The Ice Cream Girls [Paperback]

The Ice Cream Girls is one of the most cleverly crafted novels that I have read for a long time. It would be so easy to judge this book by it's cover and assume that it's going to be frothy chick-lit - don't fall for the cover - this is a psychological thriller that gripped me from page one and kept me hooked until the very last page.
The story is narrated in turns by Serena and Poppy - the 'Ice Cream Girls' of the title. Serena and Poppy were never friends but their lives have been linked together by a tragic event that happened over twenty years ago. This event shaped their lives and their futures - moulding both of them into the adults they have become.
With flash-backs to the event and alternately narrated chapters, this story twists and turns on each page. The story covers some very emotive and often horrific events, it is a novel about growing up, about falling in love and about betrayal and hate.
Poppy and Serena are two excellently written characters, both have their faults but both have been shaped by falling in love with the wrong man and it is this man that is so central to the story line.
A compelling and often breathtaking read with a unique storyline and fantastic characters - I cant recommend this highly enough.

I'd read The Ice Cream Girls when it was first released many years ago and liked it, so when I had the opportunity to review the novel to go in line with the release of the TV adaptation, I could not wait to re-read it.

Teenagers Poppy and Serena both fall in love with an older man, Marcus, who happens to be Serena's teacher. They both fall helplessly in love with Marcus and believe that he loves them too. Then the girls meet, and Marcus continues to draw them in with sweet words, attention, and promises that he loves them. However, it soon turns nasty, and manipulative, leaving emotional and physical scars. After a tragic event, Serena and Poppy are dragged through a court case in which the media refer to them as `The Ice Cream Girls'.

Many years later, the two girls have led completely different lives. Serena is now married to her husband Evan, and has children, although she is desperate to leave the past behind her and for no one in her present to discover what happened when she was younger. Poppy hasn't been as lucky, but is determined to set the record straight...

I've said this before and I'll say it again - for me, this is my favourite novel by Dorothy Koomson and I genuinely don't think it gets as much recognition as it clearly deserves. Even though the TV adaptation is good, and the actors and actresses have done a great job with the script they have been given, the adaptation is quite different, and nowhere near as BRILLIANT as the novel is. I really hope that the TV adaptation encourages all of the people watching to go out and buy the novel, and to discover that there is a deeper story that will hook you to the pages, move you, and in some cases, possibly change your life.

I originally read this book when I was younger and had a more naive view of the world. I didn't understand the true implications of emotional abuse and manipulation, of being haunted by memories, of wanting to forget your past and being desperate to move on from situations in life. I read about what happened to Serena and Poppy, and although I desperately felt for them, I never truly understood. And coming back to this book a few years later was an eye-opener for me. I understood that in the way Poppy and Serena weren't at fault for the things that happened to them in their lives, I was not at fault for the things that had happened in mine. And I came away from this book feeling oddly positive and more confident in the life I have now. I'm sure there are other women out there who feel, like I do, as though this story has said things that they couldn't put into words.

The Ice Cream Girls is narrated from the viewpoints of both Serena and Poppy, and also alternates between their lives now in the present day, and what was happening back when they were involved with Marcus. Although the novel does cut back and forth, Dorothy Koomson has written the story so well that the narrative effortlessly slips backwards and forwards through time.

The characters are fantastically written, I cannot fault a single thing. Dorothy Koomson has clearly done her research as the characters are so real, so raw and so lifelike. Poppy and Serena in particular are very well portrayed as teenagers, their pain, emotions and feelings are very strong, very real and although it can be difficult reading, it shows the true reality of situations such as this and ultimately, the realism of this book is what makes it so gripping to read. Dorothy has also excelled in her writing of Serena and Poppy as adults. She manages to show the aftereffects of their time as teenagers, how what happened to them has affected their lives in the present, the memories they try to leave in the past and the way their past causes their actions, thoughts and feelings today. Poppy and Serena are instantly likeable, from the beginning they both touched my heart an I wanted to reach out to them, I felt for them with everything they were going through, and very much cared about what happened to them.

The mystery surrounding the tragic event had me hooked too. Without going in to too much detail so I don't spoil anything, I was constantly changing my mind throughout the book, and even then, I wasn't prepared for the eventual outcome. Wow.

The Ice Cream Girls is a gripping story that will reach your heart. It is heart-breaking and compelling at the same time, and you will race through the book as I did, wanting desperately to know what had happened to Poppy and Serena, and how they progress through the story. There is a lot of tension, as we discover secrets, betrayal, family relationships, and the issues of innocence and guilt. It is so much more than just a novel, it has important messages and I genuinely hope that this novel continues to help people if they need it. This is a brilliantly written novel that is very thought-provoking, with some shocks, twists and turns, and The Ice Cream Girls will definitely start up many discussions among readers. This is a must read book.

This novel covers a very important issue in society - abusive and exploitive relationships. The story is set in the present time with flashbacks to the nineteen eighties, when two schoolgirls, Poppy and Serena, both aged under sixteen at the start, were involved in a relationship with the same abusive man, who was much older and a schoolteacher. One day this man ends up dead, and the question is `who did it?' Both think the other was responsible, and ultimately Poppy is sent to prison for the crime, protesting her innocence, while Serena walks free, and later marries and has two children.
Things are not quite that simple though, and when Poppy is released from jail twenty years later, the whole whodunnit saga starts up again, until a conclusion is reached.
The story is a good one, and the writing is emotionally honest, but for me there are questions about the credibility of certain scenarios in the tale. I won't go into detail about what they are, because each reader has to to decide for themselves, and also I don't want to give too much away, but it took the edge off my enjoyment of the book.
Also, for me, it didn't have the compelling quality of some works I have read by other authors, and it took me three weeks to read it. It wasn't heavy going, by any means, but I had a good idea about `who did it' from quite early on, so this diluted the element of suspense for me quite a lot.
On the plus side, I did like both Poppy and Serena, and I felt for them in their individual circumstances. They both suffered immensely in their own ways as a result of what happened, and had more than paid for past mistakes.
Also, this is a novel which contains a powerful lesson for women of all ages who are being abused, brainwashed, and manipulated by their partners/boyfriends. This kind of abuse is almost always progressive, and I totally agree with the author's comments at the back of the book, that if it gives hope to women in similar situations, and motivates them to seek support in freeing themselves, then it will have been more than worth while writing it from that aspect alone.