A review by ablotial
When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk

2.0

I picked this up at a local Little Free Library based on the description on the back, which seemed interesting based on a certain friendship imploding in my own life. Of course, this book was nothing like mine. Cleo and Layla had the kind of friendship I have only dreamed of having in my life - true best friends for years who always did everything together and told each other everything and boost each other up. But as they transition to high school Layla, who is a talented singer despite her prominent lisp, decides to join the choir and falls in with a group of girls who dislike her best friend and are downright rude to her. The girls all become rude and jealous and petty and go out of their ways to hurt each other, on both sides, and in the end, the friendship cannot be salvaged. There's also a side story about the relationship between Cleo's parents involving her favorite teacher.

For me, the book won't be a game changer or be very memorable. A lot of it felt forced and over the top and an exaggeration of what could happen in real life. Its most redeeming quality to me was the relationship between Cleo and Dom, which was cute and well written and evolved nicely. But maybe a big part of it is just that I just find it difficult to imagine the sort of friendship that Cleo and Layla had before the implosion and so the whole premise seemed hard for me to stomach. The things they were doing, the things Cleo thought ... has never been me. But I do know of friends in elementary and middle school who were inseparable, so maybe they would understand this book a lot better.

I put it in another Little Free Library at a local high school.