REVIEW:

Book blurb: We Run the Tides is about young teenage girls in 1984…

Me: Outta my way!

There’s really no faster way to sell me on a novel than to tell me its set in the ‘80s, unless you also mention the protagonists are of my generation (Gen-X, represent!). That basically means there was no way I wasn’t going to read Vendala Vida’s latest book, even if early reviews have been somewhat mixed.

The thing about We Run the Tides though is that it is perhaps so accurate in its depiction of being a 13-year-old girl that it is awkward, uncomfortable, and cringe-worthy. Girls are mean, and natural-yet-kinda-gross things are happening to their bodies. What’s your gut reaction when you hear the word “puberty?” That might be a good indication of how you’ll feel reading this book.

The audiobook benefits from narration by the always-stellar Marin Ireland. She’s a nice fit for the first-person voice of main character Eulabee. I could really relate to her struggles being ostracized by the popular girls, particularly the pathological liar leader of the pack. I’m just not sure all readers will… or will want to.

I received a complimentary review copy of the audiobook from W.F. Howes LTD via NetGalley. We Run the Tides is now available.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

An achingly beautiful and wickedly funny story of female friendship, betrayal, and a mysterious disappearance, set in the changing landscape of San Francisco.

Teenage Eulabee and her alluring best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy, oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know the ins and outs of the homes and beaches, Sea Cliff’s hidden corners and eccentric characters — as well as the swanky all-girls’ school they attend. Their lives move along uneventfully, with afternoon walks by the ocean and weekend sleepovers. Then everything changes. Eulabee and Maria Fabiola have a disagreement about what they did or didn’t witness on the way to school one morning, and this creates a schism in their friendship. The rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance — a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.

Suspenseful and poignant, We Run the Tides is Vendela Vida’s masterpiece depiction of an inimitable place on the brink of radical transformation. Pre–tech boom San Francisco finds its mirror in the changing lives of the teenage girls at the center of this story of innocence lost, the pain of too much freedom, and the struggle to find one’s authentic self. Told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth, in all its beauty and confusion.