“They were going to lose parts of themselves that they had thought were irreplaceable, only to find that they didn’t miss them at all. There was no other option, nothing else to do. Because staying young forever wasn’t just impossible – it was exhausting. No one was meant to shoulder that amount of possibility for very long.”
For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, their friendship is the one thing they thought would stay the same through a constant sea of change but as they experience new jobs, new cities, new spouses and new children, things are constantly changing. Time has a way of testing even the strongest bonds and over the years their bonds are tested till it can barely stay together. Grant Grinder gives us a peek into the lives of these friends only through parties they attend together over the years. We see them handle addiction, breakups, affairs, just from watching them attend one party every year.
I quite enjoyed this book, and the format reminds me of One Day by David Nicholls where we get a peek into their world through one event a year. I think the format also made this compulsively readable because you glimpse their lives through the highlights of a party or a vacation where nothing boring is happening. The book starts off extremely shallow as they had just graduated from college and moved to New York City and all they want to do is party and get high but as the friends get older and life starts happening to them, we see them grow more and more as people and develop a deepness that only age can bring.
This book is very character driven. The characters are the plot. Their behaviors drive the book. The fears of aging, changing and losing people in the process of growing up was very real and extremely relatable because I remember the years after I graduated college and felt like the world was my oyster and then life comes at you fast. We watch them leave relationships they should have never left and stay in relationships they should have left. I think books like this are really hard to review because they are a fast read under 400 pages and character driven so it’s really hard to review when you actually liked it.
This one is definitely for the millennials. I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads.
Leggy
TwoNightStands 