Girls with Long Shadows - by Tennessee Hill

About the Book

"Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup were welcomed into the world as their mother was ushered out of it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram, Isadora. Nineteen years later, the triplets work at their Gram's crumbling golf course in Longshadow, Texas, where the ever-watchful eyes of the town observe them serving up glasses of ice-cold lemonade to golfers, swimming in the murky waters of the neighboring bayou, or slipping t-shirts off their sunburnt shoulders in hopes of attracting the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand. Cautious Baby B watches as lustful Baby A and introverted Baby C find matches among the town boys. Even Baby B has noticed that the town's golden boy seems to be intrigued by her, only her. Just as each girl's desire to be seen for herself is becoming fulfilled, a seemingly trivial kiss is bestowed on the wrong sister, leading to a moment of unspeakable violence that will upend the triplets' world forever."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

"Tennessee Hill beautifully evokes the sensation of realizing just how many people have a hold on the person you are, the person you hope to become."--Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Run for the Hills

"What a delicate, hot-blooded tempest of a debut."--Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury

With the haunting, romantic voyeurism of The Virgin Suicides and the atmosphere and emotional intensity of Where the Crawdads Sing, an intoxicating Southern Gothic debut novel about identical triplets whose lives are devastated when their burgeoning desires turn deadly.

Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup were welcomed into the world as their mother was ushered out of it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram, Isadora. Nineteen years later, the triplets work at their Gram's crumbling golf course in Longshadow, Texas, where the ever-watchful eyes of the town observe them serving up glasses of ice-cold lemonade to golfers, swimming in the murky waters of the neighboring bayou, or slipping t-shirts off their sunburnt shoulders in hopes of attracting the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand.

Cautious Baby B watches as lustful Baby A and introverted Baby C find matches among the town boys. Even Baby B has noticed that the town's golden boy seems to be intrigued by her, only her. Just as each girl's desire to be seen for herself is becoming fulfilled, a seemingly trivial kiss is bestowed on the wrong sister, leading to a moment of unspeakable violence that will upend the triplets' world forever.

Pulsating with menace and narrated with hypnotic lyricism, Girls with Long Shadows is an electrifying literary thriller that captures how female teenage angst can turn lethal when insecurities are weaponized and sibling bonds are severed. Tense, lush, and painfully beautiful, it forces us to consider the lengths to which we will go to claim our own personhood.

Review Quotes

"Tennessee Hill delivers a lush and lacerating Southern Gothic debut that reads like a fever dream . . . . Hill's prose is rich and elegiac, steeped in fervor and memory, with vivid sensory detail and a slow, simmering tension that builds toward devastation. The novel pulses with questions about what it means to be known, and what it costs to break free from the roles we're assigned. This is a story that leaves a bruise--tender, disquieting and impossible to ignore." - Seattle Times
"Atmospheric . . . Hill steeps each page with the flawed characters, sinister events, isolated locale, and ramshackle landscaping that make up so many of our favorite Southern gothic stories. For fans of Lauren Groff, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Donna Tarte, we're excited to introduce you to your new favorite author . . . This is a book that immerses you in what feels like a different time entirely. Hill's prose makes everything feel sepia-toned and otherworldly. All in all, this is a book to sink slowly into and wade through its depths, just as one would with the warm bayou." - Southern Review of Books
"Echoing The Virgin Suicides, this Southern Gothic literary thriller explores what happens when teenage angst and female desire turn deadly." - Bustle
"Atmospheric debut . . . .The sense of dread simmers until a shocking tragedy rends the sisters apart and rocks all of Longshadow. A moody and meditative slow-burn bildungsroman." - Booklist
"Unforgettable, devastating . . . Tennessee Hill [demonstrates] why girls are not responsible for the assumptions of others, yet they bear the consequences, time and time again . . . . While the triplets' circumstances are unique, the feelings Baby B describes will be familiar to many women: being unable to escape the predation of the male gaze while simultaneously feeling invisible or replaceable. As if you could be any woman. As if all women are identical sisters." - Chapter 16
"Southern Gothic with a sly, wild heart . . . . There are echoes of The Virgin Suicides and Where the Crawdads Sing, but Hill's voice is all her own: sharp, lyrical, and laced with something just a little wicked . . . . If you like your fiction bold and a little reckless--books that smell like cigarette smoke and honeysuckle--Girls With Long Shadows should be at the top of your list for the summer. " - Summer Says
"A stunner. Alternating between sharp cuts and a feather touch, Tennessee Hill beautifully evokes the sensation of realizing just how many people have a hold on the person you are, the person you hope to become." - Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Run for the Hills
"Hill's prose is thick with atmosphere." - Publishers Weekly
"Identity is a major theme in Girls with Long Shadows--how one defines it and how others perceive it . . . . As the girls' courting rituals ramp up over the course of the summer, the sisters learn some hard lessons about how interchangeable they may be in the eyes of certain boys in town. In the process, betrayals are committed, jealousies are unleashed and divisiveness grows, threatening to destroy the triplets' bond and possibly one or more of their lives." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"An atmospheric debut that startles with its exploration of sisterhood." - Largehearted Boy
"Singular, striking, and sly, Girls with Long Shadows seduced me from its first sentence to its last. This book has so much scathing beauty in it I could feel the scrape of a knife on every page. What a delicate, hot-blooded tempest of a debut." - Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury