During a single summer in the 1970s, five 12-year-old girls learn that danger lies not in the external world of their night runs, where parents and their own fertile imaginations conjure visions of anonymous murderers, rapists, and other mysterious figures lurking in the nearby woods. They discover it instead in places they never would have thought to look: in their neighborhood and homes; in uncomprehending parents who steal their time and freedom (and, in one bizarre case, a thumb); in the pull of an uncertain world beyond their all-important friendships; and in their own burgeoning sexuality.

The book begins in the collective first-person point of view, but gradually this reassuring group identity splinters as the girls mature and violence close to home threatens to split them apart for good.

My 99th read of 2007.

This one was okay. The tone of the story and the writing style was very reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides. The climax of the story was a bit of a letdown, and the story just dragged from there. It's a shame that the girls grew apart after the incident; it seems a mutual experience like the one they dealt with should have brought them closer together.

Fulfilling a wish for a PBS member.