3 out of 4 stars
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Friendship is a tricky thing. Friendship, especially between best friends, is considered a relationship for a reason - just like any romantic relationship there are ups and downs as two different people go through life with one another. There's a reason I Love You, Man was able to take the concept of finding a friend and make it into a whole movie!
True Friendship with Girlfriends by Licia Johnson is all about the trials and tribulations of true friendship between two fictional girls, Aubrie and Kendra. Licia takes the time to create a bit of backstory for the two girls before putting them together when Aubrie is in desperate need of a friend. The two girls are fairly different: Aubrie is shy and comes from a well-off family that ended up moving from St. Louis to Chicago for a better job, so she's used to high end goods whereas the kind, outgoing Kendra is much more laid back and smart with her money. Aubrie is also very jealous of anyone else Kendra is friends with, which upsets Kendra since she's quick to make friends. As time goes on these differences, along with Aubrie's judging nature and pushy attitude create a rift between the two, but what will Kendra do about their friendship?
I was a little confused with this one when I first started. The book starts with a chapter called "Reflections" in which Kendra is in college commenting to someone about a girl named Sarah. However, while the book jumps back into the past a few paragraphs later to begin the story with Aubrie's childhood, Sarah doesn't exist in any of the rest of the book. The couple paragraphs about her are merely for effect - to show the dangers of judging a person by their looks. For a while the book then continues on with a narrative about Aubrie meeting Kendra and some of the difficulties that ensue from there, then the book flips to focusing on Kendra's side of things. In fact, the book jumps around fairly often - the third chapter starts off with Aubrie and Kendra in 8th grade, but literally two paragraphs later they're seniors in high school. At one point the book jumps ahead 20 years, but then after that it seems to jump back again without any warning, so I was often left wondering what point in their lives they were in.
As I read the book it quickly became apparent that the book is far more about highlighting the trials and tribulations friendships can go through than it is an actual narrative. The book frequently presents difficulties in the friendship between Kendra and Aubrie, but it also focuses on smaller friendships and even just relationships between coworkers. Themes include being true to yourself, how one can't possibly love someone else if they don't love themselves, honesty, the terrible ways some women treat other women and trusting in God (religion is quite present throughout the book, but never in a pushy or obnoxious way). However, these themes are often shown through jumping between teachable moments rather than in one solid, chronological story. These moments are quick and not very detailed; the entire book is less than 80 pages and those pages went by in a flash!
Perhaps worst of all, though, is that these characters really don't have much of a personality. I even had to re-read a few sections to make sure I read things properly - one of the first warning signs that Aubrie and Kendra's friendship is in trouble is when Aubrie gets in trouble for talking on her phone before her homework is done and asks Kendra to only call her on Fridays and weekends. However, a few pages later it's said that "Aubrie and Kendra hung out all the time and talked on the phone almost every day." Also, in one scene Aubrie is upset because she asks Kendra if her breath stinks and she says no to avoid confrontation, but eventually says "a little bit". Aubrie points out that if Kendra can't even be honest about her breath being bad, they can't possibly be very good friends. Kendra seems a bit confused as to why this upsets her. Later on in the book, Kendra writes in her journal that "Real, true friends are honest about everything, I think. They don't worry about hurting your feelings." Even just making a reference in this journal entry that she now understands why Aubrie was upset would've been a really solid touch and could have shown personal growth. There are also some good questions at the end of the book that reflect on the friendship in the book and encourage the reader to reflect on their own friendships. If these were present throughout more of the book they would've been even better, but it's a nice touch at the end of the book as it is.
These journal entries were a great touch, but they're barely used. Really I feel like the book would've been much better as one chronological narrative with Kendra making notes about the lessons she learns in her journal. As it is, we're shown a childhood friendship that extends into middle age, as well as various other relationships. We're shown both girls in relationships with men and even some work and school relationships in addition to shorter, more brief friendships. Some of these make for great lessons, such as a female coworker who is very nice to male coworkers but mean to female coworkers or the effects of jealousy, insecurities and comparing oneself to others. Overall this was an okay book with a lot of potential, and I found only a couple very minor grammatical errors (both of which were double punctuation, such as "Okay, Kendra., Bye."). I'd rate the book 2.5 stars if I could, but I really think this book could teach people - especially teens and people in their early 20s - about friendship before they've given too much of their life to changing who they are or put up with things they shouldn't have to to keep a friendship alive. As such, I'm rating True Friendship with Girlfriends 3 out of 4 stars. I feel secure in recommending it to anyone who is currently putting up with a bad friendship, who wonders if there's something wrong with them due to a bad friendship or anyone who has had questionable friendships in the past.
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TRUE Friendship with Girlfriends
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