The Firelight Girls

The Firelight Girls

Kaya McLaren

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): The summers you spend at summer camp are indelibly etched on your heart. But what happens when the camp you love is about to close? Can you ever really say goodbye to the place that made you who you are?  These are the questions that plagues Ethel, the seventy-year-old former camp director who is nursing a broken heart after losing the love of her life as she now faces the impending closure of the camp on Lake Wenatchee that she called home. It's also a question that inspires change in forty-year-old Shannon, who spent the summers of her youth as a vibrant, capable camp counselor and is now directionless after watching her career implode. And there's Laura, who has lost all intimacy with her husband and doesn't know if she can save what seems to be gone forever.  Finally, Ruby, who betrayed Ethel years ago and hasn't spoken to her since, hopes this will be her chance to make amends. When the four women learn that a homeless teen has been hiding at camp, they realize camp is something much more immediate for all: survival.

And so the three generations of women search for a way to save the place that saved them all, finding in the process a way back to themselves and each other in The Firelight Girls, Kaya McLaren's novel of love and loss, heartbreak and healing.
 
Review: This would make an enjoyable beach read.  It's the kind of book that I love to read - women rediscovering friendships and finding their paths in life; what made this book stand out from others I've read in this genre is that it involves three different generations of women all coming together.  One of the main characters is a lesbian, and it was interesting to read how things were difficult for her growing up in the 1950s.  Never having been to summer camp, I find it a little odd that everyone in the book is so fixated on how amazing their experiences were and how summer camp shaped their entire lives, but perhaps that's how it really is for people.  I don't know.  I loved the stories about all the mischief the girls got into at camp, and the descriptions of nature surrounding the camp were so beautiful that it made me want to go camping (which says a lot).

Rating: 4 stars