed to be the perfect weekend away. Six very different women travel to a sun-soaked Greek island for a bachelorette trip, to celebrate Lexi’s upcoming wedding. From the glorious ocean views to the quaint tavernas and whitewashed streets, the vacation seems too good to be true. But dangerous undercurrents run beneath the sunset swims and midnight cocktails – because each of the women is hiding a secret. Someone is determined to make sure that Lexi’s marriage never happens – and that one of them doesn’t leave the island alive.
Gripping, twisty, and full of sun-soaked suspense, this timely thriller examines the joys of female friendship…as well as the deadly consequences when a relationship goes wrong.
The Twist:
Ed was the father of Ana’s child. He had knocked her up in college and his lawyer family made the problem go away.
Sam’s death was medical malpractice. Bella had been the nurse on duty and prescribed him the medicine he was allergic to.
Robin and Bella had hooked up one night, but Robin pretended it didn’t happen because her parents disapproved.
Ed showed up to tell Lexi about Ana. It came out that he had bullied and abused Eleanor for their whole lives, and he was responsible for the injury that put Sam in the hospital the night he died. Ana had gotten pregnant with Luca when Ed raped her.
The women and Ed all fought. Ed hit Ana. Eleanor pushed Ed over the edge of the wall.
The Ending:
All the women said that Ed’s death was just an accident. Ana and Lexi stayed friends. Eleanor was slowly healing. Fen and Robyn got married.
The Review:
Thank you to Putnam Books for this gifted copy and to PRHA Audio for an audio review copy.
I’m always a fan of the bachelorette party gone wrong theme, but One Of The Girls hit it out of the park.
To start, the setting was perfect. When the book opens with the characters wondering if their resort is too remote, you know the author is setting up something good. I could just picture this beautiful Greek villa up on a cliff, and certainly want to vacation there myself!
Although there were a handful of characters, the author made them easy to keep track of. Each personality was entirely distinct, and I never found myself wondering whose POV I was reading. These characters were very well-written with a lot of depth. Everyone had some kind of secret, and it was a lot of fun to unfold their lies and omissions as the story progressed. I enjoyed Fen’s storyline the most–her personality was my favorite from the start, and she had such incredible character growth despite being a secondary character.
The plot was perfectly paced. There was always someone’s secret to uncover, so the reader is never bored. I thought the ending was just the right amount of surprising without being over the top or unbelievable.
I will say that it was odd to my American ears to hear the women constantly referred to as “the hens”. I’m familiar with hen-do’s and stag-do’s, but I’ve never heard women on a hen do so frequently referred to as “hens”. I’m curious to hear if this is a normal British phrase!
Audio Review: This audiobook was narrated by Sofia Zervadachi. It was a very easy listen, and her voice was pleasant and fitting to the story. I did think that she was saying “Elena” the whole time, and only realized the character’s name was Eleanor when I got the finished copy and flipped through it!
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