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Marlena

Julie Buntin

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What Members Thought

Oct 28, 2017 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: united-states, contemporary, small-town, audio, newtome2017

This was a 3.5 read for me.
Thoughts coming shortly

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May 02, 2025 Chantal rated it it was amazing

In Marlena by Julie Buntin, Cat becomes captivated by her magnetic, yet tragically vulnerable next door neighbor, Marlena. After her Dad leaves them, Cat and the rest of the family move to Silver Lake, a small Northern Michigan community, where they hope to start over.

Cat is soon spending every minute with her new neighbor and friend, Marlena. Older and more sophisticated, Marlena takes Cat down a typical wormhole of drugs and alcohol.

An older wiser Cat narrates the story while flashbacks tell ...more

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Mar 26, 2017 Jillian rated it really liked it

A really intense, believable, and realistic piece of fiction about adolescent female relationships: the piercing love unlike anything else, the confusion, the jealousy, the idolization, and ultimately the pain of the loss of it.

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Sep 19, 2018 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Toxic female friendships. Gets me every time.

Made me think of Lorrie Moore, and then I looked at the cover when I was done to realize she had blurbed the novel and that's what made me decide to read it in the first place. ...more

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