#MMBBR Review: Book Club Girl:The Invisibles by Cecilia Galante @bookclubgirl @CeciliaGalante5

OUR PICK:

In the vein of Meg Donohue and Jennifer Close, comes Cecilia Galante’s adult debut about the complicated and powerful bonds of female friendship—a compelling, moving novel that is told in both the present and the past.

Thrown together by chance as teenagers at Turning Winds Home for Girls, Nora, Ozzie, Monica, and Grace quickly bond over their troubled pasts and form their own family which they dub The Invisibles. But when tragedy strikes after graduation, Nora is left to deal with the horrifying aftermath alone as the other three girls leave home and don’t look back.

Fourteen years later, Nora is living a quiet, single life working in the local library. She is content to focus on her collection of “first lines” (her favorite opening lines from novels) and her dog, Alice Walker, when out-of-the-blue Ozzie calls her on her thirty-second birthday. But after all these years, Ozzie hasn’t called her to wish a happy birthday. Instead, she tells Nora that Grace attempted suicide and is pleading for The Invisibles to convene again. Nora is torn: she is thrilled at the thought of being in touch with her friends, and yet she is hesitant at seeing these women after such a long and silent period of time. Bolstered by her friends at the library, Nora joins The Invisibles in Chicago for a reunion that sets off an extraordinary chain of events that will change each of their lives forever.

The Invisibles is an unforgettable novel that asks the questions: How much of our pasts define our present selves? And what does it take to let go of some of our most painful wounds and move on? 

Cecilia Galante was born in Middletown, New York. Raised in a religious commune until the age of fifteen, she subsequently settled with her family in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where she attended high school, graduated from King’s College, and went on to complete her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont. She is currently an 8th grade English teacher at Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School in Forty Fort, PA. She also teaches fiction at Wilkes University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program.

Cecilia's first young adult novel was published in 2008. The Patron Saint of Butterflies, which was loosely based on her own experience growing up in a commune, received national recognition, and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAIBA Best Book of the Year Award, a Book Sense Pick, an Oprah’s Book Club Teen Reading Selection, a Golden Sower Award Nominee, a Banks Children Book of the Year Selection, and a Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee.

Her other young adult novels include The Sweetness of Salt, (Bloomsbury), and Be Not Afraid, which is scheduled to be released in March of 2015 by Random House.

Middle grade novels include Willowood, Hershey Herself, and The Summer of May (all, Simon & Schuster) as well as a forthcoming novel to be released in 2016 by Scholastic.

Children's books include a 5-book chapter book series titled Little Wings (Random House), which has recently been translated into Japanese.

OUR REVIEWS:

Mrs. Mommy Booknerd's Review:

I loved this book from cover to cover!  I feel like this book started with so much emotion and never let up.  It was such an amazing book.  It was a beautifully woven tale of the four women as separate people and a tale of them as a group of four.  I loved that, as a reader, we were given bits and pieces of information about the past and the events that lead to the present circumstances!  I never quite knew how all the pieces lined up and when all was revealed I was shocked!  It was one of those reads that sticks with you long after you finish reading!  I have told so many people to read this book.  It is one of those reads that you want to talk with others about.  I loved that Nora collected "first lines" of books!  I may have to start doing that!  I feel like that there were so many components of this that I just adored that I could go on and on about how much I loved it.  It is a complex tale about how our past can mold our futures, but only if we let them define us. 5 out of this world stars!

Kimberly's Review:

This was a great book! I really enjoyed the fact that the book began with the current lives of the four main characters and throughout the story, flashed back to their lives growing up. The way that the author foreshadowed events in the story and kept eluding to a “big secret” made me want to keep turning the pages. I was really shocked and surprised when the truth was finally revealed at the end! I think that anyone who has had a tough life or any family problems could really relate to this story. The characters and events were very believable, and I think that many women, young and old, could relate to it somehow and enjoy the storyline.

Sara's Review

I loved this page turning novel that moves between the past and present lives of four friends who met while living at Turning Winds Home for Girls when they were teenagers.  Now they are grow women who have lived different lives.  Many emotions are discovered as Galante weaves the past and present together while the reader learns  how these girls past has influenced who they have become as adults.  I loved all of the characters and I thought the author did a great job writing this novel and she makes the reader understand the true importance of friendships .  A definite 5 star book!!!