My Worst Best Friend by Dyan Sheldon

My Worst Best Friend by Dyan Sheldon
Buy My Worst Best Friend by Dyan Sheldon at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Ruth Ng
Summary: Totally predictable, yet somehow a page-turner of a story of a geeky girl finding the inner strength to stand up to her awful, popular best friend.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 320	Date: January 2010
Publisher: Walker Books
ISBN: 978-1406304206
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Gracie Mooney and Savanna Zindle are, unlikely as it may seem, best friends. Savanna is popular, beautiful, loud, confident and, well, a little bit stupid. Gracie is short, plain, quiet, and an intelligent lizard-loving environmentalist. Their friendship really shouldn't work, but somehow it does, and they spend hours and hours together, then when they're not together spend hours discussing everything on the phone with each other. You can tell already what's going to happen, can't you? Yes, it's a friendship bust-up just waiting to happen...

I don't generally like the way these teen-girl stories have such stereotyped characters. Why must the clever girls always be so plain? Or vegetarians? Or interested in the environment? Maybe I just take offence at the inference that because I wasn't in with the popular girls at school that I was therefore either ugly or fat... Still, this one sucked me in somehow, partly I think because Savanna is just so damn awful you almost can't believe that Gracie is friends with her, and you're just waiting for the moment when everything falls apart. Savanna is incredibly selfish. You learn early on that she had a best friend before (well, several actually) but this particular one, Marilouise, who she seems to have sidelined for being a bit dull and then took up with Gracie instead.

You can kind of see the allure for Gracie - Savanna is confident. She knows about boys, and make up, and clothes, and she's in with the in crowd. So for Gracie, being chosen as Savanna's bosom buddy is such a huge compliment that she's willing to forgive her any little 'issues' that might crop up, such as Savanna always being late when meeting her, or Savanna only ever wanting to do things she's interested in. Still, as awful as Savanna is I did kind of understand why Gracie wanted to be her friend. It made her feel important, and special, and like she belonged, which is an important kind of feeling to have when you're a very unconfident sixteen year old.

Anyway, the story revolves around Savanna having met a boy, who is in college, who she dates whilst still being with her school boyfriend Archie. She expects Gracie to cover for her, lie for her, be at her beck and call and allow her to railroad over any burgeoning signs of Gracie's own independence flowering, and you watch Gracie struggle against her better judgment until finally, inevitably, she can take no more. Meanwhile Gracie is slowly finding a life for herself outside of Savanna's little world, including a friendship with a boy, and she begins to develop confidence in herself and the strength to stand up to Savanna.

Savanna is annoying, in a sort of Beverly Hills 90210 air-head way, and I did find myself feeling cross with Gracie that she didn't just tell her where to go, but I wanted to see how far she would push things, what Gracie would do, and I couldn't help but keep reading. It's a funny, dialogue-full story that's light and easy to read. I was transported back to my GCSE years at school (even though this is set in the US) and the horribly complicated, bitchy world of female friendships. Everything feels very real, very immediate, which is probably why I got caught up in the book. I won't spoil what actually happens, but I enjoyed it all the way through. There's no bad language, no sex or drugs. It's just a good story for teen girls. Not one for the boys though - I'm pretty sure they'd just read it and say 'Huh?'!

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

Another teen-girl reads to try is Taking the Plunge (Electra Brown) by Helen Bailey.

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