Frances Macken's darkly complicated You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here follows three Irish girls as they aspire to escape their dead-end hometown of Glenbruff. Working-class Katie, pretty, rich girl Evelyn and hanger-on Maeve are introduced as happy 10-year-olds running free, imagining the local quarry, wet bogs and abandoned buildings as wondrous faraway habitats. They plan for bigger, better lives together elsewhere but, like all childhood friendships, this trio's loyalties ebb and flow with the tides of their personal dramas.
As teenagers, Katie and Evelyn have a pact to study art in Dublin and become famous artists, while Maeve is happy to take a local job. The plan falters when Katie is accepted to art school and Evelyn isn't. Infighting among the three girls turns incendiary when Aidan and Peadar, brothers the girls have crushes on, are more interested in Pamela Cooney, who recently moved from the big city.
Luckily for the lead trio, Pamela's moment in the spotlight is quickly snuffed out when she suddenly disappears. She obviously met with foul play, but what isn't clear is how much Katie, Evelyn and Maeve know about what happened to their rival.
Macken highlights every scrappy kid's desire to free him- or herself from small-town thinking and limited opportunities. The author shines brightest when depicting a friends-for-life camaraderie mixed with hurtful actions only real friends can forgive one another for. Readers are immersed so deeply in the day-to-day mini-dramas of these girls that it's surprisingly easy to dismiss their apathy toward Pamela's disappearance and wholeheartedly root for their escape from Glenbruff. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer