We Used to Be Friends

(Paperback)

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Description

This funny, honest, and realistic novel explores the most traumatic breakup many people ever go throughthat of the friendship between childhood besties. In dual timelines, James (a girl with a boys name) prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the past year and the dissolution of her relationship with Kat, while in alternating chapters, Kat is newly in love with her first girlfriend and feeling like her future is wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock through multiple dramas, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school-sweethearts-parents announce theyre getting a divorce. In their last year as friends, Kat and James grow apart while growing up. Filled with bittersweet emotions and plenty of romance, We Used to Be Friends will make you laugh and cry.

Reviews

Amy Spalding knows that best friendships are love stories, and this one is complex, earnest, and unflinching. A must-read for anyone who's ever had or lost a friend. * Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda *
We Used to Be Friends chronicles the end of a friendship with a bittersweet authenticity balanced by Amy Spalding's trademark humor. This book will break your heart only like a best friend can. * Maurene Goo, author of Somewhere Only We Know *
Amy Spalding spins a story of friendship, family, love, and longing as perfect and bittersweet as the last days of summer. * Rebecca Podos, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Like Water *
The author effectively conveys the ways that a desire for perfection can keep people at arms length, how not telling people things makes it harder to tell them later, and how silence can come to feel like a lie... Spalding shows with sensitivity how the pain of losing a close friend can seep into everything. * Publishers Weekly *
In alternating first-person perspectives, James and Kat each tell their stories, and despite their flaws, both become deeply sympathetic characters throughthe course of their narratives. . . The nonlinear structure adds some suspense to what is otherwise a bittersweet and potent examination of friendship, its failings, and its worth. * Booklist *
A good exploration of the heartbreak of losing a friendand learning about oneself in the process. * Kirkus Reviews *
Teens hurting from any breakup can find some solace here; while the book makes clear that sometimes splitting up is inevitable, it holds out hope that time apart and open conversations can bring people back together. * Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books *
A captivating snapshot of a friendship that many teens will relate to. Spalding explores important questions while lyrically weaving the two stories together. * School Library Journal *

Author Bio

Amy Spalding is the author of several novels for teens, including Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), which earned a starred review from Kirkus. She lives in Los Angeles.