Book Review: Girls Burn Brighter

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through links on my site, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

This is my book review of “Girls Burn Brighter” by Shobha Rao.

A searing portrait of what feminism looks like in much of the world.” ―Vogue

Book Summary:

This is the story of the bond between two girls who are torn apart and of their journey across the world to find one another again.

Poornima and Savitha were both born into poverty in India, and neither had seen much kindness in their lives. Poornima was married off to a man she didn’t know or love, and Savitha was savagely raped.

Finally, Poornima grows weary of her abusive new family and runs away to try to find her friend Savitha. Unbeknownst to her, Savitha was sent to Seattle to become a sex worker.

Both women basically have no say in what happens to them. They are ruled by a society where men are worth more than women, and women are thought to be there just to do their bidding.

It is a sexist society where women have no worth and make no decisions of their own.

Both women have been used and abused, but their light never quite goes out. Against all odds, this light is the beacon that finally brings them back together again.

About the Author:

Shobha Rao moved to the United States from India at the age of seven. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction. And her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015.

“Girls Burn Brighter” was named the best book of the year by the Washington Post, NPR, Shelf Awareness, Paste, LitHub, and Real Simple. It was also a 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for best fiction.

She is the author of the short story collection, AN UNRESTORED WOMAN, and the novel, GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER. She lives in San Francisco.