When We Were Friends by Holly Bourne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Wondering if his love would ever be something I took for granted, rather than treating it like a finite resource I was scared of squandering too quickly.”
Ok I am going to be in the minority on this one.
This is the story of Fern and Jessica who were inseparable best friends for five years during their teenage years before they had a falling out. They haven’t talked to each other in ten years when Jessica shows up in Fern’s life. The book then alternates between telling their story now and telling their story from back then so we can see what caused the falling out.
I know many people loved this book and I sat with it for quite some time after I finished it to pinpoint what bothered me about it. Here’s what it came down to for me: when Bourne is telling us about their friendship as teenagers, she keeps saying how they were best friends but as a reader, I didn’t see any reason why they were. Except Jessica saying she needed Fern. There were no examples of why they meant so much to each other or how they were there for each other. and there are many, many examples to contrary.
I understand that a lot gets revealed towards the end and we finally get to see how close they were but I felt like until that point, I just had to take the authors word for it. I could see all the ways in which they were toxic for each other but none of the reasons why they were good for each other and that made it really hard for me to root for their friendship.
I also felt very triggered by how often the teenage girls were drunk and had sex while they were so drunk that they couldn’t consent and their “friends” were too busy being jealous instead of helping them out of a situation that was clearly rape. What kind of friendship is that? I understand that was part of the point of the plot but I found it to be so disturbing and so sad that I couldn’t understand how people who behave this way could ever really call each other best friends.
I liked the last quarter of the book the most. I liked when they were finally being honest with each other. When they were finally on equal footing. When they finally could see each other’s perspectives. And I cared about each of them and their insecurities. But in the end, there was more about the book that bothered me than not.
with gratitude to Harlequin Trade Publishing and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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