THE OPHELIA GIRLS

With a title referencing Hamlet's doomed love interest, this audiobook promises--and delivers--a close examination of innocence, beauty, and emotion. The novel spans parallel girlhoods, setting Ruth's youth in the 1970s English countryside alongside her own daughter Maeve's teen years in the present day. Alex Dunmore is a superb narrator; her lovely British accent and comfortable manner with the text make the novel easy to follow and the characters distinctive. She delivers the lines with a Shakespearean precision and contemporary warmth, consistent in volume and narrative pacing all the while. The storyline is largely engaging, with some sections noticeably slowing the action and other moments giving pause when it isn't initially clear whose story is being told. Overall, though, this is a solid audiobook. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2021]