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The Ophelia Girls
A Literary Fiction Novel by Jane Healey
Subgenres:
- Dual Timeline,
- Mother-Daughter Fiction,
- Psychological Suspense
This book is for you if you're into...
- Obsessions with pre-Raphaelite art and haunting river rituals
- Dual timelines revealing mothers' secrets and daughters' desires
- Lush English countryside hiding dark undercurrents
From Little Stack
Set against the backdrop of two summer heatwaves, Ruth narrates in 1973 while her daughter, Maeve narrates in 1997. In 1973, teenage Ruth and her four friends are enamoured with pre-Raphaelite art, particularly Ophelia by John Everett Millais. They take turns floating in the river, recreating detailed tableaus of the tragic heroine. But things take a tragic turn when one of the girls drowns, leaving Ruth traumatised and haunted by that fateful summer.
In 1997, Ruth and her family have moved back to her childhood home. Her teenage daughter, Maeve, is finally in remission after years of battling cancer and starting to show the angst Ruth remembers from her own teenage years. When Ruth’s old friend, Stuart, comes to stay, he and Maeve begin a clandestine relationship, making Maeve feel more alive than ever whilst adding even more strain to her relationship with her mother.
Hauntingly atmospheric, sultry, intoxicating and unsettling, this is an absorbing gothic story of illicit desire, obsession, power and secrets that is perfect for reading around the pool.
A mother's secret past and her daughter's present collide in this richly atmospheric novel from the acclaimed author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor.
In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings—and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth's house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks.
Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth's childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?
Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman.
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Crescendo
2026
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