JUST LIKE US. Scribner, September 2009.

“Over the course of several years, Thorpe shadowed a group of four friends from immigrant families in Denver…. Thorpe is meticulously observant, always attuned to the poignant ironies of her topic.” (The New Yorker)

“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…. Thorpe intelligently drills away at the harsh reality—what should we do, deport half a family? Thorpe puts a human face on a frequently obtuse conversation, and takes us far beyond the political rhetoric.” (O Magazine)

“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)

SOLDIER GIRLS. Scribner, August 2014.

“In the tradition of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Richard Rhodes, and other masters of literary journalism, ‘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 in Soldier Girls 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… a captivating read, an important book and a stunning accomplishment.” (Military History magazine)

THE NEWCOMERS. Scribner, November 2017.

“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 of the immigration debate.” (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)