The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin

Description: Erin Saldin's The Girls of No Return is a lacerating young adult debut about girls, knives, and redemption. The Alice Marshall School, set within a glorious 2-million acre wilderness area, is a place where teenage girls are sent to escape their histories and themselves. Lida Wallace has tried to negate herself in every way possible. At Alice Marshall, she meets Elsa Boone, Jules, and Gia Longchamps, whose glamour entrances the entire camp. As the girls prepare for a wilderness trek, Lida is both thrilled and terrified to be chosen as Gia's friend. Everyone has their secrets – the “Things” they try to protect; and when those come out, the knives do as well. (For more information click here)

Epic Wins:

• Lida- Lida is girl who is lost and sad. You could feel her pain and loneliness through her words. Add to that her biting sarcasm and Lida is hard not to root for. She seems to find herself with in the nature surrounding her new setting.
• Boone- Wild. Fierce. Herself. She was so in tune with who she was that people felt it. She was mean at times but she was honest and up front.
• TGoNR's description had me hooked but the actual book out weighed my expectations, by a lot. It went deeper, pushed further, and wandered into the shadows and masks people cling to. 
• The epilogue- It's not at the end but instead  filed in through the story, giving you bits and pieces to the puzzle before it all clicks together.
• The prologue- Not at the beginning (are you confused yet?). It's at the very end. I found this to be one of those this-is-only-the-beginning-of-the-story things. Perhaps Lida goes on to do great things and all of her experiences from her teen years lead her to those great things. The end of her story is actually just the beginning of her story. (now you are REALLY confused).
• Margret- She's one of those adults who understands teens far more than they even understand themselves. She was always there to lend fortune-cookie-type advice but never harped on them. 
• Message 1- When keeping something a secret at some point it becomes harder to keep than telling it in the first place. This is the point when you probably should tell it.
• Message 2- In life it is often your reaction and your choices that define who you are as a person. You control every outcome based on your actions. 
• Message 3- Get over yourself. We need this more than we realize. Focusing on ourselves forces blinders in our vision eventually making us loose sight of the bigger picture. 
• Message 4- Everyone has a Thing. We all have problems and issues that we are working out- some worse than others. 

Overall: A fast paced story filled with Things that we deal with , the choices we make, the true friendship we find, and a lot of sarcasm.

just sayin,
-Kare