by Kristin Hannah
Date Read: 3/7/14
Rating: ★ ★ ★
Firefly Lane
was not quite what I expected. I had
read a few reviews a while back about this book being about a friendship, but
for some reason, I didn’t know it spanned a 30 year time period. Nevertheless the book was pretty good.
I liked the
concept of this book. Girls will make lifelong
friends, and there are ups and downs throughout all friendships. Heck, I have
had a friend since 7th grade, but we’ve become estranged for the
past 4 years. But we’re now getting back in touch. Our lives went different
directions, and as we get older, it’s hard to keep in touch when you don’t have
as many things in common any more. But
if it’s a real friendship, you’ll usually find your way back at some point.
This book
was about two girls who met when they were 14.
They became friends after one of the girls has a heartbreaking
experience. I liked the part the best
when they were younger. They hadn’t
quite gotten annoying yet. The
background information on Tully was very interesting and it left me being very
curious where she would end up.
Kate was
more similar to me (of course I’m about the age of their kids…) but her
personality was more like mine so I could relate to her more. But eventually she started to get annoying to
me as well because she never stood up for herself. She would always let Tully talk her in to
doing things she didn’t want to do, and she let Tully run her life for years.
Their high
school years were the most entertaining though.
Once they got to college it started to drag for me a bit. I feel like this story was dragged out a bit
much. It was on 15 discs for crying out
loud! That was roughly 15 hours of
audio! And I didn’t feel like their voices changed
from middle school, to high school, to college.
They seemed to be changing schools, but not actually growing up.
The story
picked up for me once Kate was married. But again, all her insecurities started
to really frustrate me. She was so
insecure in herself and seemed to have such low self-esteem. I think that’s why
she couldn’t stand up for herself with Tully either. But the story itself started to get really
good again.
Once they
graduated college the girls really start drifting and their priorities
changing. I liked watching it because it
was very similar to real life. But it
also meant it got boring. I don’t
usually read books for reality. I read
them to get AWAY from reality.
But the book
got good again once kids started showing up.
I’m now at this point in my life so I was able to relate to it as well,
which might be why it started to get interesting to me again. I can really
related to Kate’s miscarriage. It made
me sob. It brought back so many memories
– I wish I knew that so I wasn’t listening to it in the car, while driving on
the freeway! But it gives me hope that
Kate went on to have healthy kids. But
Kate’s exhaustion seemed a little over the top.
I know having kids will be tiring.
But she was a stay at home mom (which I’m not by any means saying is
easy – I know that it is difficult being with your kids all day), but it also
means she had more time to get house work done, etc which working parents don’t
have. I know a lot of moms – especially new
moms – who are not nearly as exhausted as Kate was.
Once Kate
was a mom I felt she seemed to grow up though.
Tully got successful and seemed to mostly grow up. I got bored once it
focused on how much Kate and her daughter fought and I hated it when Tully got
in the middle of it. I just wanted to
slap her for Kate.
I tried to
guess what the big betrayal was going to be, but I was way off. I didn’t really expect that at all – and frankly,
I don’t think I would have ever gotten back in touch with her if she had done
that to me. It was awful.
So the best
part of the story is what happens when your lifelong friendship falls
apart? What do you do? How do you mend the pieces together? Do you
suck it up and be the bigger person?
When something awful happens in your life, who do you want to talk to
and be there with you?
The final
part of the story is really very sad. It
definitely had me tearing up. I think it
focused on this a little too much, but it really got across the point. And it also teaches the readers some
important lessons.
Overall I
think the concept was really good and mostly achieved. The characters could have been a little more
lovable though. And the story probably
could have been about 5 chapters shorter.
Some neat things were tied back together at the end which was both sad
and neat. I think if you have a really
good friend, you should read this book.
But beware that there are some slow parts. Just look for the overall arcs and be
prepared to cry!
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