GIRLS LIKE US by Randi Pink

 

It's 1972 and four young girls find themselves involved in unplanned pregnancies. Izella's older sister Ola reveals she is pregnant. Even though she is the younger sister, Izella knows she will need to come up with a plan. Missippi is only 14, but that didn't stop her uncle from turning her into a soon-to-be mother. Sue likes to defy her senator father to participate in activist causes. Now after a careless encounter with a boy she fiercely dislikes, she is telling her mother that she has missed at least two periods.

Izella and Ola visit a local woman to find a solution for Ola's problem. Ola says she and Walter are in love, but Izella knows neither of them could deal with the responsibilities of a child. The magical bottle of elixir promises to eliminate the baby if the directions are followed correctly. 

Missippi's father wants to know who did this to his little girl, but she knows she can't tell him. Since his life as a truck driver means he isn't around to take care of her, he arranges to take her to Ms. Pearline in Chicago. There she will be with other girls like her and will get the care she needs.

Sue also ends up at Ms. Pearline's. She and Missippi become close friends and confidants. Being as different as night and day doesn't matter to the two girls as they support each other in the small Chicago apartment.

Readers will follow the four girls and their narratives as decisions are made and futures unfurl. Near the end of the book, the timeline changes to the present. A young girl sits in a clinic waiting to learn the fate of her unplanned pregnancy.

GIRLS LIKE US was published in 2019, but author Randi Pink eerily captures the fate of girls in 1972 and the current state of women's rights and the challenge to Roe v Wade. The novel speaks to all women and girls and their right to safely make decisions about their bodies and health.