Book: local Girls

Author: Alice Hoffman

Review: This is the story of a girl growing up in the Long Island Suburbs.  As a young teen, she and her best friend Jill sneak out of the house at night, and sometimes play pranks on the neighborhood. As they get older, Jill gets pregnant and drops out of school, Gretel's brother ends up working permanently at the Food Star rather than going to Harvard, and her father leaves her mother for a younger woman.  On top of all of that her mother's cancer returns.  It sounds like a lot of bad luck, but realistically is a pretty average life.  There are a few "miracles" in the story that I found to be a bit far-fetched, but all in all it was a decent read, although I'm not sure there was much point to the story.