Reviews of Just Like Us

“Thorpe is meticulously observant, always attuned to the poignant ironies of her topic….” (The New Yorker)

“Thorpe, an accomplished journalist, vividly chronicles the coming-of-age of four Mexican-American teenagers in Colorado. The young women struggle to reconcile an elusive American dream with the irony of their situations—only two of them have immigration papers, an invisible distinction that sets them at odds with one another and with the nation they consider home…. By casting the girls’ experiences, and her own, against the larger policy debate, Thorpe personalizes an often generalized problem, and delves into questions of opportunity and identity to examine the ‘intersection between the terrible mystery of our being’ and the ‘inevitably flawed fashion’ in which we govern ourselves.’ ” (The Atlantic Monthly)

“Thorpe, a veteran reporter, brings a journalist’s eye to her story. Her narrative is quick-paced and full of incident and clamor. Like her predecessors, she goes across the border to bang around in trucks and cough in the dust clouds. Yet her attention to ambience and detail lends a vibe that is enriched by her empathy. ‘We . . . lurched back onto the smooth blacktop that led to Durango,’ she writes. ‘Despair lurked back at the dusty crossroads . . . but why should we linger there, when the sun flared in the endless sky and crops flourished all around?’… Rather than finding this whole scene enervating, Thorpe finds it exhilarating…. These are the stories of the new America.“ (The Washington Post)

“When she embarked on her galvanizing book, Helen Thorpe had a policy wonk’s interest in immigration, leavened with her own ‘odd sense of dual identity’ as someone who herself arrived in the United States as a child. As her eyes are slowly opened to the catch-22 aspects of American immigration law, ours are, too, and we become conscious of how achingly complex the whole question of who we punish for entering the country illegally really is…. Thorpe intelligently drills away at the harsh reality of such facts—what should we do, deport half a family? Through the girls’ heart-tugging struggles, Thorpe puts a human face on a frequently obtuse conversation, and in so doing takes us far beyond the political rhetoric.” (O Magazine)

“Through the lives of four fascinating young women, Thorpe creates not only a moving examination of a complicated American issue, but a well-told, inspirational story as well.” (Kirkus)

“Verdict: Thorpe’s work raises hundreds of questions and will be a good choice for book clubs and readers interested in narrative nonfiction. An excellent, in-depth study of immigration policies gone amok.” (Library Journal)

Reviews of Soldier Girls

“Soldier Girls is utterly absorbing, gorgeously written, and unforgettable.” (The Boston Globe)

“Parenthood and roadside bombs, young love and PTSD—finally, a nuanced look at the lives of female soldiers that is as intimate as it is groundbreaking.” (O Magazine)

“Helen Thorpe followed three working-class women from the Indiana National Guard through deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and back home again. Soldier Girls draws on four years of reporting to create one of the finest portraits of life in America’s enlisted ranks after Sept. 11, 2001. Ms. Thorpe examines how America’s ‘forever wars’ have marked those who fight them. The long-term effects include panic attacks, alcohol addiction and failed marriages. After two deployments, Desma, a single mother of three, wonders whether the two years she spent overseas took her away from her son for too long. Later, he would be sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed robbery. Soldier Girls does not reduce these women to victims. Ms. Thorpe writes that another veteran she profiles, Michelle, later came to see the war she served in as a mistake. ‘But it had been a thing of immense proportions and she had been part of it and it had been hugely consequential to her personally. As wrong as they were, those days of sand and sun and bleached friendships and whistling rockets, they were sacred to her.’ ” (The Wall Street Journal)

“A breakthrough work… What Thorpe accomplishes is something far greater than describing the experience of women in the military. The book is a solid chunk of American history — detailing the culture’s failing, resilience and progress… Thorpe triumphs.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“A vivid and intensely personal account of the lives of three women whose only common denominator had been that they joined the Indiana National Guard never imagining they might end up in a war zone… Thorpe’s matter-of-fact tone and clear and concise prose make the book all the more riveting… a captivating read, an important book and a stunning accomplishment.” (Military History magazine)

“Moving… This visceral narrative illuminates the role of women in the military, the burdens placed on the National Guard, and the disproportionate burden of these wars borne by the poor.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A raw, intimate look at the impact of combat and the healing power of friendship.” (People magazine)

Reviews of The Newcomers

“A delicate and heartbreaking mystery story… Thorpe’s book is a reminder that in an era of nativism, some Americans are still breaking down walls and nurturing newcomers, the seeds of the great American experiment.” (The New York Times)

“Extraordinary…. The Newcomers puts a human face on the refugee question. The book is a journalistic triumph. Thorpe pens a masterful book that lets readers see the humanity instead of the facts and figures and politics of the immigration debate.” (The Denver Post)

“This book is not only an intimate look at lives immigrant teens live, but it is a primer on the art and science of new-language acquisition and portrait of ongoing and emerging global horrors and the fallout that arrives on our shores.” (USA Today)