Kelly Simmons is a former journalist and creative advertising director who started writing fiction over fifteen years ago, while studying creative writing and screenwriting at Temple University and University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her critically acclaimed novels (Standing Still, The Bird House, One More Day, The Fifth of July and Where She Went) she has stuff on a few back burners: developing a TV series, writing a memoir, perfecting her dessert game.She's a visiting teacher for Drexel University's Storylab and is a member of The Liars Club writing mentorship collective, The Tall Poppy Writers, Womens Fiction Writers Association, and Binders Full of Women Writers.
[see My Book, The Movie: Where She Went by Kelly Simmons]
At The Strand Magazine Simmons tagged six books to buddy-read with your teen or twentyish daughter, including:
Dare Me, by Megan Abbott.Read about another entry on the list.
Megan is super famous now as a screenwriter and novelist (I think maybe she doesn’t sleep?) but this early, propulsive novel about the world of cheerleaders is a gem approved by an author-mom and all THREE of her twenty something daughters. And it’s been optioned by Netflix (because we know you like TV even though this post isn’t about TV) in case you believe in designer labels more than my opinions. Important Caution: Actual cheerleaders and former cheerleaders might feel twinges of offense, but rejected squad members may feel twinges of karmic revenge.)
Dare Me is among Katie Lowe's top eight crime novels for angry women in an angry world, Kate Hamer's top ten teenage friendships in fiction, S.R. Masters's seven thrillers that capture some of the darker aspects of tight-knit friendship groups, Jessica Knoll's top ten thrillers, Brian Boone's fifty most essential high school stories, Julie Buntin's twelve books that totally get female friendship, L.S. Hilton's top ten female-fronted thrillers, Megan Reynolds's top ten books you must read if you loved Gone Girl, Anna Fitzpatrick's four top horror stories set in the real universe of girlhood and Adam Sternbergh's six notable crime novels that double as great literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
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