A mother’s secret past and her daughter’s present collide in this richly atmospheric novel from the acclaimed author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor. In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings–and a little be obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with … the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks.
Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?
Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman.
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‘’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.
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