What Girls Are Made Of

【女孩是什麼做的?】

在跟她曾毫不掩飾示愛、崇拜的前男友難堪的分手後，Nina的生活只往返於學校與擔任志工的狗狗收容所之間，但她的情緒低落了很久遲遲沒有好轉。Nina 的媽媽曾告訴她沒有毫無條件的愛存在，而 Nina 也相信她，因此 Nina 對前男友是百般的付出，她以為這樣就能證明她是一位有用的女朋友，但她還是被甩了。

不知所措的 Nina 不斷地質問自己愛情的條件是什麼，而在收容所的經驗，她觀察到對小狗們來說，能夠被領養、被愛的條件就是年輕、健康、乖巧而靜默。她又聯想到了媽媽曾帶她到義大利的旅行，那些陌生卻又記憶鮮明的聖人雕像，這些人由於對上帝的堅定奉獻而遭受了無法形容的酷刑。難道這就是愛嗎？

Reeling from a shameful breakup with a boy she unabashedly worshipped, Nina drifts between school and her days volunteering at a dog shelter. But she's looking for something more. A way to fix her mistakes. Unsure of how to move on, Nina peels back the moments that have shaped her and given her a view of girlhood distorted by violence and sacrifice. One that led her to do something unspeakable to a fellow student.

As Nina grapples with regret, strange memories of a trip to Italy with her mother start to surface. Layer by layer, Elana K. Arnold reveals their painful effect, and questions what love really means.