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cheekylaydee's review against another edition
4.0
There are friendships, especially as you're growing up, that you assume will last forever. That person has been an intrinsic part of your life for so long that you know them as well as you know yourself, maybe even better.
Such is the friendship between Julia and Cassie. Long summer days are spent in each other's company, creating their own private hideouts, every nuance and mannerism known to the other person, moods being read without the need for words.
However when the girls hit adolescence and Julia spends her summer away at camp, by the time the new year starts at school Cassie seems to have distanced herself from her oldest friend. With a new set of friends and different interests, the two girls are now virtual strangers with an irrevocably entwined past. The change seems to be so gradual and so subtle that it takes Julia a good while to realise that things just aren't the same anymore. She's beginning to realise that Cassie has developed into someone she no longer knows, with issues that run so deep she cannot seem to confide in her oldest friend, even as Julia practically cries out wanting to help her.
By the time people realise how much Cassie's life has spun out of control Julia is the only one that can help her, everybody else feeding off the gossip of her life like vultures feeding off of prey.
This novel is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching. Life getting in the way of seemingly the most solid of friendships creates a void for those involved, becoming familiar strangers can be both poignant and painful.
I didn't just gobble this up I virtually swallowed it whole! An absorbing read that will keep pages turning until they run out, 4 stars.
Such is the friendship between Julia and Cassie. Long summer days are spent in each other's company, creating their own private hideouts, every nuance and mannerism known to the other person, moods being read without the need for words.
However when the girls hit adolescence and Julia spends her summer away at camp, by the time the new year starts at school Cassie seems to have distanced herself from her oldest friend. With a new set of friends and different interests, the two girls are now virtual strangers with an irrevocably entwined past. The change seems to be so gradual and so subtle that it takes Julia a good while to realise that things just aren't the same anymore. She's beginning to realise that Cassie has developed into someone she no longer knows, with issues that run so deep she cannot seem to confide in her oldest friend, even as Julia practically cries out wanting to help her.
By the time people realise how much Cassie's life has spun out of control Julia is the only one that can help her, everybody else feeding off the gossip of her life like vultures feeding off of prey.
This novel is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching. Life getting in the way of seemingly the most solid of friendships creates a void for those involved, becoming familiar strangers can be both poignant and painful.
I didn't just gobble this up I virtually swallowed it whole! An absorbing read that will keep pages turning until they run out, 4 stars.
laila4343's review against another edition
3.0
Best friends coming of age and drifting apart. One is very troubled. I never quite believed narrator’s voice. Might have been more effective from an adult perspective looking back. Still, I turned the pages quickly enough. There was some interesting commentary about girls growing into women and the loss of physical freedom that entails. I’d recommend this only for Messud fans.
pensiona's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
janneyf's review against another edition
5.0
I must be at the time and place in my life when I love reading about friendships between girls/women. And this book is splendid. Claire Messud is such a skillful, intelligent writer, and I found myself stopping throughout the story to contemplate one sentence or another. This story is full of deep emotion and the truth about girls' friendships--I just loved it. I read it in two days because I couldn't put it down.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
This is the story of Cassie, as seen through the eyes of her best friend, JuJu. The two girls were inseparable, and during the summer before they began middle school, they wandered all over their small Massachusetts town and the woods around it, but beginning in middle school, the girls drift apart, a process that JuJu finds confusing and painful. She's been put in all the advanced classes, while Cassie falls in with the crowd of popular kids who party. From a distance, JuJu watches Cassie change and when she gains a stepfather, the speed at which she embraces a risky lifestyle increases.
Messud has done a good job in writing her adolescent characters. JuJu is intelligent and insightful, but she's also full of the drama of the situation. The book is told from JuJu's POV and the author restricts the level of information the reader is given to what JuJu knows, which means we are getting Cassie's story in random sudden lumps and through hearsay, which was surprisingly effective, even as it meant that a lot of the questions remain unanswered.
Messud has done a good job in writing her adolescent characters. JuJu is intelligent and insightful, but she's also full of the drama of the situation. The book is told from JuJu's POV and the author restricts the level of information the reader is given to what JuJu knows, which means we are getting Cassie's story in random sudden lumps and through hearsay, which was surprisingly effective, even as it meant that a lot of the questions remain unanswered.
hatrireads's review against another edition
3.0
I like this author. A very compelling coming of age story about two close girl friends who grow apart as they enter their teen years. I could recommend this book.
bookyanne's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book! An interesting coming of age story about two girls. I enjoyed the narration and how it felt a bit train-of-thought-y. It was just a girl telling a story, which was sometime sad and sometimes happy and overall just a story about the pain of growing up and growing apart. Very well written and would recommend.