The Girls of No Return

The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin has been compared to Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Cut by Patricia McCormick. It is also the story of why it is no fun to be a teen and I would never go back - because she captures the emotion of that age and the frantic need to control anything in life.

Lida is on her way to the Alice Marshall School for Girls located in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area of Idaho. The school is the only thing for miles and miles other than mountains and pine trees. Girls are sent to Alice Marshall as a last resort - a wilderness school that purports to help troubled teen girls and set them back on the right track.

It is not the black bears and cougars in the area who are the danger - it is the other girls at the school. As all high schools, there are different groups and Lida will have to choose which one to join. Or more specifically, she must choose between two people - a decision that will affect the rest of her life.

Capturing reading by starting the book with the epilogue, Saldin builds tension because we know that something happened - a major life changing event in Lida's life - but readers will not know what it is until later in the book. If you liked Speak, Twisted, Cut or Hate List read this book.

Saldin, Erin. (2012). The Girls of No Return. New York: Scholastic.