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A review by theeditorreads
Best Friends Forever by Dawn Goodwin
3.0
Synopsis:
Vicky and Anna are two peas in a pod or say they claim. Their inseparable friendship, since their schooldays, survived through everything. From silly pranks to some serious misdemeanours, they’re still as thick as thieves after all those years. Sometimes their friendship even led David to believe that in his marriage with Anna, he was the third wheel. Still, David was leading a happy and comfortable family life with his wife and two kids, Harper and Lewis. But, it all starts to unravel with Anna’s death in what seemed to be a simple road accident. Was it only that? Or was somebody else responsible for her death?
Review:
The story starts on 13 May 2012, when Vicky Dean receives a call from David Price in her hungover state. That Anna was dead and that it was an accident. Vicky’s first thought was: What had they done?
It opens then to a lonely David four weeks later, the truth of having lost his wife not yet sunk in. Louisa Price, his mother, is helping with his kids Harper and Lewis, aged seven and five. But when his mother has had enough and makes him understand that he has to pull himself together and look after his kids, Vicky comes to the rescue in the form of a text message. And then she’s physically there, slowly settling herself into the family life she always craved but didn’t have.
Best friends since the age of thirteen, Vicky and Anna had been separated only during the latter’s University years where she met David. Coming from a well-to-do family, Anna had all the material comforts of life while since her mother’s death Vicky has had to suffer at the hands of her abusive father.
It has a perfect domestic setting, which won’t indicate anything untoward had I not read the blurb before. But there are eerie hints throughout, especially the way Vicky drops some of her thoughts or feelings. Narrated in the third person, this story is all about damaged people and their twisted sense of love. Do not speak ill of the dead, but was Anna really the Saint that her husband David made her out to be? Then there’s Vicky, who seems to be the one always suffering because of other people’s actions. And finally, David. Is he the victim in all this manipulation or is he a conspirator too. In everything that happened.
The story goes back into the past to September 1986, the day when Vicky befriended the posh Anna Maxwell. Anna’s nature, and Vicky’s as well, is a revelation throughout the story. The narration moves between the past and the present, with Vicky’s letters to the now-dead Anna establishing a chink in their friendly armour. But, with the story being revealed from each of the three individual’s perspective, whom to believe and whom not to? What is true and what is false? Who is saintly and who’s evil incarnate?
In all of the ensuing drama, my heart went out to the little kids. Without a mother and a father who doesn’t seem to know a thing about them, their habits, or what they like or don’t like, I was glad that David’s family was there to pick up some of the pieces and put it all into perspective for him.
There’s animal abuse as well as physical abuse in the story. This is a chilling story of a toxic friendship with some of the other characters no less venomous. I couldn’t fathom who was the biggest psychopath, as not even the author’s acknowledgement could make me believe ‘that no one’s perfect’. Something obviously didn’t work for me, it all seemed a bit too farfetched is all. Also, the story stretched over for my liking during the build-up to the climax. And, there also, I felt cheated. Maybe because I wanted more explanations as to what exactly happened. The going back and forth in time that was intriguing in the beginning, surrounding the mystery around Anna’s death, was just confusing at the end.
Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an e-ARC of the book.
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings
Vicky and Anna are two peas in a pod or say they claim. Their inseparable friendship, since their schooldays, survived through everything. From silly pranks to some serious misdemeanours, they’re still as thick as thieves after all those years. Sometimes their friendship even led David to believe that in his marriage with Anna, he was the third wheel. Still, David was leading a happy and comfortable family life with his wife and two kids, Harper and Lewis. But, it all starts to unravel with Anna’s death in what seemed to be a simple road accident. Was it only that? Or was somebody else responsible for her death?
Review:
The story starts on 13 May 2012, when Vicky Dean receives a call from David Price in her hungover state. That Anna was dead and that it was an accident. Vicky’s first thought was: What had they done?
It opens then to a lonely David four weeks later, the truth of having lost his wife not yet sunk in. Louisa Price, his mother, is helping with his kids Harper and Lewis, aged seven and five. But when his mother has had enough and makes him understand that he has to pull himself together and look after his kids, Vicky comes to the rescue in the form of a text message. And then she’s physically there, slowly settling herself into the family life she always craved but didn’t have.
Best friends since the age of thirteen, Vicky and Anna had been separated only during the latter’s University years where she met David. Coming from a well-to-do family, Anna had all the material comforts of life while since her mother’s death Vicky has had to suffer at the hands of her abusive father.
Everything was quiet now, the kind of silence that you only experience at night, dense, oppressive.
It has a perfect domestic setting, which won’t indicate anything untoward had I not read the blurb before. But there are eerie hints throughout, especially the way Vicky drops some of her thoughts or feelings. Narrated in the third person, this story is all about damaged people and their twisted sense of love. Do not speak ill of the dead, but was Anna really the Saint that her husband David made her out to be? Then there’s Vicky, who seems to be the one always suffering because of other people’s actions. And finally, David. Is he the victim in all this manipulation or is he a conspirator too. In everything that happened.
The story goes back into the past to September 1986, the day when Vicky befriended the posh Anna Maxwell. Anna’s nature, and Vicky’s as well, is a revelation throughout the story. The narration moves between the past and the present, with Vicky’s letters to the now-dead Anna establishing a chink in their friendly armour. But, with the story being revealed from each of the three individual’s perspective, whom to believe and whom not to? What is true and what is false? Who is saintly and who’s evil incarnate?
In all of the ensuing drama, my heart went out to the little kids. Without a mother and a father who doesn’t seem to know a thing about them, their habits, or what they like or don’t like, I was glad that David’s family was there to pick up some of the pieces and put it all into perspective for him.
…he could feel some of the broken pieces rattling around inside him start to fit together again, the edges knitting together like a healing wound.
There’s animal abuse as well as physical abuse in the story. This is a chilling story of a toxic friendship with some of the other characters no less venomous. I couldn’t fathom who was the biggest psychopath, as not even the author’s acknowledgement could make me believe ‘that no one’s perfect’. Something obviously didn’t work for me, it all seemed a bit too farfetched is all. Also, the story stretched over for my liking during the build-up to the climax. And, there also, I felt cheated. Maybe because I wanted more explanations as to what exactly happened. The going back and forth in time that was intriguing in the beginning, surrounding the mystery around Anna’s death, was just confusing at the end.
Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an e-ARC of the book.
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings