“We are thirteen, almost fourteen, and these streets of Sea Cliff are ours. We walk these streets to our school perched high over the Pacific and we run these streets to the beaches, which are cold, windswept, full of fishermen and freaks. We know these wide streets and how they slope, how they curve toward the shore, and we know their houses.”
We Run the Tides
By Vendela Vida
Source: Advance review copy
Four girlfriends feel like they are on top of the world in San Francisco during the 1980s. They talk about boys, plans for the future and any other thing that is so important when one is 13-years-old.
Eulabee and Maria Fabiola are the main characters but it is clear from the beginning that Maria Fabiola is the Queen Bee. She is the one that captures everyone’s attention is she is the one who will tell a story one day which Eulabee doesn’t backup. The events lead to a rift among the friends with Eulabee being cast out of the group.
Despite not being part of the inner group any longer, Eulabee is still concerned with what Maria Fabiola is doing and another event calls into question Maria Fabiola’s narrative of events. Eulabee tries to get to the truth. It’s clear she misses her friends but she’s also trying to understand what is happening and why.
I mentioned before that part of why I liked this book so much is for the sense of time and place. As a child of the 80s I could clearly imagine what these teens looked like. The author presents the characters in a way that they seem wise beyond their years. Perhaps if there is one thing that I could have done without was the very last part which takes place many years later on but still that didn’t diminish my great enjoyment of this coming-of-age story.
Well, childhood politics! I definitely remember those Queen Bee make-or-break moments back in school. Some things seem so silly in hindsight, and yet, they really do happen. Interesting that this book gives it a more mature take.
I really liked the sense of place as well and, although I am older, having kids in the 70s, – “girls will be girls” what ever the decade they came of age in LOL
I love the 80s setting and the premise sounds good to me, too. Hopefully my library has a copy.
I really enjoyed this book, too! The Bookshelf (in GA) sent it as Annie’s pick for the February Shelf Subscription. That’s been such a great Christmas gift… hope my husband does that again this year.
I was 13 in the 70s, but this still sounds like something I would really enjoy reading, especially since it’s set in California. Glad you enjoyed it.
I’ve seen this book around and it sounds pretty good. The sense of time and place that you mention is especially calling to me. Glad to read that you enjoyed it.