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The Ice Cream Girls (Poppy & Serena #1) by Dorothy Koomson
Genre: Contemporary fiction, Drama, Crime
Read: 15th December 2024
Published: 1st March 2010
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
As teenagers, Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed 'The Ice Cream Girls' by the press and were dealt with by the courts.
Years later, having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened, while Serena wants no one in her present to find out about her past. But some secrets will not stay buried - and if theirs is revealed, everything will become a living hell all over again. . .
Gripping, thought-provoking and heart-warming, THE ICE CREAM GIRLS will make you wonder if you can ever truly know the people you love.
MY THOUGHTS:
I first read this book about ten years ago and it resonated with me then. I decided to read it again because I wanted to read the sequel and found myself a little puzzled at its beginning because the story I remembered was the TV adapation which I have only recently rewatched for about the third time. It was picking up the sequel that I realised the TV adaption of the first book bore some striking differences to what actually happened in the book. And so I decided to read it again.
Reading it the second time around gave me a fresh understanding of the plight of both women. As teenagers in the 80s, they had the misfortune of falling in love with the same man. Their teacher. Most of us have had a crush on a teacher at some point in our lives, but this went way beyond that. And their teacher, Marcus Halnsley, abused his position of trust and authority by preyinh on, grooming and abusing these girls.
Poppy and Serena were not friends. Their paths may never have crossed had it not been for Marcus. And because each were sleeping with the others' boyfriend, they also hated one another. But Marcus played them against each other. And as a predator, he was charming, clever and manipulative. Poppy and Serena fell for his charms and were lulled into a false sense of security, believing the lies he fed them, playing them against the other. He made them into the women they were to become...and continued to haunt them from beyond the grave.
The story begins with Poppy's release from prison after twenty years for Marcus' murder. But she is single-minded in her purpose upon freedom - to find Serena and make her confess. Because if Poppy didn't kill Marcus, Serena must have.
It's a shame that Poppy and Serena weren't friends because they were so alike in many ways, yet so different in others. Serena had a strength that Poppy lacked but she had a naivety about her. They both did. That's what attracted Marcus to them in the first place. But I think Poppy was even moreso.
I liked Poppy and felt for her having not only suffered at Marcus' hands but then the justice system. I believed in her innocence. I also felt for Serena but thought she should have been honest with her husband from the beginning. I understand her reticence but Marcus couldn't hurt her any longer. These two women suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse for over two years at his hands. Their scars ran deep.
The story unfolds in alternating chapters from Poppy and Serena's perspectives as they struggle to move on with their lives but find themselves reliving the past. This is a very dark and emotional tale that exposes the heart and soul of the characters.
I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time around. However, I must point out a constant mistake Ms Koomson made throughout the book. She referred to the girls having broken the first commandment - citing it as being "Thou shalt not kill". It is not the first commandment - which is actually "Thou shalt not have any gods before me" - but rather the sixth commandment. An error that should have been picked up and rectified upon editing. But still a brave and heartfelt story nonetheless.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
At the grand old age of 13, she wrote my first novel called "There’s A Thin Line Between Love And Hate". She would write a chapter every night in her exercise books then pass it around to her fellow convent school pupils the next morning.
Dorothy grew up in London and then grew up again in Leeds when she went to university at Trinity and All Saints College (as it was then). She later returned to London to study for her masters degree in journalism at Goldsmiths University. She had various temping jobs and eventually became a journalist and editor working on various women’s magazines and national papers.
While working as a journalist, Dorothy continued to write short stories and novels in every spare moment – like on the train to and from work – as way to achieve her goal of becoming a published novelist. In 2001 she had the idea for "The Cupid Effect" and signed up with her first publisher a year later. In 2003 "The Cupid Effect" went on sale and her career as a published novelist began.
In 2006, her third novel, "My Best Friend’s Girl" was published. It was incredibly successful – selling nearly 90,000 copies within its first few weeks. Six weeks later, it was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads Book Club and the book went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Because of its huge sales, it won an award. Her fourth novel, "Marshmallows for Breakfast", also won an award for selling over 250,000 copies.
In 2005 Dorothy moved to Australia and spent two years living in Sydney. When she returned to England in 2007 she moved to the south coast, namely Brighton. She love living by the sea. There’s nothing like a good walk along the seafront to clear your head or to work out the knots in a plot.
Those who’ve read her later books will know that a lot of them have been set in Brighton and its surrounding area, often with a good dose of Leeds and South London thrown in.
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