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When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk

4.01 AVERAGE

bookish_axha's profile picture

bookish_axha's review

3.75
emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

roninil's review against another edition

3.5
challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

jml10003's review against another edition

4.0
I’ve always wanted to read a book like this, about this topic. I think friendship break-ups are something most women experience and they’re very painful but they’re not talked about as much as romantic break ups. In the few other books I’ve read about this, the friends always seems to “get back together” to make a happy ending. That’s not realistic to how life works. In this book, Cleo and Layla ultimately do not become friends again, which I really appreciated. Of course they found closure, because this is a book, but they didn’t have a talk where they made up. This was something I’ve never seen before and really appreciated.

I also appreciated how the story was somewhat nuanced and you could see both girls points of view. If we read this from Layla’s perspective, Cleo would seem awful, but I feel like we understood how she was feeling and why she did what she did. One or two things I felt were really mean, but I totally get how hurt she was.

This is more like 4.5 stars. It was upsetting because of how much it reminded me of real life, but that’s also why I thought it was so good.

kiddoliddo's review against another edition

4.0
Some good, important truths about how friendships can change, end, and be grown out of and how it’s not actually the end of the world, even when it feels like it is. Maybe we’ll always find the people we need in every phase of our lives, and maybe friendships will grow with us and surpass phases and changes. You typically only read the pain portrayed in this book in the form of romantic relationship breakups, so it was pretty impactful to see it fleshed out through a friendship instead.

aysha168's review against another edition

4.0
emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
katietotallybooked's profile picture

katietotallybooked's review against another edition

4.0
emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
This YA book focuses on female friendships, and more specifically, female friendship breakups, and that is just one relationship experience that I don't think gets enough representation in fiction. Plus, it was really enjoyable and well written. The audio narrator was great too. As I'm just getting back into reading YA, I appreciated this as a nice YA contemporary to get in to.
It also does feature a romantic relationship, but I am so impressed by the backseat that relationship took. I think that was an intentional choice by the author and I commend them for it. And, the book doesn't end with Cleo & Layla becoming friends again, which I also appreciated because sometimes friendships do end and both parties move on.
.

This is definitely a book about friendship that I will share as a recommendation with YA readers. I also plan on reading more by Ashley Woodfolk. 

 
Themes & Representation:
  • Grief
  • Parental Divorce
  • Bullying & Rumour Spreading
  • Father-Daughter Relationships
  • Bangladeshi / Islamic culture
  • LGBTQIA+
 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
nicolaaa's profile picture

nicolaaa's review against another edition

4.5
emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

telegdykata's review against another edition

4.0
medium-paced
kendal_reads's profile picture

kendal_reads's review

DID NOT FINISH: 3%
the main character was annoying me as was the writing 
dannie_inthesky's profile picture

dannie_inthesky's review against another edition

4.0
I can’t believe this book randomly found me in Chapters. This book talks about friendship dissolution; something I needed to read during a difficult time of my life. 4.5 stars I would recommend!