Caroline 's Reviews > Friends Forever

***SPOILERS HIDDEN***

Shannon Hale's friend drama continues in Friends Forever, the third graphic novel in her autobiographical "Friends" series. She’s now in eighth grade and enjoying being in the oldest grade at her middle school. As a member of the drama club, she’s also finally found a caring group of friends. But this is all surface stuff. Inside, Hale feels depressed and anxious and doesn't know why.

I felt about Friends Forever much like I felt about book two in this series: that it's intensely focused on pain and angst. Although this isn't uncommon for a story taking place during middle school, Hale has a way of depicting her experiences as uniquely miserable and horrendous. In eighth grade, most of her misery stems from observing her peers’ obsession with romantic relationships and appearance and feeling unsure about her own feelings and status. It's not pretty, especially because Hale had low self-esteem and watched everyone around her pair up while she got ignored and occasionally mocked.

Life at home didn’t help soften what happened at school. Hale's parents are portrayed as physically present but emotionally absent, and when she expresses any sadness, her family makes it clear that they believe sensitivity is a choice. As a result, she doesn't feel her parents or siblings love her, and she's needy in her friendships.

I didn't love this latest installment in the series. Hale's early teen years are interesting, but she stuffs in way too much, and, as is the case with book two, she’s simply unable to organize her stories so they unfold in a smooth, logical way. Friends Forever has a manic quality as Hale arbitrarily tossed in numerous little story threads only to end them abruptly and move on. One of the worst offenders is a tiny part in which (view spoiler)[her mom and dad tell her that an aunt has offered to let Hale live with her in California. At first, Hale is excited because she thinks about how if she moves there, she'll get to reconnect with an old friend; however, when Hale calls this old friend to tell her about the potential move, the friend's indifferent reaction hurts Hale. This story thread then ends here, without any solid confirmation that Hale is in fact, not going to move to California. The reader is to assume she doesn't move after getting discouraged by her friend's reaction, but I don't understand why it wasn't made totally clear in a small story arc that could have shown Hale trying to work through her hurt as she decides to stay home in Utah. (hide spoiler)]

What is good about Friends Forever is its commentary--mostly implied--about the superficiality of young romance and about sexism and gender-essentialist views of women and girls. Early on, she astutely observes that "It seemed like girls were expected to be pretty...but it was shameful to actually try to be pretty." Hale's father talks about how she'll need to "marry rich" someday since she has what he regards as expensive taste, and Hale's automatic internal response is to bristle at his sexism and question why she couldn't support herself. Later, Hale and a male student participate in a school debate wherein she argues in favor of women's rights; the boy counters with all the expected arrogant sexism (view spoiler)[and wins thanks to a biased female judge who finds the women's rights movement distasteful and wrong-headed. (hide spoiler)] Book two touched on some of these things too, but book three delves a little deeper. What's upsetting to see is how Hale got so few “wins” as a kid. It's only many years later, as a successful author, that she's gotten the last laugh.

Hale concluded on a happier note, showing her eighth-grade self finally realizing that she's valuable as she is. This looks like an a-ha moment, but it’s not that momentous; it actually comes after an especially warm and fuzzy time with her drama-club friends and an understanding, while watching home movies with her parents, that they do, in fact, love her. I appreciated Hale's conversational afterword. In it, she elaborates on some of the story and makes clear, unequivocal statements to her young audience, such as advising them to be sure to tell a trusted adult if they're ever sexually assaulted. This is vague in the story itself.

Any young readers who relate to Hale's struggle will find Friends Forever affirming but maybe not helpful. This feels like a story Hale wrote more for personal catharsis than to empower kids going through what she went through. She’s clearly a compassionate, highly sensitive person, and kids may feel less alone after reading this--if they can see beyond the despair casting such a wide shadow on her account--but there’s no actual lesson. At the very least it's beneficial for young readers to see that Hale’s early sadness didn’t harden her and that she went on to become as successful as she has.