Girl Friends

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What to expect

"Men see women in two separate categories. There are the women they sleep with, and the women they fall in love with. And they will treat you differently based on that."

From the day they first meet as teenagers Fern and Jessica are best friends. Despite their differences, they are there for each other throughout everything, navigating the difficulties of growing up and fitting in. That is until Jessica crosses a line that Fern can't forgive.

But now, more than ten years later, Jessica has unexpectedly reappeared in Fern's life.

A lot has changed for them both - but can their relationship be different now they are older? Is it possible for either of them to rewrite the role that they have been cast in? Or will their shared history ultimately be doomed to repeat itself again?

Set between the present day and the past, GIRL FRIENDS is a blisteringly funny and devastating novel: both a joyful celebration of female friendship and a razor-sharp look at the damage we can all cause to those we claim to love the most.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

GIRL FRIENDS is a blistering, confronting, and utterly compelling read. It's laugh-out-loud funny and disquieting in equal measures. This is Holly Bourne at her very best
Louise O’Neill
I will never, ever forget this book. It explores some of the darkest and most difficult parts of womanhood and growing up in an engaging and profoundly compassionate way. It's more than a page turner - it's the sort of story you inhale. Fern is one of the most real, most loveable heroines I've met. This book will leave its readers kinder and wiser, and it will inspire us all to forgive ourselves for our complicated pasts
Daisy Buchanan
A total tour de force - GIRL FRIENDS is all at once shocking, validating, shrewd and sharp-witted. I didn't even know female friendship could be altered by the male gaze until I read this! And that is what is so astounding about Holly's work: she makes you understand what you didn't know you needed to examine . . . put words to my experience of growing up in the noughties and how the boys back then affect who I am now. Just magnificent. Buy it for every friend you have, and then hold a book club to discuss immediately.
Laura Jane Williams
A fantastic, gripping read - a feminist manifesto driven by fury beneath a great story brilliantly told
Lucy Mangan
With her usual laser-like focus and sharp writing that can veer from heart breaking to hilarious within the space of a sentence, Holly Bourne weaves a fraught and fascinating tale of female friendship . . . Set in the present day and the early 2000's, Girl Friends will resonate with so many readers, not just for the noughties nostalgia but for the remembered agony and ecstasy of being a teenage girl
Red
Holly writes so brilliantly on female friendship - there's a queasy accuracy that makes you want to cry for every teenage girl in the world, including yourself. Her characters are so relatable, I just wanted to reach into the book and hug Fern. Read it, make your friends read it, and then let's work out how we can pull everything down and reconstruct a matriarchal society
Sophie Cousens
A laughter filled read which teases out the different angles of female friendship and conflict . . . razor sharp that lingers long after you finish
Glamour
SO good, quite agonisingly accurate and vivid
Mhairi McFarlane
So deliciously enjoyable, so powerful and so skilfully done. I'll be thinking about it for ages
Lauren Bravo
A forensic look at how the patriarchy impacts our self-image and even our friendships
Grazia
It blew me away! Couldn't put it down and couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards. Made me laugh and cry and look at lots of things in a new way
Helen Cooper
This book absolutely sparkles with wit and heart. Joyous
Jane Fallon
Equally funny and heartbreaking
Cosmopolitan
Another brilliant reassessment of gender dynamics we take for granted. Holly's flashbacks to millennial teens took me straight back - and stayed with me. Perfect on flirting, fitting in - and the need to feel 'picked' that messes with so many female friendships. It's so good
Harriet Walker
Wow! Such a thought-provoking read. This was so, so good and will definitely stay with me
Amanda Reynolds
Hands down the best fiction book I have ever read. Just OUTSTANDING. Genius. This book makes you think about your behaviour and see your decisions from a more third person perspective. Couldn't recommend it enough
Michelle Elman
GIRL FRIENDS is funny, painfully relatable and at times shocking, as Holly Bourne explores the growing pains of teenage girls and learning to let go of the past
Press Association
An incredible read about friendship, choices and the importance of seeing things from another person's perspective
Sun
Unpacks just how much women internalise misogyny
Evening Standard
Thought-provoking and confronting, this story will stay with you
Fabulous Magazine
An astute novel
Woman’s Weekly
Girl Friends is funny, painfully relatable and at times shocking, as Holly Bourne explores the growing pains of teenage girls and learning to let go of the past
i Paper
A clear-eyed depiction of female friendship and the anxieties of girlhood
i News Online
Magnificent, gut-wrenching, searingly honest, Girl Friends is absolutely unputdownable. I read it full of agonising identification and memory and yet - somehow - I laughed and laughed. Holly Bourne is peerless; a huge talent
Rosie Walsh

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