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katykelly's review
3.0
3.5 stars.
Firstly, it's not a comment on the book itself but the audio version is really grating. A male voice narrating normally isn't a problem for women's voices, but when he's voicing several Cockney female protagonists with really harsh 'Eastender'-stereotype accents, it really affects your enjoyment of a story. Really poor decision, in my opinion. I'd go for a paper copy of this book if I had the choice again.
The book itself is... well, alright. There' s a great story in there (begging to be made into a BBC mini-series), about four teenagers dragged into the world of a London gangster and his drug-running by force, and the mothers who they are trying to save. We start at the wedding day of a 25-year-old, where the bride and bridesmaids are all concealing guns.... At a pivotal moment we flash back for half the book to the lives of a group of 15-year-olds, when Frankie Sullivan forces himself into their world. It does keep you reading, you do want the girls to best the 'Geezer', though you can't see how that's going to happen.
It's an ambitious book - with diamond and drug smuggling, prison scenes in (fictional country) Zankura, child abuse and children's homes, kidnapping, cross-dressers, a court case and murder.
It's also a book where sometimes, I felt the author didn't know how to make the reader understand all the plot twists. There are some great bluffs and twists in there, but after they've happened and we're wondering "how?!", a character comes in and spends a few pages simply explaining it, Bond-villain style. I found some dialogue clunky and unrealistic too, which is more obvious when you listen to a book.
But there's no denying that I enjoyed listening to this, I wanted to get to the end and see how the girls faired.
It's not a genre I read a lot of, but I tried this after seeing it on the 2014 World Book Night list. It's enjoyable, with lots of action and lots to grip someone who doesn't read a lot (despite its length, it's not a difficult read). If you're a fan of crime/thriller/gangster/action stories, you'll love this.
Firstly, it's not a comment on the book itself but the audio version is really grating. A male voice narrating normally isn't a problem for women's voices, but when he's voicing several Cockney female protagonists with really harsh 'Eastender'-stereotype accents, it really affects your enjoyment of a story. Really poor decision, in my opinion. I'd go for a paper copy of this book if I had the choice again.
The book itself is... well, alright. There' s a great story in there (begging to be made into a BBC mini-series), about four teenagers dragged into the world of a London gangster and his drug-running by force, and the mothers who they are trying to save. We start at the wedding day of a 25-year-old, where the bride and bridesmaids are all concealing guns.... At a pivotal moment we flash back for half the book to the lives of a group of 15-year-olds, when Frankie Sullivan forces himself into their world. It does keep you reading, you do want the girls to best the 'Geezer', though you can't see how that's going to happen.
It's an ambitious book - with diamond and drug smuggling, prison scenes in (fictional country) Zankura, child abuse and children's homes, kidnapping, cross-dressers, a court case and murder.
It's also a book where sometimes, I felt the author didn't know how to make the reader understand all the plot twists. There are some great bluffs and twists in there, but after they've happened and we're wondering "how?!", a character comes in and spends a few pages simply explaining it, Bond-villain style. I found some dialogue clunky and unrealistic too, which is more obvious when you listen to a book.
But there's no denying that I enjoyed listening to this, I wanted to get to the end and see how the girls faired.
It's not a genre I read a lot of, but I tried this after seeing it on the 2014 World Book Night list. It's enjoyable, with lots of action and lots to grip someone who doesn't read a lot (despite its length, it's not a difficult read). If you're a fan of crime/thriller/gangster/action stories, you'll love this.
elenasquareeyes's review
4.0
I found Geezer Girls a bit hard to get into to start with. I think it’s because thanks to the blurb, you know the girls get away from the Geezer so it’s the story where they’re older that I was more interested in. Also I found it frustrating as Geezer Girls is one of those books where the reader knows more than the characters (at least during the first section) so it’s frustrating when they trust someone who you know is the bad guy.
All the girls were different and each had their strengths and weaknesses and they all balanced each other out very well. It was great to read a book that’s essentially about female friendships and found families. My favourite out of the four was Opal, she had been through terrible things but still managed to find love and friendship.
There’s heists and deception, violence and surprises in Geezer Girls. I loved to see how the girls worked together to protect each other and to plan various schemes. There were some great secondary characters too and I liked looking into the world of gangs and crime.
If you like crime thrillers with great female characters then you should check out Geezer Girls. It is the first part in a series but luckily it doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger (I thought it would) so I will probably be checking out the other books in due course.
All the girls were different and each had their strengths and weaknesses and they all balanced each other out very well. It was great to read a book that’s essentially about female friendships and found families. My favourite out of the four was Opal, she had been through terrible things but still managed to find love and friendship.
There’s heists and deception, violence and surprises in Geezer Girls. I loved to see how the girls worked together to protect each other and to plan various schemes. There were some great secondary characters too and I liked looking into the world of gangs and crime.
If you like crime thrillers with great female characters then you should check out Geezer Girls. It is the first part in a series but luckily it doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger (I thought it would) so I will probably be checking out the other books in due course.
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