In this propulsive debut, a Buffalo Bills cheerleader will stop at nothing to solve the disappearance of her best friend and teammate, navigating the dark underbelly of a hardscrabble city, the grime and glamour of professional cheerleading, and her own tangled family history.
Virginia is a Jill-a professional Buffalo Bills cheerleader-living the life she's always dreamed of. She spends her weekdays practicing, her weekends cheering, and her nights hopping between events and bars and clubs with her close-knit band of teammates, especially her best friend, Jeanine, whose dynamic friendship has given Virginia confidence in spades and allowed her to put aside her troubled past with her sister, Laura.But one Sunday, Jeanine fails to show up for a game, and all her calls and texts go unanswered. Aided by a worried network of Jills, ex-boyfriends, and seedy fixtures of Buffalo's criminal underground, Virginia embarks on an investigation into Jeanine's disappearance. But as her search grows increasingly dangerous and spirals into obsession, disturbing questions about who Jeanine really is begin to emerge.Soon, Virginia finds herself wondering how well she knows her friend, if she can trust the people and institutions she thought were protecting her, and whether-when trying to save the people she cares about most-she's capable of saving herself, too.
Part bingeable mystery, part character-driven tale of a woman claiming her own power in systems built by and for men, The Jills is a sharply observed, witty, and poignant novel about the stories that constrain us and the healing power of sisterhood. Karen Parkman is holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. The Jills has been supported by fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, and the Vermont Studio Center. Karen's stories have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Joyland, and elsewhere. She is based in Knoxville.
