Customer Reviews

Whores on the Hill: A Novel

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Power to the women! These girls make choices..whether it is dating, pregnancy or a romp with another girl, they make choices. I'm not sure I agree that this book is for teenagers but dating mates should read it to learn what girls are thinking. I agree with another reviewer that the writing is not so good but I like the liberal feminist approach.

I decided to order and read this book because of the difference in opinions (many heated!) among the amazon.com reviewers. As a teacher and connoisseur of coming of age literature, I wanted to see what all the hype was about and make up my own mind about this book.

Whores on the Hill isn't a literary masterpiece and it isn't intended to be likened to the classic and canonical works written by "great authors." It is simply one author's tale of growing up white (or Asian-American like Juli), middle to upper class, promiscuous, alienated, and full of inexplicable angst.

Aside from the fictional plot twists and turns, this book paints a realistic portrait of what happens to many young women as they come of age in our turbulent and sex-obsessed culture. While many readers did not appreciate the book's in-your-face language or sexuality, Curran's depiction of these two things is, sadly, dead on and true to life. The coming of age issues and resulting implications are not always made manifest for the reader; instead, he or she must draw them out, help to paint that picture, or fail to see the point.

Banning the book, as some reviewers have suggested, is not the answer, nor is denying or demeaning the life experiences of the young women who write reviews saying that they can relate to this book. Instead, we must listen to what these young women and the characters in this book are telling us. Something is deeply wrong in our culture, but it's not Curran's book or books like it that is causing the problems we see young women facing and experiencing in adolescence.

I enjoyed reading Whores on the Hill and found it captivating. Perhaps this book is more suitable to the young adult to college age crowd as opposed to the more adult or "parent" reader. But I would urge parents to read it and even if you LOATHE the book, learn from it. If we fail to see the meaning in novels like this one and simply condemn it based on our personal beliefs or its literary merits, then we fail today's adolescents as well. You don't have to like this book, you only have to consider it.

This is NOT a coming of age novel by any means... but it is a "coming of responsibility" novel. I live in Wauwatosa, just outside of Milwaukee and right where this book takes place. Half of the places they mention I know where they are. Originally, I picked up this book just as a laugh because it was supposed to be based on DSHA (Divine Savior Holy Angels... see a connection?) the last all girls Catholic school in Milwaukee. But after reading it, I liked it for much more than that.

The girls in this book are crazy and wild. Halfway through the book, you sit there thinking: 'Wow. Wouldn't it be amazing to live like that, without any restrictions?' until at the end, you close the book and go, 'Wow. Who would ever want to do that to themselves?'

Don't believe the bad reviews from concerned parents that this book is getting. I'm a straightedge kid (no sex, no drugs, no alcohol) and this book most definitely didn't change my mind about any of that. It was well written and it really grabs you: the characters are life-like and incredible.

I highly recomend this book to anyone and everyone, especially if you live in the area.

This is an edgy, amazing debut novel that gets at the heart at what it means to be young and unsure of yourself. Its raw and honest and as a young adult librarian, I would gladly give this book to interested, mature teen girls and boys. Obviously, the people who don't like this book do not have their fingers on the pulse of teen culture today. This is exactly what teens want to read and those teens that can handle the adult situations in the novel should read it. This isn't porn. The graphic sex, language, behavior has consequences. Some of the reviewers make it seem like this book is the literary equivilant of Penthouse Forum -- which its not -- not even close. As for the title, it is fantastic, talk about readers grabbing this book off the shelf, the only question is will it live up to the title and I would say that that is a definite "yes". As for the moniker "whore". It can be derogatory or you can, like the book's characters, embrace the name and claim it -- such as well known feminist writers Camille Paglia and Naomi Wolf have done in their writings. The characters in this books are flawed, complicated but ultimately likable just like all of us. [...] Older teens can handle this book. It won't surprise them or disgust them -- they will get it and thank you for giving it to them.

I found this young author's first novel touchingly engaging, evocative and poignant. I sat up most of the night to finish it, an indulgence I can rarely afford. I am a graduate of a private secondary school and formerly all-female university and found so much to which I could relate (and others that, thankfully, I could not), despite my being a generation older than Ms. Curran. Additionally, as a college physician and the mother of two adolescents, my heart broke for the protagonist, Thisbe, and hated the adults that were supposed to protect her for doing so pitiably little for this needy child. Ms. Curran's novel easily sits above the salt with the gold standards of adolescent literature. Like many of the other readers on this site I'm really looking forward to her next book

I saw a recommendation for this book in Glamour last month and just picked it up. I loved how the author was able to include both the beautiful parts of being young as well as the dark and difficult ones. This book brought back all sorts of images and memories for me - some good, as well as some that remind me why I am glad I don't have to go through those years again. What I found particularly true about this book was that I liked all three of the girls, for different reasons - and that is part of what trying to find your voice as a woman is really like. Being strong, or being scared - it is all part of what makes a person real. I commend the author for taking the courage to write a book that some people may not approve of but that speaks to the real pain and hopes of being a girl.

wow, some people are such dumbasses. or it's one person, more likely, with a lot of time on their hands, a chip on their shoulder and blinders on. i read this book recently and found it to be a lot like what i would imagine some kids do go through, more or less. a lot of the feelings she had, i remember having had. i think anyone who claims it's all completely unbelievable is seriously kidding themselves. now i'm not a catholic, but my roommate was in fact a catholic school girl back in the day. she also read this book and found a lot to relate to. i should get her to write her own review, i guess, she may have a lot more to say on the catholic thing. but my point is, if you have even a tentatively open mind, open just a crack, and you can read, and you enjoy innovative, fun literature, you'll probably like this book - there's really very little not to like. even my mom liked it-- and she went to a private catholic school herself.

This book is simply incredible! It's only been out in stores for a week but I've already read it twice! Nobody really writes about the way things really are in high school. They try and make it pretty when it's really tough. But out of this harsh reality the author brings an incredible beauty. I recommend this book for anybody who is ready to read something beautiful and true.

This was the best coming of age novel that I have ever read. Ms. Curran really taps into the angst of searching for one's identity during the teenage years. At first I thought this book might be attacking an all girls' high school, but that was definitely not the case. In fact Ms. Curran shows how an all girls' education can be quite empowering.I am a high school English teacher and we are always looking for good and yet controversial literature. I have recommended this book to my students and everyone who has read it raves about it. A few of my students confessed that they have never read an entire book before--until they read this book!!! I really like how one of the minor characters in this book, Sister Joe, really provides emotional help to one of the major characters after she is gang-raped. Ms. Curran deftly handles her sex scenes with such subtle beauty that it almost is poetical. This book is not only realistic, but it is a real page turner! A must read for this summer for teens and adults. Marybeth Raff, Waukesha,Wisc.

Curran's novel lives in the space between reality and fear--between what we believe and what we would rather not believe. Whether the characters in her book are girls like the girls we are or were or know seems, finally, to be less important than the fact that in the world they live in--a world mostly without supportive or caring adults--they have been left to make difficult choices as best they can.

As unsettling as Curran's portrayals of teenage girls might seem, it really is the author's style that sets Whores on the Hill apart from many other novels. By combining short chapters with gorgeously written prose that thrums with the confusion and aching of the stories it tells, Curran's novel unfolds as a series of vignettes that create their own separate reality. At times reticent, at times painfully direct, the narrator presents each of these vignettes with heart and as much frankness as she can manage.

Curran does not, however, present these vignettes as a series of linked events that each lead directly to the next. Rather, her handling of plot is more indirect, more subtle. As such, the story behind Whores on the Hill can't simply be construed as a list of what happens between its covers. It is also, and perhaps more importantly, the story of her narrator, Thisbe (a.k.a. Jellybean). Thisbe begins this story without a voice--not just because she is a teenage girl with very little power or authority, but also because she hasn't spoken in months. The novel, then, is also the story of Thisbe's struggle to find a way to bear witness to the things she sees (and does) in order to explain them not only to the people who saddled her with the nickname of "whore on the hill," but also to herself.

For Thisbe, these explanations take years to come up with. For me, this the greatest truth in this novel, that somehow the confusion of adolescence never quite wears off, or at least it does so slowly, over time, and without the kinds of closure we'd prefer to think we might have had. For readers willing to see the book on its own terms, the reward is tremendous: a first novel full of grace, promise, and gorgeous writing.