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The Myth of You and Me
When Cameron was fifteen, Sonia was her best friend—no one could come between them. Now Cameron is a twenty-nine-year-old research assistant with no meaningful ties to anyone except her aging boss, noted historian Oliver Doucet.
When an unexpected letter arrives from Sonia ten years after the incident that ended their friendship, Cameron doesn’t reply, despite Oliver’s urging. But then he passes away, and Cameron discovers that he has left her with one final to track down Sonia and hand-deliver a mysterious package to her. Now without a job, a home, and a purpose, Cameron decides to honor his request, setting off on the road to find this stranger who was once her inseparable other half.
The Myth of You and Me, the story of Cameron and Sonia’s friendship—as intense as any love affair—and its dramatic demise, captures the universal sense of loss and nostalgia that often lingers after the end of an important relationship. Searingly honest, beautiful, and full of fragile urgency, The Myth of You and Me is a celebration and portrait of a friendship that will appeal to anyone who still feels the absence of that first true friend.
Also available as a Random House AudioBook and an eBook
From the Hardcover edition.
When an unexpected letter arrives from Sonia ten years after the incident that ended their friendship, Cameron doesn’t reply, despite Oliver’s urging. But then he passes away, and Cameron discovers that he has left her with one final to track down Sonia and hand-deliver a mysterious package to her. Now without a job, a home, and a purpose, Cameron decides to honor his request, setting off on the road to find this stranger who was once her inseparable other half.
The Myth of You and Me, the story of Cameron and Sonia’s friendship—as intense as any love affair—and its dramatic demise, captures the universal sense of loss and nostalgia that often lingers after the end of an important relationship. Searingly honest, beautiful, and full of fragile urgency, The Myth of You and Me is a celebration and portrait of a friendship that will appeal to anyone who still feels the absence of that first true friend.
Also available as a Random House AudioBook and an eBook
From the Hardcover edition.
Hardcover
First published September 20, 2005
93 people are currently reading
5290 people want to read
About the author
Leah Stewart
15 books367 followersI'm the author of five novels: BODY OF A GIRL, THE MYTH OF YOU AND ME, HUSBAND AND WIFE, THE HISTORY OF US, and THE NEW NEIGHBOR. I teach in the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 693 reviews
May 30, 2007
Most women can attest that friendships go through many phases in life – some friends you keep, some you disconnect from entirely, some simply become names on a Christmas card list. Then there are best friends, the ones that shaped your life and the person you became. You can clearly remember everything about how you met; in some cases, you can remember exactly how your friendship collapsed.
The friendship between Cameron and Sonia, which began when they were 14, ends soon after college. Cameron is perfectly comfortable not looking back until Sonia sends her a letter, years later. Cameron’s aging employer, the only person Cameron remains close to, has one posthumous request – to find Sonia. Begrudgingly, she begins a journey that strings together her and Sonia’s past, of memories and places and relationships molded by their friendship. The ending, if not jaw-dropping, is quietly realistic.
The real pleasure of this book is the writing – it rocks back and forth between past events and present until the reader has a distinct understanding of Cameron’s character and why this friendship ended. There’s nothing particularly melodramatic or sensational about the story, but the intimate portrayal of two friends kept me up at night, reading. I absolutely loved this book.
The friendship between Cameron and Sonia, which began when they were 14, ends soon after college. Cameron is perfectly comfortable not looking back until Sonia sends her a letter, years later. Cameron’s aging employer, the only person Cameron remains close to, has one posthumous request – to find Sonia. Begrudgingly, she begins a journey that strings together her and Sonia’s past, of memories and places and relationships molded by their friendship. The ending, if not jaw-dropping, is quietly realistic.
The real pleasure of this book is the writing – it rocks back and forth between past events and present until the reader has a distinct understanding of Cameron’s character and why this friendship ended. There’s nothing particularly melodramatic or sensational about the story, but the intimate portrayal of two friends kept me up at night, reading. I absolutely loved this book.
April 8, 2009
I have to say I wasn't sure how I felt about this book while I was reading it. I never really felt much for the main character. Maybe we aren't suppose to really like her. She shut herself off from so many people, even her own parents, only allowing in a person here and there. And I found her to be really gloomy even when the moment didn't warrant it.
I also think aspects of Cameron's journey to find Sonia were interesting but some of it seemed too easy. All the people in Sonia's life seemed a little to free with information about her even allowing Cameron to look through her office. It was just weird to me. Not that it wasn't sometimes a compelling read, often it crossed over to being a little too far fetched for me.
I guess I was hoping for a little more depth from all the characters. I liked the book on a whole though and wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it.
I also think aspects of Cameron's journey to find Sonia were interesting but some of it seemed too easy. All the people in Sonia's life seemed a little to free with information about her even allowing Cameron to look through her office. It was just weird to me. Not that it wasn't sometimes a compelling read, often it crossed over to being a little too far fetched for me.
I guess I was hoping for a little more depth from all the characters. I liked the book on a whole though and wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it.
March 30, 2009
I loved this book from the beginning, and I loved it all the way through to the end. I could relate to it perfectly well - partly because I have always been the kind of girl to have pretty intensely strong female friendships and partly because I have seen first-hand how tenuous those friendships can actually be. Here's my favorite passage.
***
Adult friendship doesn't grant you an exclusive, isn't meant to be ranked above romance and family. I couldn't imagine ever living that moment again, when you say, with a shy and hopeful pride, "You're my best friend." The other person says it back and, there, you have chosen each other, out of everyone in the world. You have fallen in love and said so.
The teenagers looked nothing like Sonia and I had looked at their age. We had big hair - one of these girls had dyed hers blue. We wore Coke shirts and Swatches and acid-washed jeans. We said "fixin' to" and "dang", hung out with Southern Baptists, dated boys who drove pickup trucks. These girls probably snuck into rock clubs. They did drugs and went to poetry readings. They knew all about Zen Buddhism and read articles in The New Yorker. What I recognized was the way they kept looking at each other even though they were each talking to a boy. Every so often, they exchanged these quick, knowing glances, each making sure the other one was still there, still with her. I wondered how long their friendship would last, and I felt sorry for them, because they didn't know it wouldn't.
***
This passage was so real, so true for me that I could have written it myself (er, presuming that I could write as eloquently as Ms. Stewart, that is). It made me sad for the friendships that I've lost, and made me glad for those that I've managed to retain, even though they are now different as they've had to adjust to fit the adult world - and that's really how the whole book made me feel. As the title of the book notes, lost friendships can begin over time to feel as though they never were as you once remembered them - they were merely myths in your shared past.
For the transition of my own once-friends-turned-mythical, I am sorry. For my friendships that have made it through our crossing into the adult world, I am grateful. And I'm grateful to Leah Stewart for putting it all into words as poignantly as she did.
***
Adult friendship doesn't grant you an exclusive, isn't meant to be ranked above romance and family. I couldn't imagine ever living that moment again, when you say, with a shy and hopeful pride, "You're my best friend." The other person says it back and, there, you have chosen each other, out of everyone in the world. You have fallen in love and said so.
The teenagers looked nothing like Sonia and I had looked at their age. We had big hair - one of these girls had dyed hers blue. We wore Coke shirts and Swatches and acid-washed jeans. We said "fixin' to" and "dang", hung out with Southern Baptists, dated boys who drove pickup trucks. These girls probably snuck into rock clubs. They did drugs and went to poetry readings. They knew all about Zen Buddhism and read articles in The New Yorker. What I recognized was the way they kept looking at each other even though they were each talking to a boy. Every so often, they exchanged these quick, knowing glances, each making sure the other one was still there, still with her. I wondered how long their friendship would last, and I felt sorry for them, because they didn't know it wouldn't.
***
This passage was so real, so true for me that I could have written it myself (er, presuming that I could write as eloquently as Ms. Stewart, that is). It made me sad for the friendships that I've lost, and made me glad for those that I've managed to retain, even though they are now different as they've had to adjust to fit the adult world - and that's really how the whole book made me feel. As the title of the book notes, lost friendships can begin over time to feel as though they never were as you once remembered them - they were merely myths in your shared past.
For the transition of my own once-friends-turned-mythical, I am sorry. For my friendships that have made it through our crossing into the adult world, I am grateful. And I'm grateful to Leah Stewart for putting it all into words as poignantly as she did.
January 18, 2008
Some of my favorite lines from this book include:
pg 114: Adult friendship doesn't grant you an exclusive, isn't meant to be ranked above romance and family. I couldn't imagine ever living that moment again, when you say with a shy and hopeful pride, "you're my best friend." The other person says it back and, there you have chosen each other, out of everyone in the world. You have fallen in love and said so."
pg 137: "A happy ending isn't really the end. It's just the place where you choose to stop telling the story. Why not make everything work out when you have the chance?"
pg 140: "The first time you fall in love, it's like you've created the first love in the universe, and the first time someone you love dies, you grieve the universe's first death."
pg 114: Adult friendship doesn't grant you an exclusive, isn't meant to be ranked above romance and family. I couldn't imagine ever living that moment again, when you say with a shy and hopeful pride, "you're my best friend." The other person says it back and, there you have chosen each other, out of everyone in the world. You have fallen in love and said so."
pg 137: "A happy ending isn't really the end. It's just the place where you choose to stop telling the story. Why not make everything work out when you have the chance?"
pg 140: "The first time you fall in love, it's like you've created the first love in the universe, and the first time someone you love dies, you grieve the universe's first death."
September 15, 2007
As a perpetually single person, I greatly appreciate books that take friendships as seriously as romantic relationships. As the main character states, friendships are a lot like relationships. At times you will sleep next to that person, you will feel hope and loss with that person, you will eat hundreds of dinners with that person, and you feel a sense of responsibility to that person.
From beginning to end, this was another one of those books that speaks truths about life in a way that wraps it all up. There were a lot of "Ah ha! THAT'S the meaning of life!" moments.
My favorite philosophical statements dealt with the themes of relationships over time. Does everything run on a loop? Is the beginning as important as the end? Are you the same person if that friend is no longer in your life? Do you exist as a separate entity, or as the sum of the parts of your life and your relationships with others?
Favorite Quotes:
"A person is not a suitcase, with a finite number of items to unpack. A person is a world. Look at any photograph - of a stranger, your father, your best friend. Sometimes the mystery is all you can see."
"You know...a happy ending isn't really the end. It's just the place where you choose to stop telling the story."
"All at once it strikes me that as well as I know Sonia, I know only one version of her - that all you know of a life are the places where it touches your own. Under the fluorescent lights of the waiting room I'm catching a glimpse of the places where I don't exist. It's strange and diminishing, like looking through a telescope at the stars."
"Once you know the end of the story, every part of the story contains that end, and is only a way of reaching it."
From beginning to end, this was another one of those books that speaks truths about life in a way that wraps it all up. There were a lot of "Ah ha! THAT'S the meaning of life!" moments.
My favorite philosophical statements dealt with the themes of relationships over time. Does everything run on a loop? Is the beginning as important as the end? Are you the same person if that friend is no longer in your life? Do you exist as a separate entity, or as the sum of the parts of your life and your relationships with others?
Favorite Quotes:
"A person is not a suitcase, with a finite number of items to unpack. A person is a world. Look at any photograph - of a stranger, your father, your best friend. Sometimes the mystery is all you can see."
"You know...a happy ending isn't really the end. It's just the place where you choose to stop telling the story."
"All at once it strikes me that as well as I know Sonia, I know only one version of her - that all you know of a life are the places where it touches your own. Under the fluorescent lights of the waiting room I'm catching a glimpse of the places where I don't exist. It's strange and diminishing, like looking through a telescope at the stars."
"Once you know the end of the story, every part of the story contains that end, and is only a way of reaching it."
September 25, 2008
I just finished this book that came highly recommended to me by Laura and she was right. Amazing book. Very lyrically written....it grips you and you really start to feel what Cameron is feeling. Even what Sonia is feeling. Every girl has had a friendship like these two have and this book exemplifies what that's like. A friendship that starts early where you become like sisters (or even more than that) like "one" and then something happens. Something occurs as it always does in life to rip the two of you apart and you have to decide....can we ever get back to the way we were?? Excellent book! Thank you Laura for sending me this!!
December 3, 2008
It took me about two weeks to read the first 150 pages of this book and then one night to read the rest. This book starts slowly but it quickly builds into a fantastic story. There's mystery! (Where is this friend!? What's in the package!? Why did they stop being friends!?) A hopeful love story!!! (You mean that guy I had a crush on high school might actually come back into my life!!!???) And well developed supporting characters!!! (The violent french speaking mother!! The surprisingly warm and supportive daughter of her boss!) Although I haven't had much use for adult fiction lately, I loved this book and will happily read it again and again.
September 16, 2020
This is the story of Cameron, a lonely young woman who won't admit she's lonely. She blames an old friend for the demise of their relationship, and refuses to bridge the gap. When her elderly employer dies, he sends her on what seems to be a wild goose chase to find this friend and deliver a gift. Along the way, Cameron reconnects with her past and eventually has to admit that she, too, is to blame. I found it hard to set the book aside.
As an aspiring author, I found the use of flashback chapters really striking and effective. Worth modeling.
As an aspiring author, I found the use of flashback chapters really striking and effective. Worth modeling.
August 1, 2011
Enjoyed reading this at points, didn't enjoy it in others. Couldn't decide if the main character was too self absorbed to be likeable. Her best friend had so many other things hurting/hindering her and yet the main character was always "poor me." Redeeming factor was the add on of real people's best friend stories!
September 13, 2020
After a slow start, I then couldn’t put this book down (even if it was a little twee). The book is a reminder of special friendships and bonds forged in your teenage years
But I have one issue - if Will knew where Sonia was all along, why did he let Cameron go back to New York and then to Brooklyn looking for her before he told her where she was????
But I have one issue - if Will knew where Sonia was all along, why did he let Cameron go back to New York and then to Brooklyn looking for her before he told her where she was????
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2015
I'm not sure where I heard about this book from, whether it was a blog, podcast or newsletter, but I'm sure glad I read it! This was a wonderful story, an original story that is very well told.
This story is of two girls, childhood friends through college, until a tragedy happens that effects them both so much they aren't friends anymore. Shoot forward a number of years and they are reunited in the most puzzled, maze-like way that draws the reader in to the point they don't want to put the book down for fear that they will miss something. Everything from the storyline, to the characters and their insecurities (I love reading about the insecurities with Cameron's height and Sonia's issue with numbers, they aren't like any I have read before) was a joy to read about, easy to feel their frustration or sadness.
I haven't read anything else by Leah Stewart, but judging from this novel I will definitely be looking for more of her work. Lying deep in this story is a moral so deep you almost want to read it again so you can look at the plot from a completely different angle. I recommend this one for sure, I really enjoyed my reading experience with this one. :)
This story is of two girls, childhood friends through college, until a tragedy happens that effects them both so much they aren't friends anymore. Shoot forward a number of years and they are reunited in the most puzzled, maze-like way that draws the reader in to the point they don't want to put the book down for fear that they will miss something. Everything from the storyline, to the characters and their insecurities (I love reading about the insecurities with Cameron's height and Sonia's issue with numbers, they aren't like any I have read before) was a joy to read about, easy to feel their frustration or sadness.
I haven't read anything else by Leah Stewart, but judging from this novel I will definitely be looking for more of her work. Lying deep in this story is a moral so deep you almost want to read it again so you can look at the plot from a completely different angle. I recommend this one for sure, I really enjoyed my reading experience with this one. :)
August 4, 2013
This was a book I kinda blew off to-do stuff to read. Laundry went unfolded, dishes sat undone, and I didn't care. I just wanted to read it.
It resonated with me since I also had a best friend for many years who I no longer am frenz with. Although it was not for the same reason, the way the story wended its way from past to present made me think of this long lost friend, and how when your childhood memories are inextricably woven with another person, especially when that person has exited your life, leaves you missing a little bit of yourself. I can see how one might come to believe it could all be just myth, or wisps of smoke floating through your memory, never quite finding their moorings.
Leah did a great job - multidimensional, strongly built characters, and overall a solid thumbs up from me.
It resonated with me since I also had a best friend for many years who I no longer am frenz with. Although it was not for the same reason, the way the story wended its way from past to present made me think of this long lost friend, and how when your childhood memories are inextricably woven with another person, especially when that person has exited your life, leaves you missing a little bit of yourself. I can see how one might come to believe it could all be just myth, or wisps of smoke floating through your memory, never quite finding their moorings.
Leah did a great job - multidimensional, strongly built characters, and overall a solid thumbs up from me.
June 22, 2008
I have had this one on my shelf for over a year. I just got around to reading it this weekend and I loved it. I think this is one of the most mature expressions of forgiveness and the loss of adolescence that I have found. On that note, people either love it or hate it (see other reviews). Some say that they didn't buy Cameron's character because she seemed flawless. I don't see this at all. In fact, I think that Cameron thinks she is flawless in certain ways but comes to see that she is just as screwed up as everyone else. Others claim that there is an anti-feminist angle to the novel. Again, I don't really see this either, but each to his/her own. Anyway, I loved the book and I could not put it down.
December 1, 2007
Is there an unforgiveable sin? If so, what is it, and if you choose not to forgive a transgression, who is punished more -- the sinner or the victim? In this sensitive portrayal of friendship and loss, Leah Stewart investigates the many facets of friendship, the question of how much you can truly know someone, and how we can never truly protect ourselves from pain, no matter how hard we try.
For the most part, I thought this book was extremely well-written, though the plot was a bit far-fetched. Her characters were vivid and alive, and very believable -- so believable that I was willing to overlook the way-too-coincidental elements.
A fascinating, provocative look at friendship.
For the most part, I thought this book was extremely well-written, though the plot was a bit far-fetched. Her characters were vivid and alive, and very believable -- so believable that I was willing to overlook the way-too-coincidental elements.
A fascinating, provocative look at friendship.
February 26, 2016
This piece of fiction reads nearly like memoir. Early bonds of female friendship often hit bumpy roads. Well, maybe all. But females share deeper secrets, the amount of trust and reveal more complex and seemingly without reservation. So this tale caught my interest as in that I am, female. And I have trusted and been betrayed. Though never to the complicated extent as this plot and never so involved and yet detached.
Great four main characters and the plot will pull you along. You can't guess its ending. I did enjoy this read.
Great four main characters and the plot will pull you along. You can't guess its ending. I did enjoy this read.
August 15, 2007
This book is about the friendship between two young woman and the story flashes back between past and present. It takes them from their early youth all the way through to adulthood. It's an easy read but the story draws you in. I felt myself dying to know what happens in the end with their friendship. Great book that I recommend to everyone.
June 10, 2015
Oh Camazon, I actually really didn't like you as a person. You are everything I am not in a lot of ways, and I had a hard time relating. In a some ways it's why I liked the book too, to change how I think about life and love and see a really complex friendship from another angle. Good story, even if I felt it dragged a tag from the get go.
December 3, 2017
There's a gaping hole where my heart once rested. Stewart's tale of two women, former best friends Cameron and Sonia, is almost a romance, on how relationships change over time and the stories we tell ourselves to confirm or deny present reality without these formerly important people. I love juxtaposing reads against each other and as a result often find themes in seemingly odd places. In fact, my previous book was Fight Club, so as narrator Cameron details her past stories of Sonia, never speaking (or seeing her) in the present, I couldn't help but think the former friends were one person. And this isn't exactly accurate. Instead, it's Cameron telling the reader what she knows to be true. It's contradictory, and the story is naturally nonlinear consequently. But, just like in Fight Club, people never fully present themselves, privately or publicly, so the reader must decide what to believe. This tome is so much more than the pains and pleasures of friendship. It's a guest for identity, belonging. Be prepared for uneasy, raw reading!
November 10, 2017
I was disappointed by too-obvious reason behind the break in Sonia and Cameron's friendship (it was about a guy). But I liked the exploration of their teenage friendship--a bond based on the shared experience of family dysfunction and a need to find someone who understands how that makes the struggle to discover who you are even more difficult.
July 15, 2018
A beautifully written, thoughtful look at the love story of a friendship.
November 14, 2017
The main characters went to Vanderbilt, so that was fun.
February 12, 2021
Oddio, sto diventando una da romance, non che ci sia qualcosa di male nei romance ma non mi hanno mai pienamente soddisfatta, sono sempre così prevedibili e invece... invece sto iniziando ad apprezzarli; continuerò su questa strada fino a che non scoverò un romance prevedibile e darò seguito alle mie congetture iniziali.
Per quanto riguarda questo libro, molto carino, scorrevole, si legge in fretta e ti tiene incollata, alcune parti a mio parere congedate con un po’ troppa fretta ma tutto sommato non male.
Per quanto riguarda questo libro, molto carino, scorrevole, si legge in fretta e ti tiene incollata, alcune parti a mio parere congedate con un po’ troppa fretta ma tutto sommato non male.
March 16, 2023
This story reminded me of Ordinary People by Sally Rooney. The angst of youth propels the reader to continue turning the pages.
The ending while understandable was a tad unfulfilling.
February 25, 2017
I've w amted to read this bok for years and I'm so so glad did. Very good story and very thought-provoking! There are so many good topics for thought and discussion in this book. Great work Leah Stewart!! I am anxious to read more of her work.
Reading this book me want to call my best friend from high school whom I had, until two years ago, lost touch with for 40+ years.
Here's a line from the book that left its mark on me:
"here's nothing lonelier than being angry at domeone who's indifferent to your anger. It's like playing catch off a wall by yourself. Everything you feel just bounces back to you."
Reading this book me want to call my best friend from high school whom I had, until two years ago, lost touch with for 40+ years.
Here's a line from the book that left its mark on me:
"here's nothing lonelier than being angry at domeone who's indifferent to your anger. It's like playing catch off a wall by yourself. Everything you feel just bounces back to you."
May 27, 2025
Here was the secret of this house, the thing it took bravery to face -- that to go on loving someone means to over and over again allow the necessary pain.
Leah Stewart's "The Myth of You and Me" (273)
I originally picked up this book because I loved the cover...my favorite color is red and I was sucked in by sassy red mitten and hand holding. Then I was expecting an overly sentimental tale about best friends, but what I got was a beautifully written story of two friends who made choices that changed them forever. As a person who has lost a best friend, this book touched me immensely. I've read the book several times now and each time I am in awe of Stewart's vivid story telling. I've given this book to everyone I know and I love hearing people tell me they enjoyed it as much as I did.
Quotes I loved:
"So Sonia was not my only, or even my first, best friend. She was the last. It wasn’t that I hadn’t made friends since, just that I thought myself past the age of that particular kind of friendship."
"Adult friendship doesn’t grant you an exclusive, isn’t meant to be ranked above romance and family. I couldn’t imagine ever living that moment again, when you say, with a shy and hopeful pride, 'You’re my best friend.' The other person says it back and, there, you have chosen each other, out of everyone in the world. You have fallen in love and said so."
"All at once it strikes me that as well as I know Sonia, I know only one version of her—that all you know of a life are the places where it touches your own."
"For some reason I feel slightly affronted. I say, 'I’m a realist.' Sonia laughs. 'You’re not a realist,' she says. 'You’re a dreamer who doesn’t believe in the dream.'"
EDIT May 2013: After at least 6 additional reads, I still love this book as much as the first time I read it. The story holds up as beautiful and personal.
EDIT 5/26/25: I haven't read this book in over a decade, and it's been nearly 20 years since I read it for the first time. A lot has happened in those 20 years, including heartbreaking friend breakups. I will still call this one of my favorite novels and I still love it just the same as I did 20 years ago.
Leah Stewart's "The Myth of You and Me" (273)
I originally picked up this book because I loved the cover...my favorite color is red and I was sucked in by sassy red mitten and hand holding. Then I was expecting an overly sentimental tale about best friends, but what I got was a beautifully written story of two friends who made choices that changed them forever. As a person who has lost a best friend, this book touched me immensely. I've read the book several times now and each time I am in awe of Stewart's vivid story telling. I've given this book to everyone I know and I love hearing people tell me they enjoyed it as much as I did.
Quotes I loved:
"So Sonia was not my only, or even my first, best friend. She was the last. It wasn’t that I hadn’t made friends since, just that I thought myself past the age of that particular kind of friendship."
"Adult friendship doesn’t grant you an exclusive, isn’t meant to be ranked above romance and family. I couldn’t imagine ever living that moment again, when you say, with a shy and hopeful pride, 'You’re my best friend.' The other person says it back and, there, you have chosen each other, out of everyone in the world. You have fallen in love and said so."
"All at once it strikes me that as well as I know Sonia, I know only one version of her—that all you know of a life are the places where it touches your own."
"For some reason I feel slightly affronted. I say, 'I’m a realist.' Sonia laughs. 'You’re not a realist,' she says. 'You’re a dreamer who doesn’t believe in the dream.'"
EDIT May 2013: After at least 6 additional reads, I still love this book as much as the first time I read it. The story holds up as beautiful and personal.
EDIT 5/26/25: I haven't read this book in over a decade, and it's been nearly 20 years since I read it for the first time. A lot has happened in those 20 years, including heartbreaking friend breakups. I will still call this one of my favorite novels and I still love it just the same as I did 20 years ago.
January 3, 2016
I have been bad about setting aside all other distractions and actually READING A BOOK this year, and I have had to really examine how I want to actually spend my time and reevaluate priorities. Reading is something I love and that's good for me, so why is it so hard to just do it already? I think it's just that there are so many other choices now...I so infrequently don't have access to any hundreds of games via phone, computer, or game system, which means that meaningful pastimes need to be scheduled in, as they no longer fill the little spaces of time when I now find myself texting, on fb, on pinterest, or playing (shamefully enough) candy crush soda saga.
Long story short, I started this book and was immediately hooked. As I was drawing near the end, I started to think about my opinion of the book - how did I feel about it? And I came up with some real drawbacks to the novel...and then I decided that these were character flaws, rather than any defect in the writing. The characters made mistakes, led messy lives, questioned their motives, chose the wrong path, and did each other wrong. They were so very human! I think it's one of the best illustrations of real friendship out there.
More complex than I expected, with writing that impressed me as well (again, too much reading of novels that were self-published!).
Highly recommend to anyone who has ever had a "best friend" who knew you better than anyone, and to any woman who has had complicated relationships with female friends.
Long story short, I started this book and was immediately hooked. As I was drawing near the end, I started to think about my opinion of the book - how did I feel about it? And I came up with some real drawbacks to the novel...and then I decided that these were character flaws, rather than any defect in the writing. The characters made mistakes, led messy lives, questioned their motives, chose the wrong path, and did each other wrong. They were so very human! I think it's one of the best illustrations of real friendship out there.
More complex than I expected, with writing that impressed me as well (again, too much reading of novels that were self-published!).
Highly recommend to anyone who has ever had a "best friend" who knew you better than anyone, and to any woman who has had complicated relationships with female friends.
September 23, 2007
This book was surprisingly wonderful! I definately reccommend it to those that like beautifully written, emotionally telling stories. It's an introspective work about love, relationships, loss, pain, anger, lonliness, disappointment, happiness, change, identity, and just plain old trying to be a person in this often intense world (Did I forget anything? I'm sure I did!). I don't want to over-hype it, as I went into it with low expectations, which likely lent to my glowing review. I was most impressed with her writing. She has a poetic and thoughtful way of describing interactions and experiences and how we process and relate to them.
September 1, 2015
As I began to read the story of Cameron and Sonia, I quickly realized that this book was no ordinary read. The words and language used portrayed the story of two young girls who were so much in love with each other that there lives were never the same even when they were no longer a daily part of each other's lives. As I read the story I thought of my own life growing up and the friends that I had loved and lost. I thought of the pain that both Cameron and Sonia had felt when their relationship fell apart. I thought of how lonely they must of felt in those days and weeks after they had quit speaking.
February 1, 2021
This book stuck with me. I don't really know why I was so affected by it. I really like the way she writes. I really liked the flashbacks. I related to so much of Cameron. I actually got out my highlighter and started marking lines that I loved. I guess this review doesn't really tell much about the actual book. Sorry. I just felt compelled to say something because I enjoyed it so much. I recommend it for anyone who misses their childhood best friend...or feels lost...or just needs to know that someone gets it.
September 9, 2017
This was on my "to read" list for such a long time...I finally decided to dust it off (figuratively, not literally) when I was reminded of it, after it was offered as a "Goodreads deal", the other day. It is a story of a childhood friendship, and its dramatic demise, and was supposed to appeal to anyone who still feels the absence of that first true friend. I could "buy into" what ended the friendship. But, not what happened in their lives once the past was confronted. And, for such an emotional topic, the book just did not make me feel anything!! For that reason alone, just 3 stars.
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