Best Friends Forever

By Jennifer Weiner
Atria Books, $26.99, 362 pages

There are not one but two inciting incidents within the first five pages of Best Friends Forever.  The first is a make out session gone terribly wrong, resulting in the abandonment of a bleeding man in an frigid, isolated parking lot.  The second is a knock on the door where mousy greeting card artist Addie Downs discovers her childhood ex-best friend, now Chicago TV news anchor Valerie Adler.  The two haven’t spoken in 15 years. 

The inciting incidents lead to other curious mysteries which are delightfully unraveled in delicious bites through the entire length of the book as the ex-best friends embark on a Thelma and Louise-type road trip, closely tracked by the town’s policeman, who has developed an adorable crush on the once-grotesquely overweight Addie. 

Best Friends Forever is absolutely not a book to miss.  It has the clever, can’t-put-it-down style of a chick-lit novel, the intricate plotting of a truly surprising thriller, plus the depth and themes of modern literature.  As she has in her previous books, Weiner has created a protagonist who is universally loveable, and a deck of supporting characters whose quirks and nuances ring tangibly true.

Reviewed by Megan Just