Review: New Girl

New Girl by Paige Harbison

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



You are the “new girl”…you are taking the spot of a missing, much beloved former student named Becca Normandy. You are rooming in Becca’s old room, with Becca’s previous roommate/BFF. You even have a slight resemblance to Becca. All you hear all year long is “Becca, Becca, Becca”. You even draw interest from the 2 boys that were front and center in Becca’s life.

But what happened to Becca? Why so much comparison? Why so much ire? Time will tell and it’s going to be a very LONG year!

What I liked about this retelling of “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier was the pacing. It could have easily gotten bogged down in minutae but didn’t. The pace kept me interested and reading. I liked New Girl…she found her strength and voice by the end. Early on she was just trying to fit in and hope some of the constant comparisons would ease up…but she reached her limit and started sticking up for herself. I liked the roommate, Dana…she was over-the-top and I really thought it was going to turn out that she had a hand in Becca’s disappearance (“Me thinks she doth protest a bit too much”), or at least the facebook post.

I didn’t like Becca, of course…what a manipulating sociopath! Geez, the lengths she went to! Talk about over-the-top. I didn’t like that New Girl put up with so much of Dana’s abuse. The sex was gratuitous. Not that I am a prude, I just felt it was over-the-top as well.

Overall I am a Paige Harbison fan and will continue to read her books, but this one wasn’t a favorite of mine.




View all my reviews