I would like to thank NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Jane Healey for this e-arc copy for review.

This dual timeline story set in 1973 and 1997, told through the eyes of Ruth the mother and Maeve the daughter.

The past storyline focuses on a group of girls of which Ruth was one and their obsession with recreating the Ophelia paintings and becoming known at the time as The Ophelia Girls and there is a mystery as to what happened that summer which is gradually revealed as the story progresses.

The modern day storyline focuses on Maeve recoving from leukemia, them living in her grandfather's house which is crumbling alongside her parents marriage. Added to this we have Maeve's sexual awakening from an inappropriate source.

This book has quite a dark undertone that said I really loved it. I wanted to know what did happen in the summer of 1973 and also how the modern day storyline was going to play out. It was very well written I could almost see it as a tv drama. I would highly recommend it ( )

‘’I have run from that summer, tried to forget its hazy pleasures and its tragedies, how it ended, how things fell apart. I have trusted the years to fade my memories and destroyed those photographs, never to be looked at again.’’

It was 1973. Ruth and her three friends spent that summer obsessed with Pre-Raphaelite women and began spending all their time near the water, recreating a couple of the most famous photos of Ophelia among others. It seemed harmless, and it was. for a while; Then it wasn't and there was no going back.

Fast forward 24 years and we again meet Ruth and her family as they return to Ruth's childhood home for the summer, hoping it will be good for her daughter Maeve, who had recently been hospitalized and treated and can now say she is healthy, but she's having a hard time finding her place in the world outside the hospital.

Enter Stuart and old friend of Ruth and her husband Alex, he also is spending the weekend nearby and involves himself in their life as much as possible.

We bounce between the past and present told and the narrative switches between Ruth and Maeve. The writing itself is beautiful. Jane Healey has a true talent for conjuring beautiful and haunt images with her phrases. However well written, this story is drawn out, nearly painful to read. There's some interesting symbolism represented which is nice when its recognized but that's about all the praise I can muster for this story. The Ophelia Girls takes the reader on an unexpected journey leading you to a point of being uncomfortable at best.

I had such high hopes for this story. I regret to report that in my opinion it has fallen flat and will not hold up next to the rise of literature inspired by or rooted in myth.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for providing an advanced e-copy in exchange for my review. ( )

I was really enjoying it until about 96% of the way through. I (and my Followers) tend to enjoy more traditional characters, and I'm afraid this one just did not fit the bill. One of the dads turns out to be gay late in the book. Parachute exit time. ( )

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey is a recommended atmospheric novel that examines the inner lives and actions of a mother and daughter as teenagers.

Set during the summer in a large dilapidated country house in Kent, England, The Ophelia Girls follows the inner dialogue and obsessions of mother Ruth Hawkins and her seventeen-year-old daughter Maeve. The novel alternates between two time periods. In 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings and taking pictures of them recreating the drowning of Ophelia. The end of the summer results in tragedy, which is alluded to early on and not fully disclosed until later in the novel. At the same time, Ruth is struggling twenty-four years later with being a wife and mother to Maeve, a teen and young twins while living in the home she inherited from her father, with whom she was estranged.

Seventeen-year-old Maeve was ill with cancer for years. She is now in remission in 1997 and is supposed to be enjoying her teenage years, but she is unsure of how to proceed after years of fear and constant attention of her parents and medical staff. What she does realize is that she feels attracted to Stuart, a friend of her parents who is staying with them for the summer. Stuart is a well-known professional photographer purposefully acknowledges her attraction and he encourages her by giving Maeve the attention she craves. He begins to ask her to pose for photos.

The point-of-view switches between Ruth and Maeve. These are realistic characters whose personalities and action are those of authentic people. This authenticity means the characters are self-centered, secretive, aloof, inattentive, and unhappy. Maeve feels she is grown-up, but is also experiencing uncertainty. Readers will recognize immediately that her parents should have been more attentive to Maeve and realize that it wasn't hovering to know what she is feeling and doing. Stuart is who cannot be trusted and is simply creepy. It is hard to see his actions as anything but those of a predator and accept that Maeve's parents didn't realize it.

This is a beautifully written, descriptive novel with an ethereal, Gothic quality at times. The plot moves at a steady pace. The descriptions pull you in, as does the foreboding sense of impending doom and uneasiness in both time lines. The actual themes presented in the novel, however, are not necessarily enjoyable. The connection between Ruth and Stuart and then Maeve and Stuart was nefarious and unpleasant, resulting in a disagreeable, odious feeling right at the start which tainted the rest of the novel. If this was Healey's intention, she was successful, but at time it made the prose difficult to read.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HMH Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/08/the-ophelia-girls.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4155139668 ( )

‘’I have run from that summer, tried to forget its hazy pleasures and its tragedies, how it ended, how things fell apart. I have trusted the years to fade my memories and destroyed those photographs, never to be looked at again.’’

‘’There are no answers to be found from this house, from the fields, the woods and the river, even if my dreams are searching for them.’’

The arrival of a friend from her youth takes Ruth back to the last summer of innocence and the haunting memories of the Phelia Girls who idolised Pre-Raphaelite models and spent their days by the water, trying to turn their dreams into reality. Faced with the secrets of the past, Ruth has to cope with her own self. Maeve, her seventeen-year-old daughter, has to cross her own path to adulthood, recovering from a terrible stroke of Fate, discovering the first beatings of her heart and her desires for the future. But our children are always burdened by our own past sins…

‘’And the lightning strike cracked down and a roar of wind came straight towards us, every branch creaking and the leaves heaving like rough seas.’’

Jane Healey’s writing is incredibly beautiful! I’ll say that right away because my review cannot possibly do justice to the beauty of this novel and the less I say the better. The setting, the story, the atmosphere are exceptional. A sleepy hamlet during the last days of a seemingly idyllic summer haunts the characters years after and provides the eternal question: Can we escape the past? Blessed are those who have found the peace to drive every evil of the past away! And what of the hours of solitude we crave when everyone demands too much of us?

‘’And they see me quietly reading’, she said, ‘but they don’t know that in my head I’m dancing with satyrs or following Achilles on the battlefield as he cuts men left and right in violent rage for Patroclus, or that I’m the Sphinx in Thebes demanding Oedipus answer my riddles.’’

The story is rich in symbols. Ophelia and Persephone, the young women who were led astray or so they’d have us believe. Water and flowers, the symbols of life and rejuvenation. Death and Rebirth. Nature is hiding its own secrets well. Art and Literature make our souls flourish, they liberate us when others try to hold us down and lead us astray. Freedom and independence, the bond between children and parents. The expectations of others that are not ours to fulfil. Love and guilt and regret. All these eternal - allow me the adjective - themes are depicted through a tense atmosphere where summer laziness makes feelings go wild, taking over our lives, wed to a deep sensuality and a threatening setting. Storms are brewing underneath the surface. Shakespearean references are abundant and poignant, the scenes of the Ophelia Girls are true poetry, storm imagery and breathtaking nightly sequences create an impeccable canvas.

‘’There’s something terrifying about being awake alone in a dark house, something thrilling. No one watching you but the walls and the empty rooms and the pictures, the mirrors reflecting a shadowy second self.’’

Each character has a special path to follow. I adored Maeve, her passion, her determination, her courage. Stuart and Camille, controversial figures, remained a beautiful mystery to me, enticing and one to ponder on. Alex, on the other hand, was an ox and Ruth didn’t manage to find a way into my heart. Her views, her behaviour, and her hysterics were a bit out of hand for my personal taste.

This issue aside - a personal opinion, naturally - The Ophelia Girls is a breathtakingly (yes, I know I’ve used the word already…) novel, lyrical and haunting, difficult, demanding, whimsical. It is the summer of innocence and the autumn of our disillusionment.

‘’Soon. Soon I’ll be gone, I’ll be far away where no one knows me, where I can start again with no watchful eyes and no expectations.’’

Many thanks to Haughton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )