So, I choice this book because a friend of mine (that took this course a couple years ago) loves it and recommended it to me rather aggressively.
The prologue, I loved. To me it felt a little like a set up to a mystery novel. Like Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn but with more of an emphasis on the friendship between the two girls and not the disappearance itself. It did kinda end up being like that. The book goes into the girls childhood and adolescence and how their friendship grew. I thought it might tie into the disappearance of Lila but it didn’t. This is the first book of a quartet so hopefully the answer to her disappearance is in the following books.
The childhood part I liked less. The only reason being the formatting of it. Each chapter would be a different time in their childhood that then connected to something else, such as them climbing up the stairs to get to Don Achille’s place but then going to the story of them throwing their dolls which then connects back to why they are going to Don Achille. I don’t hate it, but I think I may have liked it better if they chapters were in order chronologically, or even if each chapter had dates which we could use to see when these stories took place.
The adolescence portion of the book I liked. It was chronological in order. It read like a coming-of-age story.
What I really loved was how the friendship between Lila, Elena, and Carmela. A group of girls will always have a leader and the other girls will always try to be the ‘closest’ or the most like the leader. It was like that in my group of friends in elementary school. One girl was the leader and her I were friends before the other girl joined. The jealousy that is written is done very well because I related. I was jealous when they started hanging out together more.
It was surprising to see that they were still friends years later, because I didn’t stay friends with my group from elementary school. It was toxic. This reminds me of Sociology of Personal Life class I took last semester. My table group (which was all girls) experienced similar things with friends and having a leader who isn’t a great friend. They end up staying in that leader position because we follow them and want to be them and will compete with our other friends for that position of being the right-hand (wo)man.
Lila does end up being a better friend as they get older which does explain how they stay friends years later.
Discussion Question: Did you ever have a friend group that was toxic? A group where the leader was clearly not a good friend but you still followed them around? Do you thing you would be able to stay friends with them?