THESE BODIES BETWEEN US

Four girls reckon with the costs and benefits of disappearing from their lives.

Callie kicks off the summer before senior year by welcoming her close friend Cleo back to her small, touristy town of Little Beach, North Carolina. Cleo’s a gay girl from Washington, D.C., who comes to the area every year to visit her grandparents; Callie and her best friend, Talia, met Cleo while playing on the beach as children. Joining Cleo this summer is Polly, a quiet girl whom Callie initially perceives as having “no presence whatsoever.” Soon, however, the four of them become fast friends. The three old friends are looking forward to working their usual summer jobs at the roller-skating rink as well as pursuing a group summer project, a long-standing tradition; last year, they learned to make ice cream. This summer, Cleo proposes something radical: learning how to disappear. She produces evidence from YouTube of girls who have successfully become invisible. Interspersed throughout the girls’ dogged disappearing efforts are the complications of teenage life; Talia is battling a toxic boyfriend, and bisexual Callie’s falling for sweet Adam Liu, her first boyfriend. The topics of disordered eating and race (Callie, Talia, and Polly read white, while Cleo is Black) are touched upon but would have benefitted from further interrogation. Nonetheless, the strength of the girls’ bonds makes this an original and worthwhile journey. Ominous, strategic foreshadowing creates anticipation, building eventually to a shocking, well-earned climax.

A suspenseful story of friendship and magic.