Diane Ayres – Other Girls

From her very first day at Willard College for Women in the late seventies, Elizabeth Breedlove is trapped. The school’s motto promises an oasis “where a woman chooses her own destination,” but so many faculty members and students have already decided what Breedlove’s destiny should be—based solely on her small-town high school picture in the frosh photo pamphlet, Mugs and Plugs.

She magically gets a choice room in Fey House, the upper-class dorm, and a gorgeous “Big Sister” keen to help her navigate the social world of Willard. And even though she’s an English major, her assigned advisor is the notorious feminist psychology professor Jojo Crews—who immediately makes her feel she is part of some double-blind gender clinical trial. That’s especially true after her new late-night poker buddies warn that everyone at Willard is instantly branded either “a Virgin, a Debutante or a Lesbian Vampire.” And she struggles to explore her own identity in a thick web of academic rivalry, secret codes of domination, all manner of swordplay, and the constant threat of long-ticking secrets about to explode. Everyone wants a piece, or a bite, of her.

Which makes her story an intensely dark and witty saga of friendship, lust and, at long last, love.

Originally published in the early 2000s, Other Girls was decades ahead of its time in its exploration of women’s friendships, gender fluidity and feminist satire.

While the book was well-received, there were problems with its publication: Ayres’ voluminous last-pass edits were not incorporated into the finished hardcover. (One online reviewer noted, “I couldn’t put this book down. I have to wonder if the editor was so compelled that they actually read the story, and thus missed simple things like grammatical errors, character name spelling changes … Despite these things I couldn’t stop thinking of how genius Ayres must be. That is how INSANELY pulled in I was by this story.”) The changes were also not incorporated into the paperback, and then the publisher chose not to create an e-book. So, Ayres’ agent, Joy Tutela at the David Black Literary Agency, helped her get the rights to the novel back. Ayres re-edited the book, and sought a new publisher. Today, an updated version of Other Girls, has been published by Untreed Reads. It is now available for the first time in ebook, paperback and hardcover. Click here to order your copy.