Review of Friends Like These by Meg Rosoff

 

Friends Like These by Meg Rosoff

To be published on May 30, 2023 in the US/paperback. Originally published in May 2022.

Plot Summary for Friends Like TheseNew York City. June, 1982. 

When eighteen-year-old Beth arrives in Manhattan for a prestigious journalism internship, everything feels brand new – and not always in a good way. 

A cockroach-infested sublet and a disaffected roommate are the least of her worries, and she soon finds herself caught up with her fellow interns – preppy Oliver, ruthless Dan and ridiculously cool, beautiful, wild Edie.

Soon, Beth and Edie are best friends – the sort of heady, all-consuming best-friendship that's impossible to resist. But with the mercury rising and deceit mounting up, betrayal lies just around the corner. Who needs enemies … when you have friends like these?

Review of Friends Like These

I didn't hate Friends Like These, but I can't say I really liked it. I felt ... indifferent?

Beth arrives in New York City to do a summer internship in the 1980s. Like all newcomers to NYC, she finds the city less glam and more overwhelming than she expects. 

She meets her co-workers (co-interns?): Oliver, Dan and Edie.

Edie seems all together and sophisticated and Beth idolizes her. When Edie feels sorry that Beth's apartment has roaches and no A/C, she invites Beth to live with her.

Things don't go to plan.

All the dramatic "deceit" and "betrayal" referred to in the synopsis are as much exaggeration as the listing of Beth's apartment, which was probably advertised as "quirky and charming."

The languid summery feel of Friends Like These did feel evocative, but I kept expecting the book to go somewhere and it just didn't.  The deceit and betrayal did not deliver!