A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor

Henri and Emma are sisters and have always been close, dreaming of a future by themselves in a beachside house with cats. Henri's behavior becomes more and more erratic with excessive drinking at parties. Emma is pretty straight edge, but becomes enraged when Henri seduces Emma's crush and strings him along, clearly planning to drop him soon. Emma acts rashly and simultaneously obliterates her relationship with Henri. Then, they get stranded on a deserted island with a boy named Alex. How long will they stay there? How will they survive? Will Henri let her anger win out over survival?

A Map for Wrecked Girls is a bit of a frustrating read overall. It sounds out fine with establishing Henri and Emma's relationship. Henri has always been the leader while Emma has always followed faithfully. Now that Henri seems to be spiralling out of control with risky behavior, Emma starts to be more assertive. She does something that is portrayed as unforgiveably horrible which really isn't. It's motivated by jealousy and anger, but it wasn't the wrong thing to do. The novel is told starting with the island and then going back in time to show what happened with all of this. It served to hold the audience in suspense as to what happened, but other aspects of the novel made this not work for me.

Henri and Emma are stranded on a desert island with a boy named Alex. From page 1, Henri holds on to her grudge like it's a flotation device. Even the death of Alex's cousin and the explosion of their boat didn't distract her from making Emma (and by extension Alex) as miserable as possible. I hated Henri for most of the novel because she kept valuable information that would lead to an easier life on the island and even sabotaged attempts to leave. It's incredibly and unforgiveably petty to keep up this act when their lives are in danger. Henri's personality and actions grew stale fast and she doesn't change all that much. Emma changes a little, but still lets Henri have so much power over her. The whole situation was frustrating to read and I wanted Henri to suffer from the consequences of her idiotic behavior.

I didn't enjoy A Map for Wrecked Girls. The toxic sister relationship had Henri being mean and dangerous all the time while Emma continually gave excuse after excuse to dismiss the behavior.  The only thing that kept me reading was Emma's huge faux pas and it didn't deserve the weight it was given. It took me over a week to read this even though it should have taken me a couple of days because I hated Henri that much. This was supposed to be an uplifting story of sisterly love, but it falls very short of that. I understand having a rough relationship with a sister, but there comes a time when you need to say enough of their bad behavior and abuse. Not recommended.

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins