Every week Elliott attends a sexual assault support group for teenage girls. Every week Elliott hears the stories of the other girls in the group. Every week Elliott becomes more and more certain that nothing is changing.
Elliott is sick of talk. She’s sick of the perpetrators not being held to account for their actions.
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I think it’s time we take matters into our own hands.”
Elliott is ready to do something new and she thinks The Book of Reflection could hold the answers. Now all she needs is a coven.
“For when brought together with a coven – and only with a coven – will the spell most suited to the conjuring witch be summoned. Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages.”
Going into this read, I thought I’d be entirely on board with a story of revenge, where victims take back their power while dealing a dose of ‘let the punishment fit the crime’ to those who have violated them. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, while I’m big on fairness and justice, revenge is actually not something that motivates me.
The more I read, the more uncomfortable I became with the results of the revenge. By spending so much time focused on the perpetrators, the girls weren’t learning ways to manage the impacts of their trauma.
The way the revenge took place left the girls in a passive role. The book, rather than the girls, chose the spell for each perpetrator and until it was cast the girls didn’t know what the result would be. While the girls each decided they wanted revenge, not having agency in deciding its form didn’t feel like an especially trauma informed way of going about it.
I appreciated that this book clearly shows that sexualised violence takes many forms. Those who have experienced it come from all walks of life, as do those who choose to commit those crimes. The short and long term impacts look different from survivor to survivor and healing is most certainly not one size fits all.
Please be aware going into this read that it includes descriptions of sexualised violence. I didn’t find them especially graphic (although your threshold may be different than mine) but at no time was I unclear about what the girls had experienced. Victim blaming also takes place but this is challenged. Self harm is mentioned.
While revenge definitely plays a significant role in this book, connection and healing are also explored so while you may walk through the fire with these girls, there’s also hope.
Because here was the truth of walking through fire: it was excruciating, and it burned, and it turned you to ash. But flames did more than burn. Flames also brought light.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the opportunity to read this book.
Once Upon a Blurb
Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages …
Elliott D’Angelo-Brandt is sick and tired of putting up with it all. Every week, she attends a support group for teen victims of sexual assault, but all they do is talk. Elliott’s done with talking. What she wants is justice.
And she has a plan for getting it: a spell book that she found in her late mom’s belongings that actually works. Elliott recruits a coven of fellow survivors from the group. She, Madeline, Chloe, and Bea don’t have much in common, but they are united in their rage at a system that heaps judgements on victims and never seems to punish those who deserve it.
As they each take a turn casting a hex against their unrepentant assailants, the girls find themselves leaning on each other in ways they never expected — and realising that revenge has heavy implications. Each member of the coven will have to make a choice: continue down the path of magical vigilantism or discover what it truly means to claim their power.
For Girls Who Walk Through Fire is a fierce, deeply moving novel about perseverance in the face of injustice and the transformational power of friendship.
Schizanthus Nerd 