The Girls Who Grew Big
A Novel
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4.1 • 53 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.
Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck.
The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A diverse group of pregnant girls and single mothers shunned by polite society find solace in each other in this darkly comic ode to friendship. High school swimmer Adela’s dreams of the Olympics are shattered when her parents discover her pregnancy. Sent to live with her grandmother in Padua Beach, Florida, she encounters Simone, a homeless mother of twins who has formed a community of soon-to-be mothers rejected by their own families who are living on the beach. From the moment we met these sharp-witted and quick-tongued “children having children,” we were captivated by them. Author Leila Mottley strips away the mystique of pregnancy, revealing the harsh realities of motherhood with unflinching honesty. As the Girls (as others in the town snidely refer to them) grow in number, we cheered on their determination to find their place in a world that has cast them aside. The Girls Who Grew Big is a stirring ode to found family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mottley (Nightcrawling) offers an atmospheric tale of teen moms in the Florida panhandle. Most of the Girls, as they call themselves, are Black and estranged from their families, teenagers who "found each other" from out of their "singular aloneness." The novel opens with a flashback to the Girls' de facto leader, Simone, giving birth to twins in the back of her pickup truck, which becomes her home when her parents kick her out. In the present day, the perspective alternates between several narrators: Simone, who finds to her dismay that she is pregnant again; Emory, one of the few white characters, who is determined to apply to college, even as her baby is born during her senior year of high school; and Adela, a wealthy girl who is sent to Florida to live with her grandmother after her parents discover her pregnancy. Adela is mesmerized by the Girls from the moment she sees them twerking in a parking lot on her way into town ("Children mothering children and never apologizing for it," she observes). A propulsive love triangle between Adela, Simone, and someone's baby daddy drives much of the narrative, which is poignant without being saccharine, thanks to the sharply drawn characters and their all-too-human behavior. This distinctive coming-of-age story is worth seeking out.
Customer Reviews
The Girls who Grew Big
Amazing novel that just gives a voice to the voiceless. This was a great read!
Absolutely enthralling
I was so mesmerized by the raw emotion and authenticity of the characters, their plights and the odds stacked against them as teen mothers left on their own to field their way through harrowing experiences and the profound bond they shared together as outliers in their small community as shunned unwholesome girls. They were used as an example of what happens when they allowed themselves to be with boys and end up pregnant and alone. Except these girls had each other and made the best of their lives and children’s lives by supporting one another and were a testament to the love and devotion and unconditional unwavering love they did have for their children and were thriving despite the odds and if they’d had any help or support from others they’d have achieved anything they put their minds to. They weren’t weak or bad or unworthy girls they were women and deserved the same respect and compassion that society gives to married mature women who are also pregnant. The stigma against them horrific and motherhood especially single motherhood is difficult enough but to made a pariah and shamed was disgraceful and it really made me take a good look at my own perception of young mothers and how as a collective society we immediately judge and deem them less than without ever really knowing anything about them, their parenting or their circumstances. We cast judgement and shun instead of being supportive and loving. These girls overcome every obstacle imaginable and still manage to wake every day and devote all of themselves to their children without any kind of support from elders or family and get shamed from strangers alike. Yet imagine if they had compassion support and resources to continue their education or learn a trade. They would be able to be that much more incredible in the lives of their children and provide an easier future that gives them financial stability and with that they have more energy and time to devote to these children and don’t habw tje stress of worrying about money, shelter or their biggest threat from dcf investigations into their lives and having someone decide whether they’re worthy of being a parent. Having the fear of your child taken from you all because you financially don’t make ends meet or because you’re a young and unmarried mother is callous considering no one is willlnf to help them or give them the opportunity to continue building their way towards a career or trade or provide child care while they work the necessary hours needed to meet the societal expectations of financial independence. Such a thought provoking and riveting story. The characters were so complex and powerful they’ll stay with me for long after this book is finished.