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Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Book Title: Firefly Lane

Author: Kristin Hannah

Genre: Historical Fiction, Coming-of-age

Rating: 5/5

The book “Firefly Lane” by Kristin Hanna is a coming-of-age and historical fiction novel that deals with the themes of friendship, love, familial bonds, the challenges of motherhood, and accepting and living with one’s choices. The book starts in 1974 and tells the story of Tully and Kate, two eighth graders whose personalities are poles apart yet they form a friendship that grows stronger with time. Tully Hart is a fourteen years old girl who outwardly is a beautiful and popular girl at school, has a very bubbly personality, and lots of friends, however, inside she is a lonely, scared, girl of fourteen. She lives with her grandparents as her mother is a drug addict who lives in her own world, making Tully feel rejected and unloved. Kate Mularkey, on the other hand, is a nerd who as soon as she enters the teenage, loses all her friends because they do not want to hang out with a boring girl who wears glasses and reads Lord of the Rings. Kate doesn’t have the personality and looks Tully has but she has a beautiful family who loves her, something that Tully longs for. One day, when Tully moves into Firefly Lane right across Kate’s house, both these girls’ life changes. The story is about these two young girls finding each other at the time when they both needed each other the most and form a strong bond of friendship that goes on for thirty years in which they learn to stay together and become each other’s rock during their tough times, sad times, joy, happiness, heartbreaks, jealousies, and first love until something happens that separates them but cannot kill the love they have for each other.

It’s been a while since I have read a book that is so hard to put down. It was a roller coaster of emotions. I laughed and cried with the characters. The book beautifully depicts the friendship between Tully and Kate. I found it to be a delightful yet heartbreaking read. Throughout the last fifty pages, I had tears in my eyes. Hannah has beautifully delineated the characters and their emotions which made the readers feel the emotions of the characters.

I found Kate and Tully two girls with completely opposite personalities. Kate wanted to have a family, and Tully wanted to have a career in journalism and become famous. Though both succeeded in achieving their respective dreams yet still felt envious of each other’s life. However, in the end, they learned to embrace the choices they had made.

In the story, I found the character of Marah, Kate’s daughter, the most annoying. I disliked that kid so much. She was so mean to her mother. I love the relationship Kate shared with her husband Johnny. I felt really bad for him by the end.

I was a little skeptical before placing an order for this book because most of the time when I buy a book that is popular and highly recommended by others often turns out to be a boring read. But thankfully, that was not the case with this book. I am glad I went through the pain of buying it. It was all worth it.

I will rate this book 5 stars. There is a sequel to this book called “Fly Away,” but I am too heartbroken to read that. Also, it is not available in Pakistan so even if I want to read it, I cannot. So, now in order to get over the sadness this book has caused me, I have started watching the series adaptation of the book on Netflix and I just cannot connect with the characters the way I did in the book.

I must read something light now. Even though this book was light but the ending was too heavy for me to handle.