The Last Girl

<p>In <em>The Last Girl</em> M.R. Mandell's sophomore chapbook she tells stories of abandonment and survival. Opening with a young girl's vivid memory of sexual abuse M.R. guides us through her speakers' experiences with exploitation and betrayal often from the ones they trusted most. Using a collage of voices she winds us along shallow streets of suburbia haunted bedrooms and stark city rooftops. With honesty and humor she reflects on a childhood full of poverty fear and death ending with grown-up tales of feminine defiance and hope. </p><p></p>