This was a really good book but is there anything narrated by Marin Ireland that she doesn‘t make better??
This was a really good book but is there anything narrated by Marin Ireland that she doesn‘t make better??
I thought the mc and her best friend were well drawn characters. I enjoyed the epilogue, it‘s interesting how we look back on friendships in our lives and often see them differently and more clearly. I think of Bob Dylan‘s line
‘Ain‘t it hard when you discover that he really wasn‘t where it‘s at .. ‘
The good writing kept me going until the end , but I felt disconnected from the book. A pick/so-so.
Books like this are satisfying for me on the basis of writing style alone. The plot is almost besides the point - descriptors like 'missing girl' and 'coming of age' are true for countless novels. Vida makes this one memorable through her wry humor and keen observations for how teenagers interact. And there are moments that crystallize just how awful those teenage years can truly be.
I actually really liked this novel. It is an interesting coming-of-age story about two friends, Eulabee and Maria Fabiola. When Eulabee and Maria Fabiola disagree about a lude event occurring, Eulabee is an outcast from her friend group. It isn't until Maria Fabiola is kidnapped that Eulabee second guessed herself. Interesting story about the tangled webs we weave. I liked it on audiobook, probably because of the narrator. Either way ‐⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Thanks so much Emma! I think I must have stacked this as a result of your review and then promptly forgot all about it, so a brilliant surprise! @Oryx 😘
Cute story. However, I am noticing a theme in much of the recent fiction I have been reading. Many of the young female narrators/main characters are self-obsessed, snarky, and sometimes manipulative. I‘m not sure if it‘s some kind of commentary on the reality of women‘s inner dialogues compared to the societal standard of politeness and sweetness but…it could also just be that that‘s the kind of fiction I gravitate towards. Hard to tell
I enjoyed this tale of a young girl and her set of friends at an exclusive girls school in a swanky San Fran neighborhood in the 70s. Eulabee wrestles with fitting in and being true. I really liked the epilogue, set some decades later.
2-8-22: My 12th finished book of 2022! Eulabee is in 8th grade at an all girls school in San Fran in 1984. She and her 3 friends are very close until Eulabee decides she can‘t lie. After the mysterious disappearance of her best friend, Maria Fabiola, Eulabee feels more left out than ever. A fast paced coming of age tale with an interesting ending. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣
San Francisco setting plus characters that feel incredibly genuine and a clever plot, this was definitely worth my time. Took me straight back to being in 8th grade in the 80s, but in a good way.
...it started off as a sewing group called the Stitch 'N' Bitch but it's been a year or so since anyone's brought their dress patterns or quilt squares to the monthly meetings. Last winter my mom started calling it the Bitch 'N' Bitch because she wanted to chide the members about their constant complaining and cajole them into focusing on sewing. Her ploy backfired— the group loved the phrase so much that they adopted it as their official name.
Loved this one - tore through it. Mysterious, dreamy but propulsive. It reminded me of The Age of Miracles.
I swore I was going on a book buying ban... But then I accidentally went into a bookshop. It happens to the best of us.
In 1980s pre-tech boom San Francisco, teenage Eulabee has a falling out with her best friends when they disagree over whether they saw something shocking. And then the lies seep into other parts of their lives when one girl goes missing. A quick read but I especially liked the flash forward at the end.
Meh. I‘m not sure if this was supposed to be YA or not, but it was really disjointed in my opinion. It was a very quick read though!
An entertaining, if not incredibly moving coming of age novel set in 1980s San Francisco. This tapped into some of those early teen girl feelings which I could relate to. I appreciated the way friendships were portrayed:the wild & strangeness of some of those relationships before anyone knows better/who they are. Maria Fabiola is the main focus of Eulabee, our MC. She takes on an almost mythical aura and comes into sharper focus in the epilogue.
Maria Fabiolo has disappeared, and Eulabee, who Maria just cast our of her friend group, is the only one who finds it suspicious that Maria may have fabricated a lie. Vida captures well the insularity and infighting that come during the teen years. Cool that she set it in the 80s, too!
I couldn‘t help but draw parallels between my childhood friend Stacy and Maria. Stacy‘s pattern of lying was very similar. I looked Stacy up after my last read ⬇️
Our home repairs hit another level when they started taking apart the deck. We‘ve decided to start over and rebuild the whole thing because the wood was rotting. 🤞🏻 Everything goes smoothly!
I spun my Wheel of Rereads this afternoon and I‘m listening to the tagged book now. 🎧 Going to try to have a relaxing evening!
I chose this audiobook for #booked2021 #hear/here because being set in San Francisco it satisfies both options for the prompt. Sadly I didn‘t like it as much as everyone else does. Vida does a great job with the mean girls aspects of school girls which brought back so many memories. I got bored with it all though before the plot took some eye-roll inducing turns.
Ah, the voices of precocious teenagers who think they‘re much more adult than they actually are. this is a novel of a different time and a different kind of adolescence. Vida‘s strength is her incisive portrayal of the social politics of adolescent relationships. Their complexity and savagery looms large in every scene of this novel. Vida captures the richness of adolescent life in both its interior and increasingly independent exterior forms.
This book is really great at evoking the claustrophobia of teenage years, when friends fall out and it feels like the end of the world.
It‘s set in 1980s San Francisco where Eulabee has a friend (Maria Fabiola!) who seems to eclipse all their other friends and mesmerise even adults.
I read this in practically one sitting - highly recommended!
I really appreciated the angst of being a young teenager in the mid-80s since I was one, and Vida captured some spot-on anguish from that time of my life.
However, Eulabee alternated from being too naive to too sophisticated, and the end of the book went off the rails, so I had to give this one a so-so.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A poignant and quirky coming-of-age story of formative female friendships, the loss of innocence, and finding yourself. I really enjoyed Eulabee‘s observant and darkly humorous narration and thought Vida nailed the voice of a young teen. (Also, Maria Fabiola is a great name for that character!) 🎧
This was a great coming-of-age book. While I am more than 20 years from my early teenage years, I didn‘t quite identify with the main character however my own 13-year-old self could a little bit. I grew up in Central Florida where life moved at a much different pace than San Francisco, but there are definitely some similar themes that most teens go through. I enjoyed the story line an will look for other books by this author.
Book 15 in 2021
I ended up liking this book more than I initially expected. A coming of age story, where childhood friendships are often tested & strained over the slightest of infringements. And 80‘s nostalgia is on full display🙌🏻I found the epilogue really satisfying and the narration was excellent. Thanks for putting this one on my #ReadersRadar @Megabooks Definitely curious to check out the author‘s backlist 💕
“Maria Fabiola” what a name!! Every time the narrator says her name, I break out in a grin 😁Eulabee is quite a character too.
1984 in all of it‘s glory 💗 Fiorucci and Esprit, The Kinks & The Psychedelic Furs 🎶🎵🖤A coming of age story full of hilarity and sadness.
“𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦. 𝘛𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦.”
One of those compulsively readable novels. I can't explain exactly what makes it this way, but I was completely unable to put the book down. A true coming of age story with an excellent atmospheric feel to it.
For the most part I really enjoyed this story about a group of friends growing up in a pre-tech boom gentrified San Francisco...by which I mean the 80s. The main character, Eulabee, is absolutely wonderful, the friend drama real, and the consequences of a mysterious disappearance uncertain. My only real quibble is with the end which I‘m not entirely convinced works. That being said, I enjoyed this quick read and still recommend it.
Sneaking in a couple of chapters before heading off to work...
This book was a delightful change of pace.Told from the POV of a teenager but not YA. It was blurbed as a mystery but it's definitely more about friendship and teenage angst than anything. There were several points where I laughed out loud at Eualbee's perceptions of the world and adults' behaviors. There was a bit of jump between the end of the story and the epilogue - I definitely wanted more at the end. Overall, quirky and fun. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“We are thirteen, almost fourteen, and these streets of Sea Cliff are ours.” #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
Snow on the ground. Hot chocolate in my cup. Life is good ❄️
I've read all of Vendela Vida's novels. This one isn't my favorite, but it was captivating nonetheless. A coming-of-age story, set mostly in mid-80's San Francisco, this book explored the joy and heartbreak of middle school girl friendships. Eulabee was funny and sharp and the writing, like all Vida's work, was impeccable.
So glad I splurged on this! Like in her book tagged ⬇️, Vida looks at characters who blur the line between fact & fiction. This time, she focuses on a group well known for bending the truth, teen girls.
Maria Fabiola creates fantastic lies. So did my childhood friend Stacy, who told the most outrageous lies like boys were stalking her in her swimming pool with helicopters.**😂 These 80s teens had a bombastic wittiness I loved! Awesome #audiobook!
Well, it‘s almost 3AM, and I have the third floating shelf up! (The first two I put up around Christmas.) Not exactly even, but there‘s room for a fourth shelf. I‘m tempted to stay up putting it in. Plus my new (tagged) audiobook is soooo good! Stay tuned!
Looks like another great pick from Annie at #bookshelftville. #shelfsubscription
My library was open today so I braved the rain to pick up some holds + a couple movies for the weekend.
I see this ARC, pizza, and mimosas in my NYE celebration!