--- product_id: 40139614 title: "Girls on Fire: A Gripping Psychological Thriller of Obsessive Female Friendship, Betrayal, and Dark Teenage Years" price: "VT6802" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/40139614-girls-on-fire-a-gripping-psychological-thriller-of-obsessive-female store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # Girls on Fire: A Gripping Psychological Thriller of Obsessive Female Friendship, Betrayal, and Dark Teenage Years **Price:** VT6802 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Girls on Fire: A Gripping Psychological Thriller of Obsessive Female Friendship, Betrayal, and Dark Teenage Years - **How much does it cost?** VT6802 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/40139614-girls-on-fire-a-gripping-psychological-thriller-of-obsessive-female) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description desertcart.com: Girls on Fire: A Gripping Psychological Thriller of Obsessive Female Friendship, Betrayal, and Dark Teenage Years: 9780062417145: Wasserman, Robin: Books Review: Excellent atmosphere and good characters - Like Megan Miranda's "All The Missing Girls," this is a novel about girls in the intensity of their teenage years, and about how choices made then will affect them for the rest of their lives. And like Miranda, Robin Wasserman has previously written novels for young adults. And like the other novel, I found this one extremely well done with a few flaws. The story here, again, can have happened only in those intense years when the world seems wide open, yours for the taking, when you're either "in" or "out," and such things seem as important as life and death. Wasserman does an excellent job of making you feel that intensity, feel the world of the girls and how completely separate it is from the world of the adults. It's a story that could happen. The one flaw, I felt, is that it is drawn out too long. One sees where it's going, and it takes a few "beats" too long to get there. It's a subtle thing, but when you're working with a page turner, you don't want the reader to get tired. As a reader, you really don't want to be looking forward to the end, and that happened for me, just a bit. But Wasserman is a terrific writer; she knows how to create atmosphere, and she creates characters who are definitely not just cookie cutter images. It's a really good novel, and I hope she keeps going, because I feel strongly that she can do better. And I love long novels, but every sentence must be there because it has to be. This one could have used a bit of tightening. Review: Beautiful, but Not Believable - I wanted to love this book more than I did; it held so much promise, and it was beautifully written, but it felt like Wasserman was pandering to adult themes in order to debut her first book for adults, saying, "Hey, guys, look, I can write for adults! Sex! Drugs! Violence!" Maybe I'm way off base here, but I found it to be unbelievable that three teenage girls would all be this wretched. I was a teenage girl not all that long ago (less than a decade), and a teenage girl lives in my home, and frankly, I couldn't believe what these characters did to and did for each other. These three young women were so morally debased at the culmination of the novel--I should point out I'm not referencing the boldness of themes addressing homosexuality, gender heteronormativity, etc.--far beyond the exploratory behaviors of teenagers and other young adults (and this is coming from someone who is not religious or particularly conservative); it essentially didn't even make sense to me. In the end, the plot was miserable to get through because at every turn, I found myself thinking, "What is wrong with all of you?! You're terrible for each other!" because to me, it seems unlikely that this many people would be this terrible. Not to mention that crimes like this would just get swept under the rug. The book is set in the early '90s; forensic technology was not that backwards. So, if you read it, read it for the beauty of the writing, which is truly, truly great, and suspend some belief as you're making your way through the plot. Prepare to cringe and *facepalm* and maybe even be glad it's over at the end because you were just wanting to be out of the tendrils of these young women's miserable lives, which I'll add, they created purely for themselves because they were bored and deranged and, like most teenagers, short-sighted as all get out. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,426,702 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,291 in Friendship Fiction (Books) #7,148 in Women's Friendship Fiction #23,684 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 3.5 out of 5 stars 1,851 Reviews | ## Images ![Girls on Fire: A Gripping Psychological Thriller of Obsessive Female Friendship, Betrayal, and Dark Teenage Years - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61P+5oCLAJL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent atmosphere and good characters *by S***L on August 22, 2016* Like Megan Miranda's "All The Missing Girls," this is a novel about girls in the intensity of their teenage years, and about how choices made then will affect them for the rest of their lives. And like Miranda, Robin Wasserman has previously written novels for young adults. And like the other novel, I found this one extremely well done with a few flaws. The story here, again, can have happened only in those intense years when the world seems wide open, yours for the taking, when you're either "in" or "out," and such things seem as important as life and death. Wasserman does an excellent job of making you feel that intensity, feel the world of the girls and how completely separate it is from the world of the adults. It's a story that could happen. The one flaw, I felt, is that it is drawn out too long. One sees where it's going, and it takes a few "beats" too long to get there. It's a subtle thing, but when you're working with a page turner, you don't want the reader to get tired. As a reader, you really don't want to be looking forward to the end, and that happened for me, just a bit. But Wasserman is a terrific writer; she knows how to create atmosphere, and she creates characters who are definitely not just cookie cutter images. It's a really good novel, and I hope she keeps going, because I feel strongly that she can do better. And I love long novels, but every sentence must be there because it has to be. This one could have used a bit of tightening. ### ⭐⭐⭐ Beautiful, but Not Believable *by E***. on June 9, 2016* I wanted to love this book more than I did; it held so much promise, and it was beautifully written, but it felt like Wasserman was pandering to adult themes in order to debut her first book for adults, saying, "Hey, guys, look, I can write for adults! Sex! Drugs! Violence!" Maybe I'm way off base here, but I found it to be unbelievable that three teenage girls would all be this wretched. I was a teenage girl not all that long ago (less than a decade), and a teenage girl lives in my home, and frankly, I couldn't believe what these characters did to and did for each other. These three young women were so morally debased at the culmination of the novel--I should point out I'm not referencing the boldness of themes addressing homosexuality, gender heteronormativity, etc.--far beyond the exploratory behaviors of teenagers and other young adults (and this is coming from someone who is not religious or particularly conservative); it essentially didn't even make sense to me. In the end, the plot was miserable to get through because at every turn, I found myself thinking, "What is wrong with all of you?! You're terrible for each other!" because to me, it seems unlikely that this many people would be this terrible. Not to mention that crimes like this would just get swept under the rug. The book is set in the early '90s; forensic technology was not that backwards. So, if you read it, read it for the beauty of the writing, which is truly, truly great, and suspend some belief as you're making your way through the plot. Prepare to cringe and *facepalm* and maybe even be glad it's over at the end because you were just wanting to be out of the tendrils of these young women's miserable lives, which I'll add, they created purely for themselves because they were bored and deranged and, like most teenagers, short-sighted as all get out. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Smells Like Teen Spirit *by B***H on May 27, 2016* Imagine John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club remade by Quintain Tarantino with a soundtrack by Nirvana instead of Simple Minds & R-rated for nudity, sex, violence & language. That’s how I envision a movie version of Girls on Fire. The setting is “the butt crack of western Pennsylvania”--an imaginary rust-belt town called Battle Creek somewhere near Pittsburgh, Bruce Springsteen country. The plot involves discovering what happened to the high-school athlete Craig Ellison, an apparent suicide by gunshot, & a struggle for the soul of Hannah Dexter, a junior @ the school. Her BF, the grunge-girl wild-child worshipper of Kurt Cobain, Lacey Champlain, wants to turn “Dex” into a goth-girl; their frenemy, teen-princess Nikki Drummond, would transform “Hannah” into a Monongahela Valley Girl. In fiction these days it is the teens who are resourceful & knowledgable & the adults who are helpless & clueless. That is not surprising when the parents themselves think that they are still teenagers, exemplified by Dex’s father Jimmy, whose mid-life crisis he would resolve by restarting his old garage band & fumbling with Lacey in the darkened movie theater where he barely manages to hold down a job. Of course real teenagers are much better @ being teenagers than are 40-somethings. Setting in the early ‘90s is both realistic & somewhat overdone. Battle Creek seems overrun with “Christian” fundamentalists obsessed with Satanism. There was a scare about devil worshippers @ that time, but I think it centered more on day-care facilities than on high schools. I’d prefer to believe that even @ that time & place Hannah would have been recognized & treated as a rape victim rather than as a Satanic bad girl after what happened to her in the aftermath of Nikki’s foreclosure party. Perhaps fortunately, Lacey’s horrible stepfather--“the Bastard”--seemed too OTT as well, tho’ Lacy’s experience @ the “Christian” reform school was wonderfully harrowing, if gratuitous. I felt the author had to pad the narrative, the year that elapses after Craig’s death: the plot needed the economy, concentration & punch that Megan Abbott might have given it. This book needs toning, less sag & tighter story. The ‘90s setting was probably chosen less for the ambience of the period (tho’ we get an allusion to that very middle-aged teenager Bill Clinton) than that Kurt Cobain needed to still be alive. I loved the main characters Dex & Lacey, & even Nikki attracted me despite herself. But I found the very end of the story deflated & boring, as if the author simply gave up instead of devising a conclusion appropriate to the characters, unless like another Hannah, Arendt, Robin Wasserman wanted to portray the banality of evil. Morally tho’, I have reflect a lot more on Dex’s choice. Unlike in The Secret History, here the question of how far you should go for someone you love is much harder to answer. Committing a crime to save a friend & wanting to implicate a friend to share your guilt may be the same legally, but morally they are world’s apart. With Girls on Fire, Robin Wasserman belongs on the level with Megan Abbott, but more the Abbott of Fever than of Dare Me. I intend to read parts of this one again (wonderful to have both Kindle & audio), but probably not all the way through. So five stars--but one’s a bit dim. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/40139614-girls-on-fire-a-gripping-psychological-thriller-of-obsessive-female](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/40139614-girls-on-fire-a-gripping-psychological-thriller-of-obsessive-female) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-05-09*