Girl One

Title: Girl One
Author: Sara Flannery Murphy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ)

Year: June 2021
Pages: 355
Genre: Thriller
Reading Time: 18 Apr - 18 May
Binding: NetGalley arc

Stars:
★★★★☆

Blurb:

 The world knows them as 'The Homestead Girls'. Nine women who raised nine 'miracle babies' on an experimental commune in rural America.
 But after a suspicious fire at the ranch kills both the doctor behind the pioneering experiment and one of the youngest of the girls, the mothers and their children are scattered across the country, some embracing the media spotlight, others refusing to talk about it.
 Now years later, Josephine Morrow, aka Girl One, is studying medicine, following in the footsteps of her beloved mentor, when she is called home to discover that her mother has vanished, while her house has been trashed. If Josie is to find her, and find her alive, she will need to track down her estranged sisters and finally confront the secrets of their dark past – before it is too late.

Review:

 It's been a little while since I opened my reading range to a mystery/thriller and I picked exactly the right one. Hints of the paranormal push their way through making me feel right as though I was in my usual fantasy comfort zone. Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this release for review!

 Can we just comment on the beauty of this cover for a moment? Red is my favourite colour and I love the simplicity of a consistent pattern and but I only just noticed that these are DNA strands, stroke of genius! It definitely drew me to request this arc on NetGalley.

 Thinking on the base concept that underlines this book, it's not completely unique to Murphy and she credits other work within her acknowledgements which I admire. The idea that women could conceive without men has certainly been explored by others but I can't bring to mind anything that I've read or watched that was focused on this. Points for all of the above. The experiment takes place in the 70s, where views of females were developing as was science. A perfect setting to explore all the terrible reactions that centre from superstition and misogyny.

 Maybe it's a result of having grown up in a time when these issues were under more challenge then ever or just me being naïve but I didn't initially realise that the idea of men being unessential to reproduction would actually threaten men. This is an important topic to cover as it does bring up a trigger warning in the book, mentions of rape. I think in a book exploring reproduction it is a little bit of a given that this would happen, it's a recollection of events without any major detail. There are men in this book threatened by the power of the women in this book and it's thrilling because there's a range of them. One particular detail I love about some of the most despicable men is that they aren't even given a name and I genuinely believe there's power in that itself. As though they're not important enough to even deign being addressed.

 With this being a thriller a large portion of the book is build up and tension, I don't mind it at all as there are a lot of characters to cover and new details to learn. I enjoy that there's a small mix of following Josie and news reports taking you back to when the experiments were taking place, it's the kind of flashbacks you would expect from a televised mystery, to look back on the source data as you unfold further details. I liked these as shorter chapters to relieve a little bit of tension every so often so you could unveil more about the history of these girls. We get a lot of build up and the final part of the story seems to have only a short reveal. I didn't necessarily get left disappointed, I was hoping for a few more answers from specific characters but things were mostly wrapped up and the events were satisfying.

 I mention feeling this had a little bit of fantasy adoption in the book, it came a bit out of nowhere and I loved the addition to the story. I feel like the idea of solo female reproduction in itself is a fairly sci-fi like element and I don't want to spoil anymore. I enjoyed it very much and the consequences that some of the characters received as a result was enough to make me rage, takes me back to hundreds of years of mistreatment of women that are different and it's just unbelievable all that we've been subjected to.

 Am I going to talk about representation, a little? It's a very female centred book, I don't think there was a lot of mix in race, a small amount of LGBTQ+ and these only really become apparent later in the book. I personally don't find it to be an issue, the setting makes it difficult to explore any further and would just add complications that this thriller doesn't need.

 That being said, we've still got a range of characters in this book. Headstrong women, scared women, women with ambition and secrets and rage. We get a little bit of everything. We have a man in the mix too, he's a welcome addition for a little difference, some guidance as another investigator with an outside view from one of the Girls. I only wish he'd been there at the very end, I think he deserved that.

 I believe this is a stand-alone, it seems like there could be a possible expansion but I think that's just the fantasy reader in me always expecting a series. There's nothing to indicate another book will come at this stage but if there were I'd certainly pick it up.