REVIEW: Friends Unlikely by Susan Smith Alvis

Friends Unlikely by Susan Smith Alvis is a YA novel that is yet another gripping story about teens having to deal with some seri­ous social issues. In this book it is drug addic­tion and HIV.  As the title sug­gests, it is a story about a group of kids who on the sur­face appear to have noth­ing in common with each other.

The nar­ra­tor of the story is six­teen year-old Abbie Davis, who lives in Sevierville, Ten­nessee. Abbie tells us that she is the “prod­uct of dis­mis­sive par­ents”, who she describes as being “delu­sional and drunk.”  Aca­d­e­m­i­cally, she’s not as smart as her friends but she is the paste that keeps the group glued together during a crisis.

Abbie intro­duces her friends and informs us that they are more of a  ”real family” to her than her own.  First up is Juan, a childhood friend who is infat­u­ated with her and acts as her protector.  He brings Abbie out of her shell. Next there’s Davina St. Clair, her best girl­friend, who is black and a little on the spoiled side since she’s the daugh­ter of a well respected doctor and whose family is second cousin to Dr. Martin Luther King. Then there’s Carlos Garcia who is hand­some as sin with plenty of hang-​ups which is an irre­sistible com­bi­na­tion for young teen girls to ignore. Lastly, there’s Rajesh Hus­sain aka Raj, whose family moved from Pak­istan to the South right after 9/11.

It isn’t too long into the story that life for this tight group of friends take a turn for the worst. One of the friends during summer break loses his vir­gin­ity only to find out sev­eral weeks later that he con­tracted the HIV virus that causes AIDS.  All it takes is the first time. While the group absorbs that bit of news, they are also deal­ing with  a prob­lem with another friend who is addicted to Crys­tal Meth.  Every­body knew that this friend was smok­ing pot but never real­ized that they’d grad­u­ated up to some­thing more seri­ous until an inci­dent brings it to their full attention.  I know it seems like a lot for a group of five kids to have to deal with but it’s not improb­a­ble. Most of the novel is spent show­ing how these tragic events tests their friend­ship and brings them closer together.

More and more novels of today are address­ing the issues of meth addiction that are destroying fam­i­lies and dev­as­tat­ing com­mu­ni­ties. This drug epi­demic has affected all of us in some shape or form (like having to show your photo ID at the phar­macy counter for your favorite cold med­i­cine). The author has done her research and there are more than a couple of scenes with info dump­ing. As for HIV, there’s still a social stigma attached to the dis­ease but the dis­ease itself is treat­able and people are living longer with it.

Friends Unlikely was a grip­ping read for me. I even enjoyed the rather morose prose:

People act strangely when star­ing into death’s eyes and no matter how dark it seems for the other person the scary thing about dying is another real­iza­tion. When you look over the edge and see the valley of death, all you see is the fact that you too will even­tu­ally face it. The death angel will come for you and when tomor­row never comes, that’s when things left unsaid seem to haunt those that are left behind.

I stayed up late to finish this novel last night because hon­estly, I couldn’t put it down. The nar­ra­tive voice/style was very engag­ing, char­ac­ters were well fleshed out and mem­o­rable. The ear­marks of a truly good novel is when the story stays with you long after that last page is turned. This book is far from per­fect. Sure there were info dumps and the over­all tone of the novel felt a bit preachy, but it’s still a very good read and one that I strongly rec­om­mend to young teens and adults alike.  I pretty much gave you the bare bones of the story but there is much of the story that I left out.  Friends Unlikely would have never been on my radar if the author hadn’t asked me to read her book. I’m glad that I did. My grade, B+. I hope Ms. Alvis con­tin­ues to write more grip­ping sto­ries. Oh and you might want to have a tissue or two on hand when you reach the end.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Susan Smith Alvis, YA novel, Drug Addic­tion, HIV, ebook

Tagged as: AIDS, drug use, Susan Smith Alvis, Teen literature, YA novel