Breakaway Books

Authored by Alina Grabowski; Published May 2024; Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The heart of Women and Children First is the gritty realism of daily life in a town without many jobs and a serious drug problem. It’s not graphic, but neither is it for the faint of heart.

In Women and Children First, we learn about the events leading up to and following the death of a high school student during a wild party in coastal Massachusetts. Each chapter is narrated by a female student, young adult, or parent, all connected by loose threads that crisscross the entire town. The school, the local businesses, and the families live in the same microsphere, unable to keep out of each other’s business in both good and bad ways.

In some ways, it was difficult to distinguish this novel from so many others that chronicle the hardships of living in a floundering town in rural America. The threads of cyber bullying, underpaid teachers, a severe lack of jobs, and addiction problems—did not surprise me. While unsurprised, I was saddened to observe just how many recent high school graduates hadn’t quite managed to escape the small town, even to Boston. The author excelled at perfecting the tone of disenchanted teenagers and twenty-somethings, a tone that struck a little too close to home for me.

The character who held my attention the most easily was the high school principal—nearly universally viewed as a villain by students, parents and teachers, she shows little vulnerability throughout the novel, and notably, her perspective remains a mystery without a single chapter narrated from her point of view. The few moments in which her shell cracks are among the most revealing and intimate of the novel, and her transformation into ordinary human is striking to observe. It drives home the idea that in a town like this, survival is the primary goal more than meanness for meanness’s sake.

I can’t recommmend Women and Children First to those looking to escape the depressing reality of 2025. For awareness and empathy though, it’s a good start.