Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner, Book released July 14, 2009
Weiner has once again produced an enchanting and touching novel as a follow up to her previous highly enjoyable ones.
This book is a perfect read for the beach, a captivating story about the unforeseen reunion between two best friends that life had long since drawn apart.
Addie and Valerie, once neighbors and schoolmates are reunited after fifteen years of estrangement. In the past Valerie had shunned Addie, making her appear ridiculous in front of her school friends, but now here she is after 15 years at Addie’s doorstep asking for help.
The situation is awkward, as the two schoolmates have to come to terms with their uncomfortable past relationship. Things become all the more tense as both women flee the town when Valerie accidentally hits the former high school jock thinking she has murdered him. Soon police chief Jordan pursues the two women as they escape together.
Weiner’s style can recall that of Jodi Picoult, as the narrative style switches from the first person, in Addie narrating the events onto the third person with Jordan giving the novel a typical thriller suspense tone. While Jordan as a character has many interesting traits, the women are the focal point of the novel, with there intricate relationship that develops into a real friendship from an complex start.
The novel frequently shifts from the present to the past in order to give the reader a comparison of the women’s relationship. These flashbacks artfully help to develop the characters throughout the story and can actually remind us of a stage set for a movie, rendering the story very active as you read on.
The novel is a great read full of deep romance with a splash of suspense, although the story concentrates on the principal elements of friendship. The characters of the novel are complex, compelling and real to life, with which the reader can relate to. This story could be a true one, where pain and loneliness come together with merriment and laughter, a truly emotional narrative of unbreakable friendship.
The ending comes quite unexpectedly and can lead the reader to ponder on how the elements fitted in a little too nicely the thriller theme of the book being a little weak and fading out at the end of the book.
However, the novel does make up for its shortcomings with the intensity of the narration and relationship between the two friends.
