"Firefly Lane" Review

Firefly Lane

By Kristin Hannah

9/10

My Synopsis:

Firefly Lane is the story of the friendship of Kate Mularky and Tully Hart. The starting setting is 1974.   Raised in a stable, loving household, Kate is your typical good girl who feels her life is boring and stifling.  Raised mostly by her grandmother after being repeatedly abandoned by her mother, Tallullah , or “Tully” as she is called, is your typical wild child forced to fend for herself in the world.  Coming together one night and opening up to each other as they’ve never opened up before, they risk their emotions by letting each other into their worlds.  From that point on they are known as TullyandKate – one person, not two – the girls from Firefly Lane. As the decades progress, the personalities of these two girls develop and they grow apart and closer together cyclically.  But when it comes down to it, even thirty years later, a friend is still a friend and always will be.

My Opinion:

I was worried when I started reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah because I accidentally caught sight of one of those one line review quotes comparing it to a famous movie.  Now, I purposefully do not read reviews prior to writing my own so that I can approach the book openly and unbiased but this was right on the back of the book and could not be avoided.  This review quote worried me because 1) the plot of that particular movie is well-known and I was concerned the plot of this book had just been given away and 2) I don’t like the movie.  I must admit that the book was extremely similar and the ending was given away by the comparison so I won’t name the movie here.  The characters blossomed within the author’s prose.  I loved Kate and . . . well . . . less than loved Tully.  I had a hard time believing that one person could be put through so much crap by another person and still call that person a friend.  The plot of the book progressed nicely.  The descriptions of the different decades the girls lived through was awesome and led to some embarrassing personal memories.  I almost gave this book an 8 but realized I was just doing that because of my dislike of one character.  Then I realized that the actions of that one character were made possible by the inactions of another.  I will admit toward the end you know what is coming and keep waiting and waiting for it to actually happen almost to the point where you get tired of waiting.  But overall, the book was good and almost even made me cry at one point but no tears equals no 10.  9/10