Body of a Girl Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Body of a Girl Book

Olivia Dale is making a name for herself on the crime beat at a Memphis newspaper. Her byline means everything to her, and the 24-year-old has cultivated a tough veneer to get her scoops. But that veneer is as fragile as blown glass. The brutal rape and murder of Allison Avery, a charismatic young singer whose life holds, and casts, dark shadows, shatters Olivia's hard- won calm. The remaining question: will it shatter her life as well? Olivia both capitalizes on and privately regrets the enforced voyeurism of her profession. Always on the margin, always watching, always chronicling the lives of others, she wonders what her own life might be missing: People are like those nested Russian dolls. There's always someone else hiding inside the person you think you know, layer after layer, each with the same painted face. I want to open someone up and hold that last solid little doll in my hand. I know all of Allison Avery's disguises, femme fatale, loyal friend, maternal and corrupting sister, virginal obedient daughter, performer, alive with the magic of her own touch. But who was she at the center? I don't know if I believe in the soul. I'm afraid of the darkness I see in all of us, every one of us a mystery. I have looked in the mirror and not been certain that I saw myself. As she picks through the contradictory remains of Allison's existence, however, Olivia falls helplessly under Allison's spell. Her quest to discover the truth behind her death slides into an eerie exercise in doubling, as Olivia begins to mimic the singer in thought, word, and deed. Where will Olivia draw the line between self and subject in her terrifying plunge from distance to immediacy? And will it be the merging, or the separating, that carries the greatest risks? Body of a Girl is at once atmospheric, erotic, and deeply disturbing. So effective is Leah Stewart at capturing the sultry heat of a Memphis summer that the pages practically sweat. It is well-paced and tautly plotted, visceral and gripping. Stewart has mercilessly sketched the potential emptiness at the core of the self, and in doing so has given psychological suspense fans a name to appreciate now and welcome in the future. --Kelly FlynnRead More

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  • Product Description

    In Memphis, where the heat clings heavy like a second skin, it has been a summer of murders. Olivia Dale's job as a novice crime reporter is at once surreal-stepping in and out of strangers' lives with her notebook-and all too real. As she looks down on the twisted body of a young woman who has been kidnapped and gruesomely killed, she wonders if she could have been that girl. After all, as she chases the story, she discovers that Allison Avery-so all-American, so like Olivia in age and looks-was just like her except wilder. Drawn deep into the shadows and secrets of Allison's life, Olivia becomes caught up in exploring her own wild side and finds herself seduced by a perilous world where her life may be in danger. Hypnotic, compelling, and gorgeously written, Body of a Girl is a summer must-read.

  • 0141001992
  • 9780141001999
  • Leah Stewart
  • 1 August 2001
  • Penguin Books
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 320
  • Reissue
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