offbalance80's review against another edition
1.0
Annoying stereotypes making bad choices. Can we please get a novel where the two best friends aren't depicted as a sociopath and a doormat? Please?
mariagarnett's review against another edition
3.0
There were flashes of brilliance that sustained me, but mostly I felt that the book had been overhyped.
kbaird's review against another edition
5.0
I had high hopes for this novel and they did not disappoint. Friendship revolves around two friends, Amy and Bev. Amy is working girl on the way up in her career. Bev does not have a career. She is caught in between jobs and relies on Amy for morale support. Amy seems to have everything together, the job, the apartment, and the boyfriend. Bev almost has nothing. Bev and Amy take a job house sitting out in some remote part of New York and it changes everything. This trip sets things in motion for the girls- whether they know it or not. The house owner, Sally, imagines that she becomes friends with these girls and desperately wants them to be her real friends. Sally invites the girls back a few weeks later and things start to change. Before the second time to Sally's, Bev has taken some temp jobs and goes on a date with someone she met at the temp office. She ends up having sex with him (that she doesn't remember) and winds up pregnant. Amy is still with her boyfriend but wants to progress the relationship and her boyfriend is not so motivated to do so. Amy's landlord keeps raising her rent and Amy wonders if she and her boyfriend should just move in together. Amy and Bev take the weekend at Sally's to try and sell Bev's baby to Sally and her husband (Bev cannot seem to go through with the abortion) and for Amy to figure out her relationship status. Bev doesn't seem to want to sell her baby after talking with Sally; Sally wants to help out with the baby financially and physically. Bev decides to keep her baby for herself. Sally's husband finds his way to Amy's room on the last night and sleeps with Amy. Amy doesn't stop him. Amy is now more confused.
The girls return back to the city and their friendship takes a toll. Amy still doesn't want Bev to keep the baby and doesn't see why Bev wants to. Amy can't seem to break up with her boyfriend and be honest with him. She also gets evicted from her apartment. Amy quits her cushy job at a blog and winds up with nothing. She moves into an attic room and can't find a new job. Bev is still without a real job and becoming more pregnant. Bev runs into an old teacher from when she tried (and quit) grad school and gets her in touch with a friend of hers. Bev gets a retail job at a boutique baby store and gets her life back on track. Amy can't get anything going for her. She runs out of money and in an act of desperation, asks Bev for money. Bev is saving everything for the baby and tells her no. Amy can't believe Bev let her down and she has no other options. Amy moves out of NYC and back to her parents in DC. She gets a major reality check and humbles herself in the process. She finally finds a food service job and starts to put her life back together. Sally has fully entered Bev's life and divorced her cheating husband. She moved to the city and became Bev's new support when Amy abandoned her. Bev looks into getting back into grad school and get her writing going again. She wants a better life for herself and is making it happen.
I thought this was an honest look at female friendships. Bev and Amy are great friends and once the shoe is on the other foot for Amy, she can't handle it. She doesn't like that Bev has become more successful than her. Bev got her life on track when Amy's started to fall apart. Bev wanted to change her life and she did. Amy was too afraid to and only did so when she had no other option. I felt that I could relate to these friends and know how hard it is to pull yourself up when you have nothing. Amy fixed herself and her outlook on life and finally reached out to Bev in the end to say she was sorry. Sometimes in life, your friends never come to that realization and that friendship is gone forever. I'm glad Amy apologized to Bev and started to work on their friendship again. Friendship gets harder as you get older, but the ones that are worth it will always find a way to come back together, no matter how long they are apart.
The girls return back to the city and their friendship takes a toll. Amy still doesn't want Bev to keep the baby and doesn't see why Bev wants to. Amy can't seem to break up with her boyfriend and be honest with him. She also gets evicted from her apartment. Amy quits her cushy job at a blog and winds up with nothing. She moves into an attic room and can't find a new job. Bev is still without a real job and becoming more pregnant. Bev runs into an old teacher from when she tried (and quit) grad school and gets her in touch with a friend of hers. Bev gets a retail job at a boutique baby store and gets her life back on track. Amy can't get anything going for her. She runs out of money and in an act of desperation, asks Bev for money. Bev is saving everything for the baby and tells her no. Amy can't believe Bev let her down and she has no other options. Amy moves out of NYC and back to her parents in DC. She gets a major reality check and humbles herself in the process. She finally finds a food service job and starts to put her life back together. Sally has fully entered Bev's life and divorced her cheating husband. She moved to the city and became Bev's new support when Amy abandoned her. Bev looks into getting back into grad school and get her writing going again. She wants a better life for herself and is making it happen.
I thought this was an honest look at female friendships. Bev and Amy are great friends and once the shoe is on the other foot for Amy, she can't handle it. She doesn't like that Bev has become more successful than her. Bev got her life on track when Amy's started to fall apart. Bev wanted to change her life and she did. Amy was too afraid to and only did so when she had no other option. I felt that I could relate to these friends and know how hard it is to pull yourself up when you have nothing. Amy fixed herself and her outlook on life and finally reached out to Bev in the end to say she was sorry. Sometimes in life, your friends never come to that realization and that friendship is gone forever. I'm glad Amy apologized to Bev and started to work on their friendship again. Friendship gets harder as you get older, but the ones that are worth it will always find a way to come back together, no matter how long they are apart.
melissakuzma's review against another edition
4.0
Loved it. The only reason it's not getting 5 stars is that I didn't like how abruptly it ended (what else is new?) but otherwise it was pretty damn near a perfect book for me: NY, angst, inappropriate behavior, all the stuff I love I read about.
sonia_reppe's review against another edition
4.0
Bev and Amy are young women who are drifting through life, trying to figure out how to have (and keep) success and happiness. This is one of my favorite storylines, and the writing is really good so I enjoyed this, even when it became apparent that Amy was a horrible person, Thankfully there were other people who encouraged Bev, and helped her find a job (she was temping before). The end was a pleasant surprise, after so much empty living, because there were apologies and realizations of selfishness. The characters are very real and flawed, and it could have ended badly. I actually couldn't put this down.
Spoiler
pressuring Bev to get an abortion.asmithmc072's review against another edition
1.0
Predictable. As another person said all you need to read is the jacket. Both characters are difficult to like and you learn nothing from their mistakes...for the most part the still remain selfish even when they are supposed to grow-up. Amy was so beyond un-relatable it was hard to finish the book. Disappointed.
lola425's review against another edition
4.0
I was prepared to dislike this book. Expected the characters to be the usual brand of self-involved, whiny character that these types of "privileged twentyish-somethings with too much choice navigating friendship and the world" novels tend to be filled with. Not so. Not to say that Bev and Amy aren't self-absorbed, and in many ways lousy with choice. They are, it's just that somehow, Gould manages to make Bev and Amy real, not just vehicles to deliver chick-lit tropes. I can't say I liked Bev and Amy, but I wanted them to succeed. When Amy I found myself wanting to shout No! at her and talk her out of it, even though it was inevitable that she would be unable to stop any act of self-sabotage. As for Bev, while I didn't buy into the whole Sally as fairy godmother storyline, I did buy Bev's realization that even work that you once saw as beneath you can bring with it satisfactions, if you end up being good at it.
Sometimes letting go of your twenties is hard, particularly if the dreams you had for your life haven't exactly come true. Sometimes it can take you well into your thirties to make other plans. As you leave Bev and Amy at the end of Firendship, you suspect that they are at least making a start of it.
(Proud of myself for not once referencing the TV show Girls n my review!)
Spoiler
sleeps with Sally's husbandSometimes letting go of your twenties is hard, particularly if the dreams you had for your life haven't exactly come true. Sometimes it can take you well into your thirties to make other plans. As you leave Bev and Amy at the end of Firendship, you suspect that they are at least making a start of it.
(Proud of myself for not once referencing the TV show Girls n my review!)
fightandreadlikeagirl's review against another edition
<I don't know if this will have a spoiler so I am covering all it. More coming soon
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Abortion, and Vomit