Reviews with content warning for War - Firefly Lane

I know this came out in 2008, so I’m definitely late to the game (to be fair I was 9), but wow this book blew me away. I haven’t been moved by a book in this way in I don’t even know how long and I know it’s one I’m going to be thinking about for a long time.

I think what really hit me was how realistic and raw it was. We saw from the perspective of both girls/women and we really got to learn them and how they became who they are. They are flawed and messy and real and I fell in love with them both.

For anyone wanting to read about friendship and hardship and navigating life, I cannot recommend this enough! Also I feel like I have to call my mom now, idk.

Content Warnings

randeerebecca's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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isabellamarg's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"They had the music and the memories, and in those, they would always, always be together."

Firefly Lane was a beautiful, relatable, and all too realistic novel about friendship, motherhood, and family. Tully and Kate are two friends who become inseparable in their childhood and the novel follows them through high school, college, jobs, and motherhood.

Seeing female friendship so rawly portrayed was quite lovely. No matter what Kate and Tully stuck it out through their friendship and you knew that they had a deep love for each other (even if they did not say it out loud).

Kate ends up becoming a stay-at-home mom while Tully solely focuses on her career in news and broadcast journalism. The paths they both take are very different but it is interesting to see how both crave more even with their differences.

I thought the portrayal of motherhood was gut-wrenching. Kate and her daughter Marah start to have issues once she reaches her teen years, a common issue I would say when your child goes through adolescence. You give everything to your children only for them to disrespect you and not apologize for their actions. Many times though coming out of adolescence and as we grow older we begin to be friends with our parents and the relationship changes.

"Please God, she prayed, let me get old enough that someday we're friends."

An aspect of the novel that frustrated me was how Tully tried to be a friend to Marah instead of being a friend to Kate. This frustrated me but then again it also made me sad because we know that Tully did not have a good relationship with her mother and so she is seeking from Marah her idolization and respect. Tully as a character, in general, seemed to frustrate me and towards the end of the novel when I had figured out what was going to happen I felt sad for Kate. Luckily though we see Tully finally apologize for her actions (after never actually taking responsibility for her actions or apologizing pretty much her entire life) at the end of the novel which was great character development.

Overall, the last third of this book had me shedding silent tears and thinking deeply about life and how we choose to go about it. Kristin Hannah always seems to tug on my heart strings.

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michaelawatkins's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rlinnyc's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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A quote I liked:
"They were lovers, who didn't love each other, and that made talking easier" (118).

This is the second book of hers that I've dnfed. I really wanted to like this! The storyline seemed right up my alley but it just didn't hit for me. For one, if the author was trying to convince me that these two had a friendship that would stretch through every lifetime, she did an extremely poor job of showcasing that. I feel like the author did a lot of telling the reader that these girls are "best friends" and not a lot of showing it. I was not convinced that these two were best friends at all. Even how they met didn't seem significant or life-altering in any way. And when they did meet you could already feel a power imbalance between them. Kate was so desperate for a friend that she literally had no agency when it came to Tully. It's like she could never say "no" to her and the same pattern trickles on throughout all the pages that I read.

Like one of their first encounters is Tully forcing Kate into a makeover and Kate being the obedient sidekick that she is, just goes along with it to make Tully happy. Or when Tully's upset that her grandmother died so she convinces Kate to go to this party with her even though Kate and her both know that going isn't a good idea, but does Kate say anything nope and as a result, they literally get arrested!

Another instance: Kate decides she wants to be a reporter just because Tully wants to. And this stretches out for sooooo long that she literally ends up going to college to study broadcast & journalism and even gets a job where Tully works even though she literally isn't passionate about any of it.

I didn't even mind that these two were cliches of one another, but at least make them likable. At least make me root for their friendship!

I did like Tully at first. I really felt for her in terms of her upbringing and the things she had to go through. Weirdly enough I think it's her backstory that made her tolerable for me, but with Kate, I just found her super annoying from the get-go. She lives in this perfect little bubble where she's never had to face a single tragedy in her life and seems clueless about the struggles of the real world (which I understand is a part of her cliche, but I still found it annoying). She's so disrespectful to her mom in the beginning and I just don't get why. She's so desperate for friendship that she befriends the first person who gives her a little bit of attention. I just found her so pathetic.

A prime example is when she has a crush on her boss (for what?! i don't know; he literally pays her no mind and isn't all that nice to her, but I digress), but he's obviously into Tully and instead of moving on like a reasonable person she just continues to PINE and PINE and PINE after him even after seeing him kiss Tully. She buys him lunch. She offers emotional support for him. She even accepts him when he shows up drunk on her doorstep looking for TULLY!

Her thoughts: "Maybe she could get him to forget Tully or change his mind, maybe tonight she didn't care if she would be his second choice, or if it would be because of the booze. Love could grow from drunken passion, couldn't it" (157)? Like HOW PATHETIC CAN YOU BE?!🥴

This is also another quote from the book where Kate even admits that she plays second fiddle to Tully:
"If only she were like her friend—confident and sexy and willing to make a grab at whatever—and whomever—she wanted. Then she might have a chance, but the thought of Johnny's rejection, of a blank-eyed, Huh? kept her standing in the shadow. Tully's shadow to be precise. As always, Kate was the backup singer who never stepped into the spotlight........... Kate knew she should say no. The last thing she wanted to do was sit at the table and watch Johnny watch Tully—but what choice did she have? She was the sidekick. Rhoda Morgenstern. And wherever Mary went, Rhoda had to follow, even if it hurt like hell" (152-153).

And I'm supposed to believe their "best friends"?! Get real!

It was so hard to even feel bad for her because she legit puts herself in these situations!

Back to their "friendship". To me, it seemed like a thing of convenience because both of them were desperate for companionship when they were teenagers and it just stretched out for years because they've tricked themselves into believing that their friendship will transcend time or something. In real life, these girls would not be friends. Of course for the obvious reasons I've listed above, but also because Kate seems to hide herself from Tully and seems lowkey afraid of her. Like she's afraid of how Tully would view her.

I know I mentioned this before but I find it ridiculous that it's clear Kate doesn't have any interest in being a reporter but she's scared of how Tully will perceive her. Which is so stupid because if they were really best friends it wouldn't matter. This book is full of cliches but the cliche I can't get behind is the assumption that just because two people are best friends that means they should be attached to the hip and do everything under the sun together.

Oh, and when Katie does get some agency and tells Tully how she feels (about Tully having an affair with her professor) it's this whole fight. Tully just can't handle Katie's truth. And I don't think that's sold ground for a friendship. I know hiked on Kate a lot in this review, but honestly, Tully is no better. She usually isn't interested in the things Kate likes and is too self-absorbed to take Kate's opinions seriously. Their friendship is just so forced and you can't convince me otherwise.

I just can't understand how little agency someone would have to go above and beyond to impress something that's supposed to be their friend.

Overall this isn't a bad book, but it also wasn't anything phenomenal so I don't see any reason to continue if I wasn't enjoying it. If I had to give it a rating based on the portion that I did read, I'd give it a 3-star ⭐⭐⭐/5. (also, I thought the Firefly Lane Street would've served more significance and maybe it does later in the book, but if not the title it really does render the title of this book redundant)

spice rating: 🌶️.5/5

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abbiemaines's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book was good, I enjoyed the writing, but there were quite a few plot points/character interactions that regularly irritated me so I am only rating this a 3.25. I did cry though so Kristin certainly did her job:)

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leahhannon's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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