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Two best friends grow up—and grow apart—in this innovative contemporary YA novel
Told in dual timelines—half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backward—We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood besties. At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they’re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce. Funny, honest, and full of heart, We Used to Be Friends tells of the pains of growing up and growing apart.
Author: Amy Spalding
Paperback Published 18 May 2023 368 pages
Originally published in hardcover 7 January 2020
“Amy Spalding knows that best friendships are love stories, and this one is complex, earnest, and unflinching. A must-read for anyone who's ever had or lost a friend.” — Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
“We Used to Be Friends chronicles the end of a friendship with a bittersweet authenticity balanced by Amy Spalding's trademark humor. This book will break your heart only like a best friend can.”— Maurene Goo, author of Somewhere Only We Know
“Amy Spalding spins a story of friendship, family, love, and longing as perfect and bittersweet as the last days of summer.” —Rebecca Podos, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Like Water