LOSING GEMMA

Two young Brits go backpacking in India, but only one comes back.

With all the arrogance and lack of planning that makes life in your early 20s so messy, a pair of British girls who have been friends since very early childhood—Gemma and Esther—arrive in India for a backpacking trip, circa 1989. Esther’s guilty, doomed narration makes it very clear that this trip will not end well for Gemma, and it’s mostly Esther’s fault. Gemma seems at first an unfortunate choice for a traveling companion, especially in India, as she develops heat rash, pines constantly for air-conditioning, and seems to have a passive-aggressive reaction to just about everything Esther does or says. But soon it becomes clear that Esther is almost more the problem. Arrogantly convinced of her own beauty, intellect, and strong feminist backbone, she obviously treats Gemma as her less-attractive and not-so-bright sidekick, a fact that even Esther starts to appreciate: “I was young and pretty and British and I suppose I thought I could behave exactly as I pleased.” Not to mention the fact that back home, Esther has been carrying on with the guy Gemma has a crush on and hasn’t told her yet. The trip itself is not much fun, as the girls spend most of their time fighting. Adding a hint of malevolence to the story is the arrival of full-time backpacker Coral, who brings the pair their money belt that Gemma had let fall from her bag. Esther cares not a bit for this New Age interloper, but Gemma gloms on to her immediately, regardless of her creepy intentions. The strange trio find themselves at a shrine in the jungle, and Coral becomes excited over the tradition of self-immolation—a combination that foretells a not-so-happy ending. First-time novelist Gardner spins a strong, atmospheric story that unfortunately falls too often into horror cliché. But her rendition of Gemma and Esther’s friendship will reverberate with many young female readers who might appreciate a more relationship-centered spin on the backpackers-gone-astray trope of Alex Garland’s The Beach.

A tragic thriller about curdled friendships and the dangerous thrills of the unknown, saddled with an ending that readers will see coming about 40 pages away.