Best Friends Forever

This, Best Friends Forever, is one of the least interesting reads to Jennifer Weiner’s earlier books: Good In Bed and In Her Shoes.

The story revolves around these two characters: Addie Downs and Valerie Adler who were best friends when they were nine. But they have not spoken to each other for the past 15 years after an incident in high school created a rift between them. During that time, someone had committed an atrocious act that left Valerie emotionally shaken. In a bid to defend Valerie, Addie made an accusation against a popular guy, but this resulted in her becoming a scapegoat and the subject of condemnation in school. Addie was also ostracized by her schoolmates because of her obese figure, while Valerie was an outgoing cheerleader who’s popular in school.

Addie leads the most mundane life with no other human social activities (besides caring for a brother who suffers brain damage) to call her own. The only other activities that keep her busy are her hobby of painting greeting cards and searching for Mr. Right online.

But things change drastically when her former best friend comes knocking in the middle of the night 15 year later since they last seen and spoke. Valerie (a weather-girl at a television station), shows up on her doorstep with bloodstains on her trench coat and pleading for help.

Valerie’s sudden appearance forces both of them to question the choices they have made in their lives. All this while, Addie has been thinking that she was the only one who was struggling through high school while Valeria had everything going for her, but in reality, Valerie was having as much as of a hard time at home. It also give them the opportunities to learn about love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, and overcoming the odds in life.

The plot itself is a bit too contrived for my liking. Weiner did inject witty humor into this slightly disenchanting book but it somehow fails to capture my attention for a lengthy period. The only time I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough was the action part which sadly is only one-seventh of the whole book.

This book, Best Friends Forever, is a downer in comparison to Weiner’s earlier books—one chick literature that I don’t quite enjoy. Wish I had this book with me when I was in-flight alone (a surefire way to avoid mindless chats with the stranger next to me and if that stranger happens to be an interesting stud then putting down a disenchanted book isn’t so hard to do) instead of my recent trip to Hong Kong with FwB. Guess what, I left this book in our hotel room! Okay, I wasn’t being very green per se, but I couldn’t make myself put it into my luggage considering I had far more important things to bring home to.