We Run The Tides by Vendela Vida
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Brief Synopsis
After a teenager has a falling out with her popular friend group when she recounts an interaction with a stranger differently than they reported it, her friend goes missing without a trace.
What I Liked
There’s this need to please mentality and desire to fit in the author develops so well. Though the audience is only granted the internal dialogue of Eulabee, the author surrounds her and has her interacting with a cast of teenagers we can each relate and place ourselves.
The backdrop of this affluent town being the breeding grounds for deviant behaviors is a layered lesson in and of itself. There’s also this psychological thriller element that I devoured. I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle twists and turns that drove the story in a direction I wasn’t anticipating.
What I Didn’t Like
Whew, the angst was real. The teenage perspective and experience reads a little too on the nose for comfort— and I mean that in a good way. This coming of age story brought me right back to the teenage girl world I have long forgotten.
Though this story was set in the eighties, it’s clear the antics of a teenager do not change their stripes. This is especially true about the dynamics amongst teenage girls. Didn’t we all know a Maria or two?
Overall
This didn’t feel or read like a typical YA book. There were so many themes explored: consent, peer pressure, self confidence, escapism, mental instability, and calculated deception. My adolescence did not mirror Eulabee’s , but that didn’t stop me from empathizing with her and the circumstances in which she found herself.
You can blame it on my being an active auntie to teens and soon to be teens, but man was I in my feelings. Aesthetically speaking, can we also talk about the book’s beautiful cover art? I would like a dress or top made out of it.
More people need to read and talk about this book. It’s wonderful.
Have you read it yet?
