THE GIRLS (Lori Lansens) - February 28/07

This book about conjoined twins Rose and Ruby is sporadically quite interesting and even moving, but Lansens generally bogs the proceedings down with small details that aren't even remotely as intriguing as she clearly believes. And although the reader does come away from the novel with an incredibly vivid picture of Rose and Ruby's existence - including their small town, and the lives of their Uncle Stash and Aunt Lovey - the whole thing feels about a 100 pages longer than necessary (the book did, after all, take me around two months to finish). *** out of ****