The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson

Sometimes I felt the world out there misunderstood fictions.  Most people might think of fictions or novels as just 'story books' and reading 'story books' are just for fun and rather shallow and nothing educational, doesn't challenge oneself and certainly has totally no literacy value. The 'real' people should thus be reading serious, important factual stuff or self improvement books or the real artistic ones would immerse themselves in impressive literature.  To such people, I would suggest that perhaps you need to get down from your high horses and try fictions such as The Ice Cream Girls.  You might find yourself having a dent in your opinion.
 
In the bible there are many parables or stories which were used as a teaching tool to teach the people then.  Such, I do not see anything wrong if we are to modernize this concept and think of fictions and novels as parables of modern days.Yes, the The Ice Cream Girls is a story book because it is a story of two girls whom as teenagers were the only witnesses to a crime and one of them were convicted of it.  Years later, having led very different lives, one of them is keen to set the record straight about what really happened, while the other one (who escape conviction) wants no one in her present, especially her husband and children, to find out about her past.

 Having said that, I think I learn more from The Ice Cream Girls than from any self help book out there.  I learn that young impressionable girls can have such low esteem that they can be controlled by a much stronger personality and such it's important to teach girls their selfworth even from young age.  I learn that domestic abuse exist around us and that it can be so invisible that we can't see it or we can be so blind that we dont' see it and such it's important to 'open' our eyes, ears and most of all our heart.

The Ice Cream Girls is not an easy book to read.  Some people might find it depressing as it can mess with your head.  Some people might not be able to or might not want to read something so drastic and dramatic.  There are parts which brought me to tears but not like My Best Friend's Girls did (I really must re-read and review this book!). For me, I was left feeling numb as to why would people subject themselves to years of such torture, physically, mentally and emotionally.  I was left feeling sad as I know that no one can help someone in such situation unless they themselves have the realization that they need help.  I really salute the author, Dorothy Koomson for tackling such subject matter. I can't imagine doing such research.  Like she said in her author's note, 'I hope this book will give someone the courage to change their situation'.

Some people will still insist that it's just a 'story book'.  I, on the other hand appreciate it for being more than that.