A Review - Citchens, Addie, 'That Girl', 2025.

Two's company, but three's a crowd.

They say two’s company, but three’s a crowd. In this case, my third review will be covering ‘That Girl’ by Addie Citchens, which follows a brief but impactful friendship between students Theodara and Shirlee. No braided essays this time. Let’s go…

Synopsis (SPOILER WARNING)

Lonely ninth-grader Theodara (‘Theo’) sits under an awning at her house, reading a book and taking shelter from the summer heat. There she watches Shirlee - a mysterious ninth grader who is supposed to be in the eleventh grade - walking around. The two start to bond over the book, just as Theodara overcomes her fear of reading out loud. Both start to visit each other more often, taking care to avoid Theodara’s overbearing mother Jane and her new husband Roger. Theodara is enticed by Shirlee, but becomes increasingly uncertain about her friend and her free-wheeling lifestyle. Eventually, Jane catches her daughter and has her bedroom door removed. Exposed and with no way out, Theodara is enrolled in a new, Jane-approved summer schedule. After some much-needed contemplation, Theodara finds her voice and must make it clear to Shirlee: they can no longer hang out.

What is effective in the author’s telling?

The conveying of Theodara’s vulnerability is simple but effective in setting up her motivations and her state of mind (“Theo was tired of being friendless and lonely, of having no one who could understand her”). The transformative impact of Shirlee’s presence is made clear from their very first encounter, e.g. Theodara becomes more confident reading to Shirlee out loud than in school. This sets in motion a series of encounters and spontaneous intimacy. Shirlee’s confession of a harassment incident and her disbelief (“Sometimes I think I made it up ‘cause it happened so quick”) serves to gain Theodara’s trust as well as the reader’s. It also serves as a potential cause for Shirlee’s implicit and explicit sexual behaviour.

Where did you need more from the author to be engaged?

The absence of Shirlee as an equal main character made this feel like Theodara’s story more than anything else. I would have liked to have seen more perspective on how Shirlee came to be the way she is; much of her upbringing and behaviour is implied (“...somewhere in that house, bear boy was showing Shirlee’s young body no slack”). A more explicit focus on Shirlee would have given us more of a well-rounded perspective on Theodara and Shirlee’s relationship and whether it was right for it to end the way it did.

“The heat was suffocating. Her tongue felt like dough in the stove of her mouth”

What did the piece make you consider in an associative manner?

The piece made me consider Theodara’s growing confidence over time as she starts to push back against Shirlee’s behaviour (“Theo was relieved to walk home alone; sometimes Shirlee was just too much”) and against her mother (“Other people’s friends spent the night at their houses. Jane was too unreasonable”). I also spotted a religious connection towards the end of the story, as Jane enrolls her daughter in Bible class and warns about Shirlee “bringing Satan all up in my home” - a reference to Shirlee’s permissive lifestyle. I also spotted a connection between Theodara contemplating whether she was “going to roast like a weenie in the hottest fire of hell” and the overall setting of a summer so hot that our main character struggles to walk to her house (“The heat was suffocating…Each step seemed like her last”).

“The mere fact that the girl is out all times of night like this should tell you something. She headed for the pipe and the needle and will have you headed there, too”

What were your overall thoughts?

This was a brisk, no-nonsense piece that kept me engaged with its themes of friendship, desire and discovering newfound confidence. Theodara experiences growth from start to finish, emerging as a more assertive teenager who knows when to draw the line and make her own conclusions (“That magic, Theo knew, was gone”). The sensual descriptions (“Once Shirlee was in the bedroom, every stitch of her clothing would come off as if by magic”) might be in bad taste for some readers, but can serve to highlight the fleeting nature of the relationship between Theodara and Shirlee.

Overall rating: 4 out of 7 Sahabs

To read about the Sahab 7even rating system, please visit this post.