I have to confess, I’m always excited for a Vendela Vida book and We Run the Tides did not disappoint. It is the story of teenager Eulabee and her best friend, Maria Fabiola who live in Sea Cliff, a seaside community in San Francisco. Eulabee is vulnerable, smart and endearing and the two girls attend an affluent all girls school. As close as they are, their relationship splinters after an argument about an incident they witnessed one morning on the way to school. Then, Maria Fabiola disappears, and the alleged kidnapping reverberates throughout their community. This is a beautifully written novel that contains a mystery, but it is also incredibly funny. It’s a story about the complexities of female friendships that takes place in a quieter pre-tech boom San Francisco. I absolutely loved this reading experience and I did not want this book to end!

I absolutely loved this book. It is a wise, hilarious look at a group of girls growing up in mid-'80s San Francisco. Vendela Vida' s writing is so engaging. I was highlighting passages every couple of pages.

The book is narrated by Eulabee and you'll really enjoy the pleasure of being in her company for 270 pages. She gives you a tour of the people and places around her with acerbic asides and insights.

Tremendous. I look forward to diving into Vida's other work. Netgalley provided me with an e-copy of this book in return for a review.

Oh, the imaginations, deviousness, and drama of young girls as they become young women. Vendela Vida nails it all

The writing was amazing, almost as if it’s poetry. The story revolves around Eulabee and her friends, roaming around their privileged community in Sea Cliff. What struck me about this book was how young friendships really can be ruined for 1 small thing such as a disagreement. When one of Eulabees friends ostracizes her it, so do her other friends and the entire school. Once Eulabees best friend Maria Fabiola goes missing and oddly returns, Eulabee hopes they can return to friendship but Maria Fabiola’s idea of friendship is one that shows how unaware they are about the privilege they have. So ensues Eulabees growth.

Vendela Vida writes like no one else. She writes in a distinct style with an ability to get far under the skin of her characters. Most of this book is a memory piece of growing up in privileged circumstances in the early 1980's San Francisco in the community of Sea Cliff where everything "... is about the view of the Bridge." What truly sets Eulabee and her friends apart is that they don't see their situation as being anything but normal, that the exclusivity of their lives only becomes apparent when a possible kidnapping takes place and they are made aware of how they are perceived by the outside world.

Although Eulabee has been friends with these girls since kindergarten, a disagreement causes her to be ostracized, most notably by her charismatic best friend, Marie Fabiola who has a laugh that "makes you laugh because you don't want her to laugh alone." Eulabee is cleareyed about herself, however, honest about her "sinister side," but also quite innocent in earthly matters.

A coda set in 2019 brings the story to a satisfactory conclusion, concluding Eulabee's history and those of her friends as well as the well known transformation of the City by the Bay and its current status as Silicon Valley's exclusive bedroom community.