Best Friend, Worst Enemy

Hanging up the phone, I stumbled back to my room. I fell into bed and stared at the underside of my canopy, feeling terribly cheated. My best friend had trespassed on my territory. On my heart.

Book: Best Friend, Worst Enemy by Beverly Lewis, Bethany House Publishers, 1993

 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 12-14

Subjects: Friendship, dating relationships, family relationships, growing up

Summary: How dare she! Best friends don’t steal each others boyfriends! But wait. Was Jared truly Holly’s boyfriend first? Or was he Andie’s? Does he like Holly the most or Andie the most? How can Holly pursue the guy she likes without breaking the friendship loyalty papers written out years ago?

Notes: The real question in this book is how much is getting a boyfriend worth? How high of a price will Holly pay to get what she wants? Lying to her mom? Losing her best friend? Upsetting her little sister? Humiliating herself in class? And at the risk of spoiling the ending: the boy isn’t worth it anyway! He turns out to be at least a two-timer, more like a three or four timer! He flirts with every girl around and makes them think he is only friends with the others and really wants to go out with her instead of the others. There is a strong lesson about growing up and learning to see things as they really are in this book. Holly is almost 13 in this book and is just reaching the phase where she starts to question authority and everything else. To make life even more complicated, her dad who divorced his family years ago and has been silent for a long time, contacts her wanting to get to know her again. This book does a very good job showing the difficulties of growing up and wanting to be older while still needing to follow wisdom. The Bible doesn’t play into the story that much, but Holly’s mom encourages her to pray about the tough decisions she is facing and Holly does. However, it appears more of a religious ritual then truly seeking God’s will and listening for Him. Other religious activities are mentioned here, but it’s just a formality, not something that is impacting Holly’s life.

Recommendation Scale: 4/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Proverbs 17:17 – A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.