NATIONAL BESTSELLER An achingly beautiful story of female friendship, betrayal, and a mysterious disappearance set in the changing landscape of San Francisco Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters—as well as the … hidden corners and eccentric characters—as well as the upscale all-girls’ school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act—or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance—a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.
Suspenseful and poignant, We Run the Tides is Vendela Vida’s masterful portrait of an inimitable place on the brink of radical transformation. Pre–tech boom San Francisco finds its mirror in the changing lives of the teenage girls at the center of this story of innocence lost, the pain of too much freedom, and the struggle to find one’s authentic self. Told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth, in all its beauty and confusion.
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I was very much attracted to this book because it takes places in the San Francisco of my memory. Along with a strong setting, this book takes on female friendships and how they evolve. Eulabee and her friend Maria Fabiola live in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in SF, sitting over the Golden Gate Bridge and coastline of sandy beaches. Living a life of privilege, these girls and their other school friends, find themselves in the middle of a missing persons case. All the while, as young girls experience, their friendships start taking a turn based on circumstances, family matters, and rumors. This is a great book that leaves readers thinking more about the story after the turn of the last page.
Read 1.31.2021
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.
3.5 stars
This is a coming-of-age story about early teen friendships and their influence on our lives. Eulabee has a best friend, Maria Fabiola, and they grow up in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco, prior to the tech boom.
Maria Fabiola holds influence over the girls in their group, and demands attention. She fabricates lies and wants the friends to go along with her. She also fabricates a kidnapping and has the teachers at their private school, Spragg, believing her. When Eulabee doesn’t support the lies she is ostracized.
I liked the book, but I think there were several loose ends, and also some instances that were not believable.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are freely given.
#WeRuntheTides #NetGalley
I want to start by saying I am really grateful for this ARC. I really wanted to enjoy this book, and it was ok, but I honestly didn’t love it. The story centers around Eulabee who is the main protagonist, and is 13 years old. The story is set in the 80’s in Sea Cliff California which is right outside of San Francisco. Eulabee spends all of her time with her BFF Maria Fabiola, and their two other friends Julia and Faith. One day when the four girls are walking to school there is an incident and when reported to the school Eulabee’a story is drastically different from the other three girls. A wedge is drawn between the girls due to this event, and Eulabee finds herself alone and ostracized from her friends. When Maria Fabiola goes missing a few months later Eulabee is the only one who feels she’s really run away for attention. Eulabee learns a lot about the girl she thought was her BFF since kindergarten and soon realizes she never really knew Maria at all.
My biggest issue with this story was that Eulabee just didn’t come off believeable as a thirteen year old. The things she was doing and saying were not how a normal middle school child would act even in the 80’s. Eulabee acted far too old (a weird sexualized encounter with a guy who was in his 20’s and about to get married, along with a weird feet kissing episode with her friend Keith) and I kept having to remind myself she was a only in middle school. Eulabee and Maria are really unlikeable characters, but Maria clearly has issues so it makes sense. It just doesn’t make sense why Eulabee had to be such a far fetched character who did so many things that were just annoying! If you can get passed the annoying characters you may like this book. There are a lot of good reviews so hopefully this will be in some readers wheelhouse.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC
It’s 1984 and Eulabee lives in a high priced neighborhood in San Francisco. She’s 13 years old and goes to a private school with her best friends – Julia and Faith and her very best friend Maria Fabiola. Maria is very popular and the girl that everyone wants to be friends with and Eulabee is thrilled to be her best friend. Until…one day on their walk to school, the girls see a man in a car and Maria says that she saw him doing something bad. The other two girls agree with her and claimed that they saw the same thing and when Eulabee refuses to back up her story, the friendship is over. It’s not just over but the three girls, led by Maria, turn the girls at the school against her and Eulabee, once a popular girl becomes an outcast. Despite the pain of being an outcast, she remains true to herself and refuses to lie for her friend.
This is a beautiful coming of age story set in San Francisco before the tech bubble took over the town. Life is simple and free and teenagers are filled with conflicting emotions. I loved the way the story ended in 2019 so that we were able to find out how the four friends were doing.
This book was unlike most books that I’ve read. Yes, there was some action but the plot was simple and free and it made me smile as it brought back memories of being a teenager – both the good and the bad. I plan to check out this author’s earlier book because I enjoyed this one so much.