Best Friends (Friends #2)

Tucker (TuckerTheReader)

Rating: really liked it
F***KKKK wait, this is a children's book. i probably shouldn't swear. FOOOOOOORRRRRRRK THIS WAS SO GOOD! REView to come!!

************

Oh my GOSH OH my GOSH! I'm crying because I'M SO EXCITED


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Jasmine from How Useful It Is

Rating: really liked it
I didn't realize this book was the second to the series until I started to read it but it's okay to read as a stand-alone. I like the main character, Shannon because she appeared humble and nice. This book has some great advices about friendship. I liked how Shannon felt bad for gossiping and being mean. She's a good role model when she stood up for herself by confronting Jenny of stealing her job. And she did it only after she thought it through. Shannon was good with earning money for her young age. The rules about friends with boys and girls are cute and funny. I loved the illustrations!


This book followed Shannon, a sixth grader. She's part of a group of girl friends but sometimes she felt left out. She didn't know the current cool songs that everyone seemed to know because her family listened to different kinds of music. She didn't know about the current TV shows because she's not allowed to watch TV on weeknights like her classmates. She felt like as soon as she's happy with her friends there seemed to be a new unwritten friend rule and then she fell out of the loops again. In between, Shannon typed up a story of her imagination that went parallel with what she experienced at school.


Best Friends was very well written, illustrated, and developed. I liked how Shannon went to her oldest sister, Wendy for consultation when there's a major event in her life, like a boy asking her out. The roller coasters part was cute/funny and it reminded me of the time I introduced my son his first ride and he was as scared as Shannon. That part with the stuff animals at the amusement park got me teary eyed. I loved the part about girls chasing boys and boys afraid of girl cooties. I loved this memoir and I'm so pumped to read Real Friends! I gave this book to my 8 years old to read right after I finished it. I highly recommend everyone to read this graphic novel!

xoxo, Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com for more details

I borrowed this book from my library and my opinions are honest.

Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell

Rating: really liked it

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I've not read a lot of books by Shannon Hale because, to me, her works often feel very self-insertiony and watered down. I know she has a devoted following but her style of writing really doesn't work for me, whether she's writing for a kid or an adult audience. That said, when I found her graphic novel memoir in a Little Free Library, I was intrigued. Not only is it set in the 1980s, it's also a story about navigating the perils of the changing social scene of adolescence, and a bit of an inside peek about how she got into writing.



Now that I've read BEST FRIENDS, I think I can pretty safely say that this is one of the best things I've ever read or will read from Hale. The 80s setting is so vivid-- the clothes, the songs (and part of that goes to LeUyen Pham for her illustrations). The way that Hale describes mean girl friendships and social pitfalls is honestly so on-point. And then there are inserts from the (yes, self-insertiony) stories that she wrote to escape. Perhaps most meaningful for me, though, was writing about what it's like to be a kid with anxiety. Whether it's chronic stomachaches or fear of rollercoasters, I honestly felt so scene when she wrote about this stuff.



Some of the reviews I get the most hate for are middle grade. There are people out there who seem to believe that writing for kids gets you a free pass from all the pedants out there like me who moan about things like "characterization" and "complex storylines." Because, you know, kids don't care about any of that shit. Throw on Ryan's World or even just jangle your keys at them, and they'll be entertained! I don't think these nay-sayers realize how utterly fucking condescending that is, implicitly suggesting that kids don't have the cognitive wherewithal to recognize a good story from a bad one.



That said, I do get how middle grade suffers under the delightful paradox of being one of the most difficult age groups to write for and also the most maligned. Authors who write for middle grade have to produce material that will appeal to kids just entering their teens while also not getting outraged phone calls from the parents of kids who are still in the single digits. It's a tough balancing act, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it. And despite all that, a lot of people are pretty dismissive of children's literature as a whole. Perhaps only the romance genre gets more shit from critics.



BEST FRIENDS really does a good job of straddling that line, though, being real-world relatable while also holding back just enough to kind of leave things to the reader to decide.  I think many girls and boys are going to find this incredibly comforting. I wish it had been around when I was a kid.



4.5 stars

Caroline

Rating: really liked it
***NO SPOILERS***

Best Friends isn't as strong as the first installment, Real Friends, but it's still emotional and will be relatable to many. This continues where Real Friends left off: This time Shannon Hale is a sixth-grader and has high hopes that this school year will be much better than the previous. She's still with the same clique of mean girls, though, so upsetting things still happen all the time.

Hale struggled with crippling anxiety and OCD during these years (and maybe even younger), and although Real Friends touches on that, Best Friends focuses on it. This time it's obvious Hale struggles psychologically in this way; in Real Friends, it's hinted at, too subtly for me to have noticed. Hale is an extroverted bookworm with traits that square with high sensitivity. In other words, her life as a middle-schooler was more hellish than that of most of her classmates.

This sequel confronts different sources of middle-schooler angst: puberty and romantic attraction; the pain of romantic rejection; all variety of mixed messages relating to socializing; how insecure friendships feel at this age (as Hale addressed in Real Friends); and tuning in to one's "essence" or true self.

On this last point, Hale kept returning to the theme of sexism. She was raised in a conservative Mormon household in the 1980s. As she says in the book, every woman she knew was either a teacher or a mother and was pretty much expected to be this way. She truly was never exposed to any women who broke this mold. Her mother told her that "boys like girls who are shy," and that "that's what my mother taught me." It made me sad to read, and I'm glad that Hale held on to her aspirations to be a writer (of several popular books) and didn't change her personality to please men. Unfortunately, her unconventional interest in writing was very alienating for her as a tween, as her vivid imagination made her a bit weird to the clique.

As good as it is that Hale addressed these many tween problems head on, this is precisely the problem with Best Friends. The book is really poorly organized and jumps all over the place with no set story line. It's more a graphic novel depicting various incidents than a specific story. She also inserted bits that have no relevance, such as the Challenger explosion and a fantasy story she wrote at that age. The fantasy felt very shoehorned in, as if Hale wanted badly to share her little story with the world, but since it's unfinished and something she wrote at age 12, can't really publish.

A tight focus would have made Best Friends better than Real Friends, and I think Hale forced this sequel and then rushed it to publication. I have a feeling she's working on a third, but I think she'd be wise to leave well enough alone, or at least take her time.

Jessica

Rating: really liked it
Kids can be such assholes. I believe every word of this book, and it made me kind of sad and upset. As if Shannon didn't have enough to deal with, having undiagnosed anxiety and OCD, she had to navigate the complete stupidity of friends who "test" you by asking you if you like other kids, and suddenly announcing that you're weird or that they never liked doing the things you used to do together. It's life, it's growing up, it's a big bag of suck. I liked that she ended on a somewhat happier note, but I wish she could have included more happy with the sad/bittersweet. Surely, surely good things also happened?!

But this book is worth it for the art ALONE. I love LeUyen Pham's work, and she does an amazing job here!

Jessica

Rating: really liked it
How do I put this delicately?

If you don't like Shannon Hale, you're wrong.

Reading_ Tamishly

Rating: really liked it
The third volume of this graphic memoir is coming out this month!

I like the first one so much. I wish I like the second volume as much but I feel the first was really good that I had my expectations set a little too high.

Coming of age kinda part, I totally.enjoyed reading it.

Manybooks

Rating: really liked it
While I was indeed looking rather forward to reading Shannon Hale’s 2019 continuation of her 2017 autobiographical graphic novel Real Friends (which I did very much enjoy and appreciate even though I also had some major reading issues with how Shannon’s mother in particular chose to so regularly ignore the physical abuse Shannon was constantly experiencing from her older sister Wendy), I do have to with frustration admit that no, I certainly have not all that much been impressed with and by the sequel, with and by Best Friends.

For honestly speaking, I have personally and emotionally not found the Shannon of Best Friends even remotely likeable and relatable as a character, as a person, finding her instead much too into making and keeping as many friends as possible (as well as generally without question following the leader of the popular pack so to speak) and indeed often being quite majorly manipulative, even sometimes downright mean-spirited and nasty. And while I guess I do partially commend and applaud Shannon Hale for depicting her grade six self honestly with the proverbial warts and all, I simply and sadly in Best Friends have in fact on a personal and emotional level felt majorly uncomfortable in Shannon’s book presence (and also knowing full well that if the Best Friends Shannon had actually and in reality been one of my schoolmates in grade six that yes, I do in truth and sadly believe she would have had no issues whatsoever throwing me under the proverbial bus if it had suited her and her need and quest for being in a large group of friends). Combined with the fact that in my opinion, Best Friends also often tends to read in a textually unorganised, distractingly jumpy manner (and that indeed, I also do not really find Shannon’s creative writing first “novel” to have been successfully, to have been all that well integrated into the text proper, into the main narrative framework of Best Friends), no I cannot in any manner say that I have found my reading time as having been either much enjoyable or interesting, and thus only a two star maximum ranking for Best Friends, for I certainly have been rather majorly disappointed with Shannon Hale’s narrative, finding her text first and foremost both personally uncomfortable and yes far too often also really annoyingly tedious and dragging.

Truebluedah ♪

Rating: really liked it
12/4/18
Yasssssssss! YAS! YAS! *BANGS HEAD ON SCREEN* YASSSSSSSSSSSS

IS THIS REAL?
*BANG*
YES!
TIS REAL!

Edit 9/5/19:
I just read it last night in about an hour or so than stayed up till midnight marking each page with sticky notes for my review. Expect one soon! ;)


MY REVIEW IS HERE..
See it on my blog:
https://truebluedah.wordpress.com/201...
:)
(I promise I’m not trying to get y’all to go on my blog. My post has videos that I’m not able to put in a goodreads review! :D)

Nat

Rating: really liked it
I wish I could gift the book Best Friends to my younger self. I guess that's what you have little sisters for - to make their childhood a bit more bearable. Sequel to Hale's graphic novel, "Real Friends", Best Friends explores the confusing in-between period of time where you're no longer a kid, aka sixth grade *cue scary sound effect*


Shannon Hale managed to yank out all those suppressed memories from those early school years. Everything covered in Best Friends reminded just how glad I am not to be in the sixth grade *shudders*. The boys being mean just to appear 'cool', the girls being in constant competition, the petty fighting, the gossiping. How did we all survive that? And more importantly, why do little kids act so mean? I guess that's why I'm studying Psychology.

Speaking of, yes, I still cannot stop analyzing the characters I encounter in books. This must be like book editors who can't mentally stop correcting the writing they read in their free time. It's simply impossible after you read the DSM to not look for signs of a disorder in every behavior. Like Jon Ronson wrote in his book The Psychopath Test:

“I wonder if I’ve got any of the 374 mental disorders,” I thought.
I opened the manual again.
And I instantly diagnosed myself with twelve different ones.

So reading Best Friends where Shannon Hale covers anxiety and OCD (presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both) was really interesting to see unfold within such a young character. I can't stop thinking about her spiraling thoughts.


I'd recommend this book for many reasons (relatability, mean girls, finding your voice), but the mental health aspect made the book stand out for me.


This here paints the picture so clearly. "The worries were wrong" is so powerful.



This showcases the cycle of obsessive thoughts and taking momentary comfort in repetitive behaviors or mental acts like praying or repeating words silently.

Oh, and the gorgeous art by LeUyen Pham grew even more detailed and colorful this time around. Here are some of my favorite parts of Best Friends:

I wasn't sure at first of the story within a story aspect, but if you want to buy my immediate love feature the ocean in your book.


It was also interesting how she featured writing as a tool of escapism when her friends didn't want to play pretend anymore. It starts with the little things and then grows into something bigger... I mean she has multiple books out now.


Don't stop! I loved that her teacher encouraged her writing (and that Shannon Hale included the real paper her teacher graded.) Having a teacher believe in you grants so much confidence when you're young - or at any age, really.


...Until she grows tired of you too. Ugh!!! Those friends. I forgot all about those friends... Don't bring me back to sixth grade, please. Ever.


Oh, that art!! I loved it when the art would suddenly change in style. It brought the story to life for me. So good!!


This page convinced me. I want a third book with Shannon in middle school or high school, please!


Me during this pandemic. Hovering in this cruel cycle of wanting to know what's going on but also coming out of it with less knowledge and more fear. I only noticed the fear mongering in the media when I compared watching the news VS watching something I enjoyed. Wow. What a difference in mindset afterward. Do an experiment and notice your emotions after watching the news VS after watching your favorite movie or favorite Youtube channel. It will make you want to never watch the news again. Who wants to feel full of despair and anxiety? Not me.


Ah! What a powerhouse. Like my favorite Sarah J. Maas quote: “My name is Celaena Sardothien," she whispered, "and I will not be afraid.”


This is what this book granted me: solidarity. We're not alone in our thoughts.

READ THIS BOOK! Gift it to your younger siblings, cousins, neighbors. It's so insightful and fun and thoughtful. I want a third book!



Oh, and help out this college girl by buying my books on Depop. I’m selling my books on Depop because I’m moving soon. If you’re looking for popular YA books; poetry; books full of dogs: foreign editions of books… Come take a look here



This review and more can be found on my blog.

Winter

Rating: really liked it
This is a great book I love it, I have read both 1 and 2 they are great books. Those out there should definitely read this and all of her books.

Jessica Woodbury

Rating: really liked it
I read BEST FRIENDS right after REAL FRIENDS and I was a little skeptical that it would be as good, but it delivers. While the story is more condensed, once again there's all kinds of different aspects of friendships and the strange unwritten rules of older children. The characters from the previous book are mostly still there, and the dynamics are not all that different, but Shannon herself grows up a lot as she starts to recognize more and more how her place in "the group" is holding her back and causing her pain.

Her anxiety and mental health are addressed more directly here, but still in ways kids can process and relate to.

What a gift these books are.

Catie

Rating: really liked it
3 1/2 stars

Sixth grade is so hard. Your friends form new groups, your body becomes a stranger, your brain chemistry explodes, and everyone starts pairing off in strange pre-dating rituals. This book does a lot to help eleven year olds make sense of it all, and my daughter really appreciated it.

Hizam

Rating: really liked it
We all have anxiety about our relationship and friendship .

Mehsi

Rating: really liked it
Time for sixth grade, new rules, new social things, friendship, and more.


I finally had the chance to read the second book in this series! It was quite an interesting read~

I could relate to the MC quite a few times, I remember that I never was that into what was hip/happening (still am not that into it) and stood out in class. I remember the weird unwritten rules that kept changing. Remember how confusing it all was and that at times I was just wondering if I was the only one not understanding things.

It was very well written story and I am really happy I read this book. I felt for the MC at times and just wanted to reach out and give her a hug. Tell her she would find her tribe, her people. I was rooting for her to just tell these girls no for once. Because sorry, I just wasn’t a fan of the girls for most. Especially Jen/Jenny both of these were just horrible!

I loved the story Shannon writes in the beginning… but it just got eh later on when it turned more fantasy like. I don’t mind reading some fantasy stuff, but in general it is just not my cup of tea. I did think it was amazing that the MC could write this story at such a young age. She has an amazing imagination and more. I did like how it parallels with the normal parts.

But if she needs glasses to see? How did she go without the entire graphic novel? Why didn’t the mom buy new ones? I mean, she was squinting at times to see things… though at other times she seemed to see well, so that was very confusing. Did she get lenses sometime? Or did her vision just magically POOF go right? Very odd.

Also what the fuck America? Really, I keep getting surprised at crap that is OK in the US? I mean, the teacher just grabbed that boy, not even violently, because he wouldn’t stop. And she gets fired over that? WTF? I get maybe a warning? But firing? America is a weird place…

Sorry, I had a laugh that someone age 11 (going by the internet for ages in 6th grade US) thought writers weren’t real people. How do you think new books get made then? Magic? It just was a very strange thing, especially since she loved reading so much and worked in a library.

I like the ending (go go for the MC) + the photographs after that! That was a nice extra touch!

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/