Overview
Some bonds can never be broken...
Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That's what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they're both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school's scapegoat.
Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents' house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She's just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened," Val tells Addie, "and you're the only one who can help."
Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It's about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.
Synopsis
Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That’s what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they’re both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school’s scapegoat.
Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents’ house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She’s just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened," Val tells Addie, "and you’re the only one who can help."
Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It’s about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.
Publishers Weekly
Reclusive 33-year-old illustrator Addie Downs opens her front door late one night to reveal her childhood best friend, Valerie Adler, whom she hasn't seen since high school. Valerie is in trouble, and Addie drops everything to bail out her friend despite her own rather serious problems. Although the novel isn't up to Weiner's usual standards, the audio abridgment is watertight and the narration strong: Kate Baldwin reads the portions told in the first person from Addie's perspective, while Rick Holmes reads the third-person sections that focus on police chief Jordan Novick and Valerie's high school boyfriend Dan Swansea. At just six hours, this would make for excellent diversion on a girlfriends' road trip to the beach. An Atria hardcover (Reviews, June 15). (July)
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
What happens when your long-lost "best friend forever" shows up at your front door with terror on her face and blood on her coat? If you're Addie Downs in this Jennifer Weiner novel, you take her inside and your whole life takes an extreme turn.Publishers Weekly
Reclusive 33-year-old illustrator Addie Downs opens her front door late one night to reveal her childhood best friend, Valerie Adler, whom she hasn't seen since high school. Valerie is in trouble, and Addie drops everything to bail out her friend despite her own rather serious problems. Although the novel isn't up to Weiner's usual standards, the audio abridgment is watertight and the narration strong: Kate Baldwin reads the portions told in the first person from Addie's perspective, while Rick Holmes reads the third-person sections that focus on police chief Jordan Novick and Valerie's high school boyfriend Dan Swansea. At just six hours, this would make for excellent diversion on a girlfriends' road trip to the beach. An Atria hardcover (Reviews, June 15). (July)USA Today
This is where Weiner's talents again come in to play. She lays out an irresistible story about the present but effortlessly pulls us back to Addie and Val's childhood and teen years. It's all about showing us how they became the women they are today.As always, readers can't help but draw on their own memories of growing up, of best friends kept and lost and whether their lives turned out the way they planned.
BFF may not fit the textbook definition of social responsibility. After all, suspecting you may have accidentally killed someone and not reporting it is serious business. But the women's dilemma about what to do about it is a textbook-perfect plot point.
It gives Val, a weathergirl on the local TV station, and Addie, the loneliest girl in the world, a reason to pull a Thelma and Louise road trip that will end with startling personal discoveries for both women. And you'll never guess what happens to Addie.
Best Friends Forever is a frothy treat. It's another superlative novel by Weiner, about a big girl with a bigger heart, that will have women and men of all sizes cheering.
Kirkus Reviews
Weiner proves yet again that women can be their own worst enemies-and shows that women's worst enemies can also be their best friends. Addie Downs can't catch a break. Fat and friendless as a child, she enjoys a few years' respite from isolation when awkward, neglected Valerie Adler moves in across the street in the Chicago suburb of Pleasant Ridge. Val doesn't care that Addie's mom is obese, or that her father doesn't have a real job; she's entranced by the idea of hot meals (Naomi Adler's idea of dinner is Tab and Wheat Thins, topped off with a Salem Light), clean clothes and a regular bedtime. When Val returns with braces and breasts from a summer visiting her father in California, Addie knows the end is near, although she'd never guess how deep Val's betrayal will be. Alone again, Addie leaves for college only to have her father die before she's unpacked. Then Mom is diagnosed with breast cancer, and Addie watches her monstrous body wither to a horrifying death. Orphaned at 20, Addie lives alone in her parents' home, painting watercolors for a greeting-card company. And eating. When she tops 300 pounds, she finally says, "Enough!" and starts a diet and exercise regimen that brings her down to normal proportions. She buys nice clothes, redecorates her house and even has an abortive fling with a married man she meets at the gym. Just as she's starting to feel normal, Hurricane Val bears down on her. Now a TV weathergirl at a local Chicago station, Val, unlike Addie, can't resist going to their high-school reunion, where she does something very bad, attracting the attention of Pleasant Ridge's lonely, needy police chief Jordan Novick. Now Val needs Addie's help, and though Addie knowsshe's being played, she can't resist her BFF, whose harebrained, selfish, irresponsible behavior leads Addie to unexpected joy. So much material recycled from earlier novels (Certain Girls, 2008, etc.) that even fans will feel deja vu. Author tour to Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.From the Publisher
"Jennifer Weiner's latest novel, Best Friends Forever, is not leaving the special shelf where it's already wedged in with other books I reread every so often because they just make me happy - novels such as Jeanette Haien's Matters of Chance, Susan Isaacs' Shining Through, Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, most of Barbara Pym's novels, and, of course, Pride and Prejudice. [What] earns it a place on my treasured "reread as needed" shelf is its tough emotional wisdoméAddie's story rates a second (and, perhaps, even a third) read, too, because its unrelenting depiction of loneliness, as well as the myriad ways people can surprise themselves and each other, deserves to be savored, again and again." — The Philadelphia Inquirer"In Addie, Weiner has created a steely, sympathetic narrator who is vulnerable but not pathetic, unwilling to settle for disappointment despite the bad hand that most of her 33 years have dealt. The novel is a welcome addition to the author's collection of tales about strong, clever women who carve their own niche in this world — much like Weiner." — The Miami Herald
"Addie Downs - the Everygirl at the center of Jennifer Weiner's latest novel - just could turn out to be one of our favorite heroines of the summer...Another superlative novel by Weiner, about a big girl with a bigger heart, that will have women and men of all sizes cheering." — USA Today
"Weiner's latest showcases her talent for creating richly drawn, realistic characters. She deftly weaves in multiple back stories and subplots and punctuates the story with plenty of humor. Highly recommended for all fans of women's fiction." — Library Journal, starred review
"Former mousy types, rejoice! In Weiner's delicious latest, a popular girl hits trouble long after high school and only the geeky pal she once shunned can help." — People magazine
"This beach read will win readers over with its wit and wisdom. A clever, sad and sweet turn on Thelma and Louise [with] what may be the funniest not-quite-heist ever pulled off ..." — Publishers Weekly