The Friend // Dorothy Koomson // Book Review

Book: The Friend

Author: Dorothy Koomson

Pages: 480

Publish Date: 2017

Start Reading Date: March 2nd 2021

End Reading Date: March 9th 2021

My Goodreads Rating: 5*

Four very different friends, brought together years before the night where one friend is attacked in the school where their children attend.  Three of those friends hide secrets from each other, their loved ones and the world because they are ashamed by them, from risky photos as a teenager, to kidnapping a baby. Their friend blackmailing them, making them feel guilty about the smallest of things in their friendship.  

CeCe and her family move to Brighton for her husbands job, and her two youngest children twins Oscar and Ore become friends with Frankie, whose mother was friends with Yvonne the woman who was attacked at the school. CeCe’s ex asks her to find out what happened, soon enough Maxie, Hazel and Anaya’s secrets come spilling out. 

But is everything really as it seems. 

Conclusion 

Because of how many main characters there are in the book I did have to keep a track of who was who, who had which kid/husband and the backstory of the ladies to begin with. But after a while it was easy to know. 

I would’ve found it hard being friends with Yvonne for as long as Maxie, Hazel and Anaya did. She would’ve been a nightmare of a friend for me to have.  They kept their secrets because it’s their own business and having a friend dig around and blackmail you about them is horrible.  You should be able to trust friends, and they couldn’t trust Yvonne and that’s why I think Hazel has such a hard time getting used to the fact that Anaya and Maxie have become friends with CeCe so quickly after what’s happened with Yvonne.  

I absolutely flew through the book.  I always know when a book is good because I can read it really quickly. 

It definitely a hard to book to get into at the begging but once you get into it you can’t put it down.  It keeps you on your toes, and you have to keep up just because it does go between current day and the past, and to multiple characters pasts.