Remember Eighth Grade?

Vendela Vida’s We Run the Tides has Eulabee, a teenage girl in the eighth grade, as its major character. Set in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, in the eighties before the tech boom changed it, the novel offers a sensitive account of how Eulabee is rejected by her best friend, Maria Fabiola, who is fabulous in appearance and personality, but who is fatally drawn to the fabulous or imaginary. Central to the narrative is Maria Fabiola’s apparent kidnapping.

What Eulabee learns to come to terms with is her friend’s inveterate lying. She seems unable to distinguish a lie from the truth. Or rather, she believes in her own lies. It may be no accident that today we associate this characteristic with Donald Trump. The transition from children’s assumption that everyone tells the truth to a teenager’s realization that people lie, that their world is naturally deceptive, lies at the heart of this story.

The structure of this short novel emphasizes this theme. Thirty of its chapters cover Eulabee’s life between 1984 and 1985. A long final chapter is set in 2019 when Sea Cliff has succumbed to the age of technology. Eulabee runs into Maria Fabiola in her late forties and no longer believes what Maria Fabiola tells her.

Vendela Vida writes beautifully. She can instantly seize your attention, as she does in the first sentence of the fourth chapter: “I am at Faith’s house the night her father kills himself.” And she can capture what it is to be one of a group of four thirteen-year-olds: “We want all the boys . . . to pay attention to us. We want to want. We want to love. We want to want love.” Her similes are highly original—and appropriate: “The Female Teacher’s Lounge is crowded and smells like the shallow vase water of dying flowers.” And she has a quiet sense of humor: “Fall gives the flashers who like to stroll by Spragg [School] an excuse to wear trench coats.”

Eulabee’s narrative offers a sensitive insight into what it is like to be a thirteen-year-old girl in a privileged neighborhood. Each reversal or betrayal contributes to her growing awareness of what life holds in store. Let Eulabee conclude for me. She has just had an embarrassing sexual encounter with a boy:

“How do you feel?” Ewa asks.
“Betrayed.”
“By who?” she says.
“Whom,” I say.
“Who?”
“I feel betrayed by my femininity.”

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

We Run the Tides gave me younger, more chaotic The Virgin Suicides vibes. The plot follows a group teenage girls that drifts apart after one of them refuses to go along with an apparent lie about something that happened on their walk to school. Along the way, a web of lies is weaved by one of the girls after she suddenly disappeared. Then another disappearance and death just seemed to a blip in the plot.

However, in the end, I don't think the plot came together. The ending seemed clipped off and missing something. It did seem like the main character, Eulabella, was validated after catching her old friend Maria in a lie thanks to her husband quickly telling Eulabella that Maria was lying. If Maria was lying about children, what else did she lie about throughout her life?

This was a quick read. I'm not sure what kind of reader I could recommend this to, but I do think it would be a quick read to pick up and read on vacation.

my first ARC! and i absolutely adored it.

it’s always fascinating to read books set in places you’ve lived - you’re able to picture streets and views and neighborhoods with nostalgia and precision. one huge reason i loved this book is that i was reunited with my sweet, sweet San Francisco. the book is set in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, which is now where all the uber rich tech CEOs reside, but was more of a typical community in the 80s when the book was set - certainly wealthy and privileged, no doubt about that, just not quite on the level of Jack Dorsey.

the main character Eulabee and her best friends know their corner of San Francisco like the back of their hands - they know exactly when to run through the swell on China Beach without getting swept up by the Pacific Ocean. they know the Lands' End trail back and forth. they know the ins and outs of their all-girls school. they know the intricacies and dynamics happening all around Sea Cliff - sometimes more so than the adults.

the author did such a good job developing Eulabee - she was a teenager through and through, suffering embarrassing moments, classic girl drama (cold shoulders and all), and also some serious theatrics from her (ex-)BFF Maria Fabiola. but at the same time, she was very mature and self-aware, standing up for her own truth with confidence and fortitude - something that’s not always that easy as an impressionable young girl. she contained multitudes. when some crazy, but very real nonsense goes down in Sea Cliff, Eulabee navigates it through both of these lenses.

i found myself wanting to ditch all my plans and read this book. the writing was deep and delicious, but kept the story moving - there was never a dull moment. ultimately, it’s a love letter to San Francisco, wrapped up in a gripping story of a young girl in a privileged neighborhood, around a scare that shocks the whole community. if you’re looking to get lost in a book and be reminded of the city by the bay, this one’s for you.

out on Tuesday!

Eulabee and her teenage friends are living a privileged life in a San Francisco's neighborhood. They are young, beautiful and invincible. Eulabee and Maria Fabiola share everything. Their lives, their crushes and their secrets. And they always agree. Until they disagree about a confusing episode that happened one morning on their way to school. That is when Eulabee realizes that maybe Maria Fabiola is not how she thinks she is. And who she thinks she is. From that day on things start to go awry. Their friendship strains and their lives seem to go in opposite directions. Sexual awakening, a possible kidnapping and the loss of innocence are the main issues in this girls lives, all told from Eulabee point of view in a narration that sometimes seems to lack affection and sounds flat for a passionate teenage girl. But I guess that she is not like any other teenage girl.
The book is a page turner. Highly entertaining, fun and beautifully written. I read it in one day.
For me is a 🌟🌟🌟🌟 4 Stars reading.

We Run the Tides left me wanting more. The premise seemed intriguing and I was led to believe this would be a thrilling, introspective tale centered on female friendship. Instead, it was focused on Eulabee's life with twists that left me more confused than excited. Each turn felt like a dead end and I was left wondering their purpose. Eulabee's friend, Maria Fabiola, was given little characterization until later in the book, and while Eulabee was given plenty it didn't intrigue me as much as I hoped. A breezy, well written read with a fantastic ending, but its scope left me puzzled.

Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for the advanced copy!

Set in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood in the 1980’s, the story of private school friends takes us into the minds of school girls where the world centers around them. When the friends start disappearing, Eulabee tries to figure out what happen. The story is light up until a classic white car shows up in the neighborhood. The mystery is never solved. In 2019 a chance meeting sheds new light on what could have happened forty years ago. It’s the story of a dissolving friendship that begins when Eulabee says she didn’t see the man in the white car fondling himself as her three friend contend happen. Labeled both a traitor and a slut, Eulabee feels isolated and even more so she wants to figure out what happened. This is a quick and engaging story.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“Then there are the Prospero boys, the sons of a doctor, who lived in my house before my family bought it. Thye are legendary” This sentence struck out to me because of the way Vida pointed to it, a long list of all that we know, the litany of details of this neighborhood in the Bay area and then boom we zeroed in on the Prospero boys, right when my reader’s attention was hunting for a place to land.

"We Run the Tides" by Vendela Vida was an amazing Coming-of-age story!

'We are thirteen, almost fourteen, and these streets of Sea Cliff are our own.'

Eulabee and her friend Maria Fabiola have been BFF's since kindergarten. Their four person clique also includes Julia & Faith. They all live in the wealthy Sea Cliff neighborhood in San Francisco, California, high above China Beach, overlooking the ocean, with perfect views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County.

They attend an upscale all-girls school and it seems to be a condition of their friendships to walk to school together every day. They are good girls when alone, but they become bold, brash and unapologetic in their behavior when together.

It's the 1984-1985 school year of 8th Grade and something big is about to happen on the way to school. Their friendships are based on having each other's backs, unquestionable loyalty, even when untruths are told. When a question is asked by one of them to the other three girls, one girl boldly disagrees. That's when everything changes!

Eulabee is the protagonist in this story. She is bright, observant, articulate and now she's been ostracized by her three closest friends. She's shocked by this sudden change and crushed that Maria Fabiola, her BFF, is the one directing the harsh treatment toward her.

Although now alone, Eulabee remains focused and strong but lonely and sad. She continues to make choices through the years. Some choices are good, some are not so good. But, she embraces her future and carries on.

How do you cope when something like this happens to you? Do you always remember how it felt? What do you say if you cross paths with one of these 'friends' many years later?

A little dark, occasionally humorous, sometimes a bit weird and yet this was a very engaging read! I don't believe I've ever read a book quite like this one! It brought back memories of my teenage years and how tenuous some friendships were, while others were unyielding and substantial and remain so to this day. Truly one of life's greatest gifts is the gift of unconditional friendship!

My favorite characters were Eulabee and Maria Fabiola. The author did an amazing job pairing off BFF's so dissimilar, with contrasts in personalities that created so much drama to this story. The development of both characters was deep and spoke to the fickleness of their age with boy craziness and constantly pushing boundaries.

I loved how the author's writing nailed the dialog of the 13 year-old characters during their conversations and this is also true of Eulabee's first person narrative. There were a few laugh-out-loud scenarios for me while reading Eulabee's POV and I had to stop to savor each one! Oh, how I enjoyed those moments!

I am rating this book 4.5 stars and bumping it up to 5 stars because I loved this story and the fond memories it stirred in me of growing up in the SF Bay Area.

I highly recommend this book to those who love Coming-of-age stories or just enjoy a really good book.
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Thank you to NetGalley, Ecco and Vendela Vida for a free ARC copy of this book. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Four teen girls living in a wealthy neighborhood in San Francisco in the 80’s. They attend private school and have been friends since kindergarten. Eulabee is the main character and the storyteller. Her family isn’t as rich as the others, but her best friend Maria Fabiola comes from a very wealthy family and she is very popular and lives for drama and attention. One day while they’re walking to school, an incident happens that changes their friendship forever. When they disagree about what really happened, eulabee is shunned from the group because she dared to contradict Maria Fabiola. Then a few days later, Maria Fabiola goes missing and everyone in town is panicked except Eulabee, who knows the Maria Fabiola will do anything for all eyes to be on her. Maria is found and comes up with a wild story that everyone believes, except Eulabee, who confronts her but Maria tries to convince her to go along with it.
The story picks up 30 years later and Eulabee is working in Europe and she happens to run into Maria Fabiola and they reminisce about their lives, and Eulabee finds out that some things and some people never change.

I enjoyed the writing style and I liked the dark humor of Eulabee. It’s definitely got a “Mean Girls” kinda vibe.
Thanks to netgalley and Harper Collins for this arc in exchange for my review.

We Run the Times had so much potential, but ultimately the storytelling was too choppy for me. I didn't have any empathy for the characters, and the kidnapping felt like an overused trope, with no real resolution or consequence.

Just wow. Five stars for a remarkable coming-of-age story set in San Francisco and told in the voice of a teenage girl: one of the most challenging demographics to write in a non-contrived way. Please see my review for more info.

The use of the present tense and “we” create an intriguing launching point for We Run the Tides, describing not only the people, but also what has happened in the houses of Sea Cliff over time, emphasizing the importance of the neighborhood to the story. People here are defined by gossip (“We know the imposing salmon-colored house that had a party at which masked robbers appeared…”) and this sets up a pattern, alternating event and community reaction, for the rest of the book. We Run the Tides explores lies and the perpetuation of lies. It explores perception and whether we see people or events realistically. It questions who is to be believed. I received this book from NetGalley to review and I chose it because Vendela Vida’s Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Divers’ Clothes Lie Empty are two of the most unique books I have read. This book would probably better suit someone who likes Vida’s Girls on the Verge and traditional plot arcs. The story is a coming-of-age story for Eulabee, describing her adolescent school experience and friendships, with her distinctive sense of humor lightening some moments.

I thought this was an excellent coming of age story. I really enjoyed the San Francisco setting as well as getting to know Eulabee, Faith, Julia, and Maria Fabiola. I thought each of their stories were interesting and unique, and as someone who was born in the early eighties, I loved being transported back to that decade through this story.

While Eulabee and her friends were definitely more brazen than I was at that age, I could totally connect with and understand the things they were going through. The early teens are such a tumultuous time for any young woman. This book covered several important and heavy topics, and my heart hurt for Eulabee and some of the things she endured.

Though her character was over the top, I have no doubt that there are plenty of real Maria Fabiolas in the world. I had a "Maria" in my life as a kid, just not to the extreme of the character in the book. But I really respected Eulabee for the way she handled that relationship, when it would've been so much easier to go along with her friend and keep the peace.

This was a quick and enjoyable read, and I thought the ending was perfect. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a coming of age story or that is nostalgic for the 80's.

“We’re the city’s most meaningful flowers,” Maria Fabiola says. “We’re glamorous and intriguing to the outside world.”

Usually, I feel like when an author goes back to a juvenile time, they have a harder time writing like a true juvenile. When discussing Faith and her adoption, I was at first a bit cringe, then I remembered, Eulabee is only thirteen and that’s exactly how a thirteen year old would describe adoption. It was so innocent and I really appreciated Vida’s writing and awareness.

It’s hard to really provide my feelings for this book. At first, you remember they’re children, but at the same time, their cruelty is one that takes years to master. I thought it would be a 50/50 split on 1984/85 and 2019, but 2019 seemed almost like an epilogue. The writing is absolutely intoxicating to where I couldn’t not stop. I read this in less than 12 hours because I needed to know what was going on and got sucked in by the writing style of Vida.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I think the blurb is definitely misleading as this is mostly about a girl, Eulabee, and how she goes through life as a preteen. It’s character driven, and the plot doesn’t really seem to have a clear direction.

Thank you Ecco & NetGalley for the gifted copy. We Run The Tides is out 2/9/2021.

Definitely an interesting read, but the narrative felt choppy and hard to follow, especially in the beginning. I hate to say that I was bored by a book, per se, because I believe every book has at least something redeeming about it! But this book just couldn't keep me engaged, I didn't care about any of the four main girls or what was going on in their lives, and about 30% in I just wanted it to be over.

Review: WE RUN THE TIDES by Vendela Vida

Thank you to Ecco for an eARC copy of WE RUN THE TIDES in exchange for an honest review (via @netgalley)

Eulabee, a teenager in the town of quiet Sea Cliff, has her world turned upside down after a falling out with her friends over an incident that may-or-may-not have happened. Quickly, things take another turn as her best friend Maria Fabiola suddenly disappears.

WE RUN THE TIDES was such a great book that combines mystery with teenage drama. It was a totally unique plot that I just loved, I could never see where exactly the story was going to go.Vendela Vida perfectly captures the tumultuousness of being a young teenager trying to form your own identity while craving the attention of your peers. There were so many times that I cringed at Eulabee’s actions, but the cringe was good because she acted exactly how I pictured a young person in her situation acting.

The writing was so beautiful and thoughtful, I was completely taken away by it. WE RUN THE TIDES is a perfect choice for a book with depth that makes you think, as well as a satisfying story.

WE RUN THE TIDES comes out February 9th!

"We Run The Tides" is an 80s tale of adolescents learning about choice and consequence. It's a relateable story about truth and deception, and the reality that telling the truth doesn't always put you in the good graces of your peers.

I really wanted to connect with characters in this book, but I felt like I never really knew who they were. There was enough of a pace to keep me reading until the end, but I left with a feeling that all the characters' outcomes were hazy and mild.

It was a quick read and a fun perspective on San Francisco before the tech boom.

What do you do when you are best friends with someone who is so desperate for attention that she will do anything to get it, especially lie and then expect you [and all that follow her] to fall in line and lie with her? Here lies the issue at the heart of the latest book by Vendela Vida, a literary novel set in 1980's San Franscisco [with an epilogue set in 2019]. Ms. Vida writes a book that makes one both nostalgic for the past, angry at things they may have suffered at the hands of others when in school, and extreme frustration at all the adults inability to see just how dangerous and insincere Maria Fabiola truly is. At least, that is how I felt throughout most of this book.

I have read Vendela Vida before and have loved her books. There is always something within them that resonates with me and that was what I was hoping for with this read. I wanted to love this book. I really did. Unfortunately, I did not. There was quite a bit that resonated with me [and reminded me of all the things I hated about HS and the "popular" girls who thought they were so awesome when all they were were mean girls], but the whole issue with Maria Fabiola just rubbed me the wrong way [and I believe you are supposed to feel this way] and even if I was supposed to feel that way, it didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience at times. I liked Eulabee [and her family] so much and I never saw her as a mean girl per say, and she finds out that living without the "in crowd" CAN be done [even if it is horrible at the time], and I truly admired her by the end of the book, but some of her choices were just...I don't know, ludicrous? She just didn't seem like the kind of girl that would do some of the things she did, so that was frustrating to me. Then add the end of the book and the issues surrounding Maria Fabiola, and all that just made it impossible for me to love the book, no matter how I tried.

Thank you to NetGalley, Vendela Vida, and Ecco for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this. It's sort of a story of a teenage girl having a falling out with her best friend, but with so many twists and turns, laugh-out-loud moments, moments when things turn out worse than you'd imagined and when things get resolved in surprising ways. I liked Eulabee as a character a lot, and liked the very specific setting (San Francisco in the 1980s, wealthy but not yet tech-boom-wealthy) as well as the details of the Swedish-American community.

Before I begin, I realize that I am in the minority with my opinion on this novel. I have started and stopped this novel probably 15 times and have always struggled to really get into it. At first, I will admit feeling the nostalgia from that time period and I could certainly relate to Eulabee and the network of girls, especially Maria. I mean, we have all known our own Maria growing up. But unfortunately, I just didn't connect and was honestly bored. with the plot. I did something I never do, giving up at about the 75% mark. It just wasn't for me. I am giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because I did find the language and wording wonderful.