“Full of twists and turns kept me rapidly turning pages to see what happened next. The ending is explosive and I never in the world saw it coming.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
This is the story of Sophie and Naomi, who have been friends since they were 18. Married now, in their 40s, they remain fast friends.
Sophie’s marriage to Adam is on the rocks. She has a 8-year old son and an ailing grandfather. Naomi, on the other hand, is happily married with two daughters and a pet dog, Harley. She is a wine connoisseur, who maintains a successful blog on the same.
Its established very early on that Sophie has deep-rooted issues. She seems to stalk Naomi and is jealous of her perfect life. There is a hint throughout that Sophie feels Naomi owes her – for what, is eventually revealed towards the later half of the book.
Told alternatively between Sophie and Naomi, this is twisted tale of a toxic friendship. Sophie’s self-deprecation was genuine self-loathing. She was incapable of over-riding her insecurities, and in her warped mind, her actions were based on the fact that she believed she was only taking what she deserved. Naomi continued to tolerate Sophie’s atrocities, so much so that you felt like shaking some sense into her. It was always all about Sophie, but Naomi refused to see it.
This book is an eye-opener to women out there who are in a toxic friendship. That one person who cannot help putting you down or says something nasty when something good happens to you; who will ensure that in a full gathering she will mention some embarrassing anecdote of the past; who, despite wanting to be happy for you, always ends up putting you through some misery and tries to emulate your life to the T.
The ending was a twist that you perhaps could envision, considering how desperate the situation had become; but it was shocking nonetheless.
No matter how “great” a friend is to you, please remember to draw a line somewhere.
You don’t know who is going to use what against you.
4/5 for me.
Reviewed by:
Ranjini Sem
Added 4th April 2019