A Reading Recap: Nightwanderers by C.J. Flood

Hello fellow book-geeks,

Kate here, brimming with exciting Book Box Club news. If you’re signed up to our newsletter you’ll have just received an announcement of when Book Box Club will open for members and our first boxes will go on sale! We’ll tell all non-newsletter subscribers very soon, but do make sure you sign up to now to ensure that you hear all about our grand plans before anyone else.

Whilst you wait (thanks for being so patient) here are my thoughts on a fantastic YA novel that I read recently…

It strikes me that there aren’t many books about teen female friendships. Plenty of novels deal with romantic relationships, mostly heterosexual, more recently there’s also been a burst YA fiction that deals with gay and lesbian relationships, but for some reason teen female friends don’t often find themselves in the literary limelight.

As someone who still counts many of her female school friends amongst her current best friends, I find this a bit disappointing! I met lots of my closest girlfriends when we were awkward and gangly, when our skin was covered in spots and we rushed home from school to call each other and analyse the day’s events. Those girls meant everything to me and they still do now.

And so I was thrilled to read Nightwanderers: a refreshingly honest and reassuring portrait of the intensity of young adult female friendship with all of its emotion and drama. Rosie and Titania are as thick as thieves, they spend their school days dodging the popular, bitchy girls and their nights wandering the coast paths, enjoying the freedom and the feeling of bright cold air on their faces. Rosie is a quiet, cautious girl, who is easily embarrassed, and whose cheeks quickly colour to match her name, much to her irritation. Whilst Titania (or Ti as she’s known to her friends) is a risk taker and, as far as Rosie’s parents are concerned, a troublemaker. Yet Rosie and Ti are bound together by their shared understanding of their challenging home lives and a sense of unshakeable loyalty to one another.

However, when a prank goes too far and Ti finds herself facing expulsion from school, the girls’ friendship is put under huge pressure. Suddenly, Rosie’s parents banish her from seeing or speaking to Ti, new relationships begin to develop, Ti is led further astray by her wild twin sister and Rosie’s anxiety not to cause further stress to her sick mother, leaves her in turmoil.

I was really moved by this novel – you can tell that these two girls genuinely care for one another. C. J. Flood explores how important teen friendships are and some of the seriously tough situations faced by young adults today, with real insight and sensitivity. I also thought that the portrayal of Rosie’s battle to embrace bravery over cowardice was particularly convincing. In Rosie, we see someone who struggles with the complexities of morality in relationships and who doesn’t always come out smelling of roses at the end of the day, and that’s hugely refreshing to read.

I’d love to hear what other readers thought of Nightwanderers, or if you’ve read C.J. Flood’s first novel Infinite Sky, what did you make of it (Libby LOVES it!)? Also, if you guys have any recommendations of further reading on great female friendships please do drop me a line in the comments below, it would be great to read some more books that champion brilliant girly mates!

Lots of love and happy reading,

Kate xx