The Bitch Posse: A Novel

by Martha O'Connor

Overview

These are the confessions of the Bitch Posse. Cherry, Rennie, and Amy were outcasts, rebels, and dreamers. And their friendship was so all-encompassing that some would call it dangerous. This is the story of three women-as seniors in high school and as women in their mid-thirties—-who formed a bond in order to survive the pitfalls and perils of their lives. In the present day, one of them is a wife and mother-to-be, trying to live a "normal" life. One of them is a writer who engages in a number of self-destructive relationships. And one of them is in a mental hospital—-and has been ever since that one fateful night fifteen years ago, when a heart-wrenching betrayal and the unraveling of relationships led them to a point of no return, where their actions triggered unimaginable consequences. These secrets have torn them apart while inextricably binding them to one another. What happened to them? And can they survive their shared history, even today?

The Bitch Posse is an anthem for friendships that defy society's approval or disapproval. It's a novel of secrets, courage, sacrifice, and hope against the odds. It is both a journey back to being a girl on the verge of adulthood, and a journey forward, showing how the events of our past can unearth the best in us today.

Dare to jump in.

"The Bitch Posse is a riveting and emotionally charged read. No fluff here."

—Chicago Tribune

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312333935
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/13/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Martha O'Connor lives in Marin County, California, with her husband, the novelist Philip F. O'Connor. The Bitch Posse is her first novel.

Reading Group Guide

1) On the outside, Amy, Rennie, and Cherry are quite different. What draws them together?

2) What does this novel have to say about friendship? Can a friendship ever really last forever and why or why not?

3) The subject matter of The Bitch Posse is often gritty and extreme. How does this affect your perceptions of the novel? To what end are these situations used and is it an effective technique?

4) The characters make very poor choices and are often unsympathetic. Did you ever find yourself losing patience with them? Feeling sorry for them? And despite the characters' clear flaws, was there anything in the characters that drew your admiration?

5) What does this book have to say about the struggle between generations (Gen X vs. Baby Boomers)?

6) Do you feel this book glorifies violence or dwells on it too much? Why or why not?

7) Do you find the ending hopeful, or depressing? Explain.

8) The character of Cherry has been called a Christ figure by some readers. What's your take on this analysis?

9) Do we ever outrun our demons? Do we ever outgrow our past? Discuss some events from your own past that you just can't seem to get over, no matter how hard you try.

10) This novel's often been called a "page-turner." What is it that keeps the pages turning in this novel?

11) Which character in this book is the most like you and why?

Editorial Reviews

Astonishing and truly remarkable...tough, subtle, tense, authentic, and very beautiful. If this isn't really Alice Sebold, Donna Tartt, or Barbara Vine writing under a pseudonym, then Martha O'Connor is a huge new talent who is already about as good as it gets.” —Lee Child, author of The Enemy

“Compulsively readable…delicious and slightly macabre details of the mid-1980's alterna-teen culture.” —The Washington Post Book World

“There's nothing pink and frilly about this tale…It's scathing, dark and impossible to put down.” —The Newark Star-Ledger

“A sizzling page-turner.” —Cosmopolitan

“The Bitch Posse is a riveting and emotionally charged read. No fluff here.” —Chicago Tribune

“Mysterious, violent…good girls by day and serious risk takers at night.” —Los Angeles Times

“Eye-opening, gut-wrenching…one of the best first novels I've read this year, one that I'd literally love to put in every discerning reader's hands.” —Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, Pick of the Week

“Intense, disturbing, and deeply intriguing…Fast-paced yet hauntingly reflective, this is one tough and tender read.” —Robert Gray, author of Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal

“Quite unabashedly satisfying...prompting even this most jaded reviewer to stay up until the wee hours of the night just to find out what happened next...a thrilling ride.” —Bookreporter

“Not for the faint of heart, this debut novel will keep readers glued to the very last page.” —Library Journal

“The story fascinates even as it repels.” —Publishers Weekly

“As good a debut as it's cracked up to be...edgy, smart and sexy, like its heroines.” —The Tatler (UK)

“Reminiscent of cult movie 'Heathers', it revels in the seedy underbelly of American life.” —Glamour (UK)

“O'Connor nails the intense, us-against-the-world, overcooked emotion that defines the friendship of teen girls and the druggy delirium of first, sexual love.” —The Cleveland Plain-Dealer

“Dark, compelling and not for the faint-hearted.” —Heat (UK)

“An angsty, serious novel of lost dreams and sexual damage.” —MARIE CLAIRE (UK)

“A little substance never hurt anyone, and The Bitch Posse offers plenty.” —Winnipeg Free Press

From the Publisher

"You Have Now Entered a Chick-Lit-Free Zone," O'Connor's dark, scabrous debut warns. Given the sassy title and the familiar subject matter of female friendship, readers should be forgiven if they expect Bridget Jones-but O'Conner's heroines resemble that lovable Brit like leopards resemble kittens. The story focuses on three friends, Cherry, Amy and Rennie, as high school seniors and as women in their mid-30s. Compelled by miserable home lives to form the Bitch Posse as teenagers, the three girls ricochet dangerously through their last year of high school, sharing a passionate, almost sinister bond until a terrible secret rips them apart. Still damaged-and separated-by the unspeakable event, the three live equally wretched lives as adults, Cherry in a mental institution, Rennie as a promiscuous failed writer and Amy in a loveless marriage. After pages of vodka, cocaine, "fucking" and "cutting" (in both past and present narratives), the friends' terrible secret finally comes to light, though it reveals logistical and thematic gaps in the narrative. "[H]er past is like a sore that won't ever heal, memories are spurting at her like blood and she can't close the wound" characterizes the level of emotional complexity attained in this heavy-handed novel, but the story fascinates even as it repels. Agent, Mary Evans. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Not for the faint of heart, this debut novel will keep readers glued to the very last page. Three high school friends, united in their feelings of not fitting in, form a club that they christen the Bitch Posse. The Posse gets Cherry, Rennie, and Amy through high school, but a violent incident at the end of their senior year breaks up the friends and casts a long shadow over their adult lives. Told in chapters that alternate among each club member's perspective, the story vacillates between the period of adolescent angst and the present, when they are all dealing, in various but equally dysfunctional ways, with what happened to them as teens. The details of the traumatic incident are not revealed until the end, when the reasons for their problems as adults become clear. This book contains strong language, explicit sex, and some violence. Recommended for public libraries with a following for suspense thrillers and fans of authors like Carol Goodman and Minette Walters.-Karen Traynor, Sullivan Free Lib., Chittenango, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal