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A review by rubeusbeaky
The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry
4.0
This book takes OFF from the first page, and is relentless with the emotional gut-punches. It's brilliant for how much it makes you feel for these characters. I admit, I was NOT prepared for the book I was getting into; I thought this was a thriller, but it's more of a drama. The book digs down DEEP into the topics of grief, young love and expectations versus married life and reality, abuse and cycles of abuse, the damage secrets/lies by omission can do in any relationship (friendship, familial, or romantic)... This book had a LOT to talk about, and spending so many pages/hours living through the same pain as these protagonists was heartbreaking. Too real! ;___; <3 Amazingly written.
That said... as a mystery, it falls flat. There is no surprise twist waiting at the end, like I thought there was going to be. A bunch of sad things happen...and then the book ends. I don't feel satisfied for chasing clues. It's mostly a drama or a tragedy, and drops the statement that life is terrible sometimes. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Tons of discussion potential, but not a lot of re-readability.
One minor issue I took with the book was its supreme Whiteness XD. Pretty blonde ex-cheerleaders and football studs having beautiful babies, working high-power jobs, living in an expensive cul-de-sac, sending their kids off to private school... I was so disgusted by all the "White Girl Problems", that I actually started actively recasting the characters in my head to be more ethnically diverse. And the book carries ALL of the same emotional weight with people of color. Moms are moms, wives are wives, and losing a child or the love/trust of a spouse is a universally understood pain. Or at least, a pain which transcends race. I think the book could have been stronger had it been diverse, to put the emphasis that their struggles come from their strained relationships, not from their privilege being tarnished.
A beautifully written book that will break your heart and make you wish for an ethnically diverse Netflix adaptation... and a few more mysteries to uncover. Boom.
That said... as a mystery, it falls flat. There is no surprise twist waiting at the end, like I thought there was going to be. A bunch of sad things happen...and then the book ends. I don't feel satisfied for chasing clues. It's mostly a drama or a tragedy, and drops the statement that life is terrible sometimes. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Tons of discussion potential, but not a lot of re-readability.
One minor issue I took with the book was its supreme Whiteness XD. Pretty blonde ex-cheerleaders and football studs having beautiful babies, working high-power jobs, living in an expensive cul-de-sac, sending their kids off to private school... I was so disgusted by all the "White Girl Problems", that I actually started actively recasting the characters in my head to be more ethnically diverse. And the book carries ALL of the same emotional weight with people of color. Moms are moms, wives are wives, and losing a child or the love/trust of a spouse is a universally understood pain. Or at least, a pain which transcends race. I think the book could have been stronger had it been diverse, to put the emphasis that their struggles come from their strained relationships, not from their privilege being tarnished.
A beautifully written book that will break your heart and make you wish for an ethnically diverse Netflix adaptation... and a few more mysteries to uncover. Boom.