Wow! What a debut novel! While there are many coming-of-age novels out there, this one certainly draws you in from the first page. When shy Cat, moves with her mother and brother to a new state, she is immediately drawn in by the magnetic Marlena, a confident, pill-popping "role model" who befriends Cat and shows her that boundaries aren't for everyone. Led astray by Marlena, Cat is in over her head but cannot release the hold her mentor exerts and spirals out of control more than once. As tragedy strikes Marlena, an older and wiser Cat must re-examine her friendship with the wild and quirky girl of her teens and reconcile the memories with how their experiences shaped both of them. It speaks to the resilience of the human heart and the capacity for forgiveness.

Marlena by Julie Buntin (debut)
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Release Date: April 4, 2017
Length: 288 pages

Single Sentence Summary: Resonating with truth, Marlena is a powerful story of the lasting imprint one teenage girl can have on another.

Primary Characters: Cat – An insecure 15-year old girl whose world has been turned upside-down leaving her vulnerable and ripe for change. Marlena – The beautiful, experienced 17-year old neighbor who quickly becomes Cat’s closest friend.

From the Publisher: Everything about fifteen-year-old Cat’s new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter, until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. Cat, inexperienced and desperate for connection, is quickly lured into Marlena’s orbit by little more than an arched eyebrow and a shake of white-blond hair. As the two girls turn the untamed landscape of their desolate small town into a kind of playground, Cat catalogues a litany of firsts―first drink, first cigarette, first kiss―while Marlena’s habits harden and calcify. Within the year, Marlena is dead, drowned in six inches of icy water in the woods nearby.

Review: Though this book is aptly titled Marlena, it’s really Cat’s story. Cat, 15-years old and at her most vulnerable, falls victim to her parent’s failed marriage. Plucked from the comfort of her middle-class, private school life she’s thrust into a manufactured home, on a rundown street, in a rundown town in the far reaches of the upper Michigan peninsula. Feeling lost and alone, Cat does what many 15-year olds do. She rebels, becoming the sidekick to her 17-year old neighbor, Marlena.

Julie Buntin did a wonderful job in building her debut novel, starting with it’s setting. From the onset of the story she paints a landscape of despair. Silver Lake is a small town with little going for it and certainly few options for troubled teens. The home Cat has been moved to, a doublewide, offers no comfort and leaves Cat angry with her father and his new girlfriend. Cat’s mother, trying to find a new life, comforts herself with Franzia rose, stockpiled in boxes. Cat’s life is as desolate as Silver Lake, until she meets Marlena.

In Marlena, Buntin delivered a young woman who was an even more serious victim of her parent’s choices. With no mother around and a father cooking meth in a trailer out back, plus a little brother to care for, Marlena had few choices. It’s easy to see how she became a pill-popping, hard-drinking, risk-taking girl. Cat’s fascination with Marlena was complete. Like so many vulnerable young girls, Cat changed to match her new friend.

“Day by day I made sacrifices, though they didn’t feel like sacrifices at the time, redefining myself according to who she was, until we became the perfect team – her impulsive and brave; me calculating and watchful; her dangerous, me trustworthy; her pretty, me sweet; her high, me drunk; and so on, et cetera.”

Buntin’s writing was gorgeous. She was able to capture the bleakness of Silver Lake and the desperation in her characters with hauntingly authentic prose. What I liked most about Marlena, was that that the story was told from the perspective of Cat, twenty years later. Buntin’s portrayal of Cat at both 15 and 35, felt very true to life. Cat, the narrator, delivers the year she spent with Marlena with no excuses, but with compassion both for Marlena and her younger self. She’s harder on the woman she is today, weary of repeating the same mistakes, but afraid to move on. Marlena, ultimately, is the story of a woman still struggling to gain the perspective she needs to forgive her 15-year old self. This is a terrific coming-of-age debut! Grade: A-

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

The backstory: Marlena is Julie Buntin's first novel.

The basics: "The story of two girls and the wild year that will cost one her life, and define the other’s for decades."

My thoughts: Marlena consumed me as I read it. It opens in the present day, where we meet Cat. This glimpse into the present felt brief, but I soon realized the real action of this novel is in the past. Initially, I found myself hungering to return to the present, which is at least partly do to my fascination with knowing how things end because figuring out how characters move from the past to the present (or future) fascinates me. But as this novel went on, I found myself much less invested in present Cat, which surprised me.

Buntin is a gifted writer, and she made me love reading about teenage angst in a way I haven't enjoyed in years. She made me prefer a teen storyline to an adult storyline. At times, she even made me remember my teen years with fondness, "Everyone has a secret life. But when you're a girl with a best friend, you think your secret life is something you can share."

Favorite passage: "The truth is both a vast wilderness and the tiniest space you can imagine. It's between me and her, what I saw and what she saw and how I see it now and how she no now."

The verdict: Buntin is at her best writing about the past, and that rightly constitutes most of this novel. While I enjoyed seeing where Cat was, it didn't feel as authentic. I wish Buntin would have delved more into the present or left it out, as it muddied an otherwise extraordinary narrative. As much as I liked Marlena, this novel made me fall in love with Julie Buntin as a writer, and I can't wait to see where she goes next.

MARLENA by Julie Buntin is an exploration of female friendships and coming of age with the worst the world has to offer; Marlena and Cat are poor, lonely, addictive personalities from dysfunctional families with a capital D.

This book is at times difficult to read, the sex and drugs these young girls engage in is scary but told in a way that makes it understandable. The writing is superb, I will be on the look out for more books by Ms. Buntin.

There are no hearts and flowers in this book but there is something beautiful amongst the angst.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. Beautifully written and such a joy to read. Thank you.

This book will bring you back to all of the messiness of when you were a teen. Great story and the writer is one to watch!

Release Date: 04.04.17

I am a wreck. I have been cut into pieces, and I don't know how to put myself together again. This book sucker-punched me and knifed me and stole my wallet. Okay, I am being dramatic — of course — but how else can I get my point across? Damn, I was not expecting something this powerful when I requested an ARC of this debut novel from Netgalley.

This is the story of fifteen year old Cat and her new, older friend, Marlena, whom she meets after she, her brother and mother move to a small town in Michigan. The story is narrated by an older Cat, one who has grown and moved far away from the town where she spent a short time with a mysterious, intoxicating girl who changes her life forever. Being only twenty-one, I very well remember being fifteen. The author captures the angst, confusion, and longing of that age brilliantly, with use of razor-sharp language and some of the most sympathetic fictional characters I've stumbled across in some time.

This is a portrait of growing up: the loss of innocence and daring to look beyond . . . but that doesn't mean this novel has a happy ending. It's not a particularly sad one, but it's realistic. And that is, perhaps, what I appreciate most about this story: Julie Buntin doesn't sell her readers short.

This is a fantastic novel, and I implore everyone to pick it up when it hits shelves on Tuesday.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the ARC, which was given in exchange for an honest review.

I noticed all the positive reviews and pre-pub buzz for this debut and was looking forward to reading it. I did like the writing, the main character, the setting and the structure of the book (past and present story lines). Reading the book took me back to my own adolescence: all the emotions, self-esteem issues, friend relationships with both sexes, family dynamics, etc. And it reminded me that some things that happened during that time of my life had long-reaching effects. It was a darker tale than I usually enjoy, and the writing was too visceral for my taste at times, but I appreciate the opportunity to step out of my reading comfort zone.

Edgy and well-written, a narrative I won't quickly forget, this is an interesting book that I'm not sure I'd recommend to anyone who suffers insomnia already.

This is an odd 3 star DNF for me at 35%. I rarely DNF. I just wasn't feeling it but it is VERY well written and I think that many will completely and compellingly love this book. It might just not be the book for me right now. I wasn't into the characters which were like the movie "Thirteen", selfish, stupid, skipping school, drugs, etc. with the worst parents you can imagine. This is reality for many (I'm a teacher and I've seen it all) but it's just not interesting and nothing really happened to advance the story to ME. I had that "ugh I don't wanna read this" feeling and knew it was time to stop. I don't want to discourage others from giving it a try - it was impressive in the writing style and from other reviews it appears the teenage friendship is solidly displayed. Just not for me.

I do, as always appreciate the ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Julie Buntin's Marlena is a striking work of brilliance. I was moved in a way that is almost indescribable by this story, one of pain and a strange sort of happiness, written in language that is simply breathtaking.

It's a simple tale, on the surface. Catherine (Cat), age 15, her mom, and her older brother, Jimmy, move to the small town of Silver Lake, MI, after Cat's parents divorce. They move into a house that's one step above a trailer. Not long after, the mysterious ad seductive Marlena enters their lives, and Cat is swept into the deepest, but, ultimately most devastating, relationship of her life. We learn from the beginning of the story, which alternates seamlessly between past and present, that Marlena dies. We don't know until the very end, though, how she dies. And even when this final ending occurs, there remains an element of dark mystery to her death.

Marlena is a perfectly drawn tragic heroine. Left primarily on her own to raise her much younger brother, Sal, she draws Cat into a web of drug and alcohol abuse , random sexual encounters, and truancy. Marlena's father cooks meth. Cat's mom cleans houses. It's a complicated story about which I will say no more lest I spoil someone else's experience. I leave future readers with this observation: we read and watch and wait for what we know is coming.

There is much to this story that the reader must experience for him or herself. This is a story that, in the hands of a far less capable writer, could have been a rehashed tale of teenage angst in the darker underbelly of society, and a dull story at that. Ms. Buntin's gift, besides telling a terrific, not put downable story, is her ability to describe without strings of adjectives. Her writing is the perfect example of "show, don't tell." When Cat describes Marlena's eyes as so bright you could almost hear them (or words to that effect), you know exactly what she means. This sort of magnificent descriptive writing makes this book sing, transport, and make you feel that you are inside Cat herself.

This is a brilliant and magnificent first novel. I look forward to more from this gifted author.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book!

This is a coming-of-age story, complete with all the typical teenage angst, however, much grittier and sharp.

Catherine (redefined as Cat) has to leave her exclusive private school and move to a very small town in northern Michigan when her parents divorce. Her mom used her settlement to buy a prefab home for the family, which includes her old brother, Jimmy.

Living in a barn across the street is a very dysfunctional family - Marlena and her little brother, Sal, along with her druggie father. Cat becomes obsessed with Marlena, two years older and coming from a much different background. However, they're both grieving the loss of a parent - Cat's dad who now is remarried, and Marlena's mom, who disappeared. Cat goes from a high-achiever to skipping out of school. They soon become inseparable, and Marlena introduces Cat to a whole different world - drinking, drugs, sex.

We're told in the beginning of the story that Marlena dies - drowning in 6" of water in the woods on a cold November night. The story is spooled out between time periods and locations - Michigan in the past as we learn of the girls' story and New York in the present, where Cat is still struggling with her demons, the loss of her friend, and letting her past define her.

A great debut novel - not always easy to read but written wonderfully.

Hard to believe this novel is a debut--Buntin knocks this one out of the park.

I don't want to give away too much but this is a powerful novel about memory and friendship and how we sometimes lose ourselves--while trying to find ourselves--in those friendships. Many of us have had Marlenas in our lives (those dangerously irresistible friends) and Buntin most certainly did because she absolutely nails the range of emotions they trigger. So many of the relationships in this book, not just Cat and Marlena's, rang true for me. Can't wait to see what she gives us next--I predict a lot more solid stories from Julie Buntin.

I would like to thank Julie Buntin, Henry Holt & Company and Netgalley for giving me this book for my honest review.
Review By Stephanie
Cat leads the typical normal boring life for a fifteen year old. That’s all unitl she meets her neighbor Marlena. Marlena is anything but boring…she has a manic personality then mix that with her pill popping habit. Cat of course has never been like Marlena but she so desperately wants a connection, so she is quickly lurned into Marlena’s life style. Julie takes us on a ride; we follow these two girls as they turn their little town into their private playground. Then fast forward decades….and Cat is trying to move on and forgive herself while Marlena’s ghost keeps pulling her back into the past.
Julie Buntin tells an honest and haunting story about these two girls. I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to read more from Julie!

Cat and her brother Jimmy relocate with their mother to a rural town in Northern Michigan. With her parents recent divorce she is no longer able to attend her private boarding school. She feels very isolated living away from the support of her father and friends.

After the move, a friendship develops between Cat and her new neighbor Marlena. Cat is fifteen, impressionable and has lived a sheltered life. Marlena is streetwise and was raised by her drug dealing father and brother. Marlena’s environment has had a negative effect leading to pill addiction and school truancy. Cat is influenced by Marlena’s free spirit and she starts to copy her bad traits. She experiments with drinking, smoking, and cutting school while her mother copes with her own problems. Their lives become intertwined until Marlena’s sudden death.

This is a wonderful debut novel by Julie Buntin. It is gritty and emotional story of a deep friendship formed during adolescence. The author brings back all the overwhelming feelings developed in our teens. It is amazing that we sometimes cannot remember what we had for dinner two nights ago, but we can recall the friendships and activities from our formative years.

I've found myself really enjoying novels lately about destructive female friendships and this book delivered. It follows a young teenager named Cat as she and her family move to the small town of Silver Lake after her parents' divorce. There she meets Marlena who quickly becomes her best friend. Together these two delve into a world of sex, drugs, and secrecy. This book really sucked me in and was a quick read. If you enjoy reading about complicated female friendships and dealing with loss, I'd give this book a read.

If you're a fan of The Wallflowers' music, maybe you'll find yourself singing this song while reading Julie Buntin's Marlena: https://youtu.be/RloXtzcCAf8. (Not because of any particular plot point or because the lyrics are symbolic, just because there is a Marlena in the book and one, two, three Marlenas in the song. I'm deep like that.)

"Sometimes I feel like she is my invention. Like the more I say, the further from the truth of her I get. I'm trying to hold palmfuls of sand but I squeeze harder, I tighten my fist, and the quicker it all escapes."

Fifteen-year-old Cat's life is turned upside down when her mother decides the best way to recover from her divorce and regain some financial momentum is to move Cat and her older brother Jimmy from their home in Pontiac, Michigan to the rural town she grew up in, Silver Lake. Cat has to leave her private school, her best friend, and the sense of security she had, plus she'll be moving away from her father, and although he hasn't been attentive since moving in with his much younger girlfriend, she knows she'll miss him.

No one is bargaining for the somewhat rundown house they move into, nor do they expect to be amidst trailer homes and other decrepit homes, where it appears less-than-upstanding activities are taking place. But the bright spot for Cat is meeting Marlena, her next door neighbor. Marlena is two years older, worldly where Cat has been sheltered, bold and brazen where Cat is shy, and when they meet, she is already in the throes of addiction to pills of all kinds, but she generally manages to keep her life together on a day-to-day basis.

Before long, Cat and Marlena are mostly inseparable, although she must navigate Marlena's mood swings and the fear of her unstable father. But with Marlena, Cat also gets to experience many firsts—first kiss, first drink, first cigarette, first time skipping school—and feels like she finally is part of something, even if at times it leaves her unsteady and uncertain. But despite the emotional roller coaster of their relationship, and Cat's recognition that Marlena's behavior is, ultimately, dangerous, she is still unprepared for Marlena's death less than a year later.

This book is told from two perspectives—Cat unfolding the story of her relationship with Marlena and all that occurred during that tumultuous time in Silver Lake, and Cat as an adult, decades later, when the appearance of a ghost from her past causes her to revisit the emotions and the regrets, not to mention the addictions she still lives with all those years later. For the first time, she might have to acknowledge just how profound an effect Marlena had on her life, and in some ways, still does.

"The truth is both a vast wilderness and the tiniest space you can imagine. It's between me and her, what I saw and what she saw and how I see it now and how she has no now. Divide it further—between what I mean and what I say, who I am and who I appear to be, who she said she was and acted like she was and also, of course, who she really was, in all her glorious complexity, all her unknowable Marlena-ness, all her secrets."

There's nothing as intense as a friendship formed in adolescence, particularly amidst the tumultuous teenage years. Marlena is a gripping, emotional account of just how much our lives are affected by those we're closest to when we're younger, and the blessings and the scars of those relationships live on with us well into adulthood.

This is a story of young woman trying to hold her own in a relationship that both made her feel special and inadequate, and a woman years later whose life is still shaped by those days, the decisions she made and those she regrets. Buntin does a terrific job capturing the power dynamics of adolescent friendships, and the after-effects felt long afterward. She's a great storyteller, and this book is packed with emotion, imagery, and lots of instances in which you want to smack the characters for not confronting the issues they see in front of them.

Marlena isn't a perfect book; at times the pacing moved a little slower than I would have liked, and at times Cat alludes to things that happen in the future but I would have liked to understand what led up to some of those instances rather than just be told what happened. But Buntin's use of language and emotion transcends the book's flaws, and definitely keeps you thinking about these characters, even if you've seen them before.

NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Hooray for long weekends with nothing much planned. I tore through this novel. I have to say, although I didn't connect with any of the characters and struggled to empathize with anyone except Sal, Buntin is a clever writer and this is an entertaining read. I was annoyed by her (over)use of foreshadowing, and thought the characters were a little too rote, a little too stereotypical. Still, a good book, a quick read. If you liked 'The Girls', or 'Girls on Fire', or Mary Gaitskill's fiction, grab a copy.