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Girl Friends
By Alex Dahl
Head of Zeus Ltd
ISBN: 9-781801-108331
410pp.
If you have ever been bored to death with your perfect life and yearned for frisson and exciting, daredevil friends, this book is for you. Girl Friends by Alex Dahl is a psychological thriller which focuses on the dark side of female friendship.
We enter the glamorous and sinister world of the super-rich in London. Enter Scandinavian expat Charlotte Vinge, who is married to a wealthy banker. She has two beautiful children, a frenetic social life, a lifestyle blog as the ‘Keto Queen’, and an upcoming programme promoting a ketogenic lifestyle.
Charlotte has the perfect life on paper. But all is not as it seems. Her marriage to Andreas has become stale and she is suffering from an eating disorder, despite being an advocate of the healthy keto diet. “I often feel like the best time of my life is already over, that it evaporated with the children’s childhoods and that the rest of my life will be a monotonous slog towards the horrors of old age and, eventually, death.”
When Andreas asks Charlotte to befriend the wife of his new boss, Emil, she sets out to accomplish the task with her customary single-minded focus. She extends an invitation to Emil and Bianka for a barbeque at her home. But she is not prepared for the feisty, confident and unapologetic Bianka, who is so different from staid bankers’ wives.
A psychological thriller focuses on the dark side of female friendship and the world of influencers, where ‘cancel culture’ is rampant
“She’s tall and very striking, with a wild halo of blond curls framing a tan, fine-featured face. She’s wearing a bright-red trouser suit, casually unbuttoned to reveal a very low cut silk camisole. She looks stylish and sexy and very out of place in the conservative white cotton dress crowd. She also looks like she couldn’t care less about blending in, walking confidently towards us on towering gold Valentino shoes, watched by literally everyone.”
Charlotte is intoxicated by the free-spirited Bianka who upends Charlotte’s rigid routine and makes her feel that she is missing out on life. Mesmerised by Bianka, she invites her, on a whim, to the annual Ibiza holiday that Charlotte takes with her female squad — Linda and Anette — to her ancestral family home. Her decision perplexes her old friends, but Charlotte turns a deaf ear to their disapproval. But little does she know that this vacation is going to turn into a nightmare, thanks to Bianka’s malevolent presence.
The story is told from the perspective of the three protagonists, Charlotte, Bianka and Storm, Bianka’s 16-year-old stepson. Since the book is a slow burn, initially Storm’s story seems irrelevant but, gradually, as the tempo ramps up, the threads come together in an intriguing fashion. The character arcs are well developed, with interesting back-stories, and the plot is engaging, with unexpected twists and turns.
The Ibiza holiday has always been a weekend of fun and frolic for Charlotte and her friends, so they can get away from their stresses and marital strains. Her friend Anette confesses: “I looked at him one night when the girls were both in bed and I’d finished the endless tidying after yet another dinner party. He’d fallen asleep on the sofa and was snoring so loudly. I noticed then how fat he’d gotten; like a pot-bellied old man and I just thought, this is what the rest of my life is going to look like if I don’t do something.”
It is said that opposites attract: Charlotte is a control freak whose domestic life is organised, public image curated and diet strictly adhered to. Bianka, on the other hand, leads a hedonistic lifestyle, and is an expert at manipulating people.
The Ibiza holiday leads both Charlotte and Bianka to take risks and court danger. As Charlotte is led astray and falls more and more under Bianka’s spell, her painstakingly constructed, hugely successful persona as the ‘Keto Queen’ and leading influencer is threatened and her mental health is compromised.
It is said that opposites attract: Charlotte is a control freak whose domestic life is organised, public image curated and diet strictly adhered to. Bianka, on the other hand, leads a hedonistic lifestyle, and is an expert at manipulating people. This combustible mix is the crux of the book and what propels the story forward.
Girl Friends opens a window into the toxic side of female friendship and obsession and the world of influencers, where ‘cancel culture’ is rampant. It also explores how past traumas impact present relationships.
The climax of the book, although satisfying, is rather far-fetched and leaves one wishing that Dahl had worked harder on the denouement. Nevertheless, for anyone who has experienced a dark, unhinged friendship, this will seem like familiar territory.
And the central question remains: would you kill for love? Would you?
The reviewer is an author and a communications strategist.
Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, September 7th, 2025
