'Saddest Girl' learns that Hatteras life can be a beach
Raleigh author Heather Frese made a splash with her 2021 debut novel "Baddest Girl on the Planet," which won the Lee Smith Prize. She returns to that book's territory -- modern-day Hatteras Island -- for her follow-up, "The Saddest Girl on the Beach."
This is no sophomore slump -- far from it. While "Baddest Girl" was basically a slim volume of interconnected short stories, "Saddest Girl" is a fleshed-out, mature novel with compelling themes.
The heroine of "Baddest Girl" was Evid Austin, one of those rare BOIs (Born on the Island). She got pregnant during her freshman year at college, jumped in and out of a hasty marriage and rebuilt her life working in local real estate.
The "Saddest Girl" of the new book is Evie's best friend, Charlotte. They met in the summer of 1999 -- the year the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved -- when Charlotte's family came from Ohio to Hatteras for the summer. They came back almost every year since, and Evie went to visit Charlotte in Ohio.
The new book takes up at the beginning of 2010. Charlotte is reeling. Her beloved father, a kindly geologist who taught Charlotte about fossils and shells and quarks and the Big Bang, had died the previous September. He gently ordered her to head to college as he was fading from cancer, but after sleepwalking for a semester, Charlotte drops out.
When Hemingway's Nick Adams needed solace, he headed for the North Woods. Charlotte heads for her safe place, Hatteras.
Evie's parents, who run the Pamlico Inn, give her a room and plenty of chowder. Eventually, as tourist season starts, she takes a job at the Inn's front desk.
Meanwhile, Evie is having dramas of her own. She breaks the news of her pregnancy to her family just after Charlotte arrives and has to reconcile with her boyfriend, Steve, who's no catch. (Evie's Aunt Fay rates him a jerk, and I'm euphemizing here.)
Charlotte will stick by Evie through her wedding, a couple of medical emergencies and the baby's arrival, right in the midst of Hurricane Earl.
She will also oversee the scattering of her father's ashes at sea that summer, navigating her touchy relations with her mother and brother.
There's also romance. Evie's brother Nate falls for Charlotte, rather badly, and they date. But Charlotte finds herself drawn to Michael, an oceanographer and a buff surfer. Unfortunately, he's more or less engaged to Charlotte's Cousin Troia.
A spark runs both ways, though. Soon Charlotte and Michael are trading texts, quoting passages of Orrin Pilkey's "How to Read a North Carolina Beach" to each other. Erosion isn't the only force of nature involved.
Frese, who grew up on Hatteras Island, knows her territory. She catches the twang of the Outer Bankers' "Hoi Toide" accent, with its particular vocabulary (quamish, Meehonkey). She knows the atmosphere of a beach town off season, when a nor'easter blows in. Plush, she's a fine portraitist, sketching memorable island characters like Aunt Fay, a foul-mouthed spinster who paints in the nude and sometimes forgets to put clothes on.
Hatteras is a unique place, but Frese's picture of beach life should resonate with residents up and down the Cape Fear coast. And Charlotte's journey of grief and healing will touch hearts.
Book review
The Saddest Girl On The Planet
Heather Frese
Blair, $26.95
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 'The Saddest Girl On The Planet' book explores NC coastal life
