I just... I understand what the author tried to do with this, but I didn't feel like it was very well executed.
This is a story about family and grief and loneliness, and yet all I felt while reading it was annoyance. The main character is incredibly frustrating, and I feel like "but she's 10 and her dad has cancer" is no excuse. I don't really have much to say about this book, other than that it was very much not my thing.

A touching, heartfelt story that really pulls at the heartstrings. I was close to tears throughout the whole story and by the end I was sobbing. Absolutely loved this book.

This was extremely adorable and cute.
It really warmed my heart. Very nice for a middle grade read!

What a beautiful gem of a middle-grade read!! I absolutely loved it and hope to read it with my tween oldest when he’s a but older!

Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and a skim read most of it. I think ultimately I was just too old fo this to hold my attention but it seems great fr younger readers.

Really good book for middle school girl trying to navigate the world of frienships while staying true to oneself.

I really enjoyed this story, I thought I was very well written and dealt well with such a difficult subject. I think this book will be really helpful to kids who might feel like their friend don't understand the big things that unfortunately some kids have to deal with. Great lessons about friendship and family.

This had great themes and was a great discussion piece with my son who is learning about bullies from experiencing it himself, this was helpful in that conversation on what makes a true friend.

Very light magic in a well written middle grade story. Touches on some harder topics such as cancer.

Jade lives in a town filled with people who never seem to stay for long. She and her family were also using this place as a stopover, but cancer forced them to stay so that dad could tackle his liver cancer. To combat her tumultuous feelings and her lack of friends, Jade throws herself into writing about fake friend Zoe and their perfect relationship and tries to make that enough. Once again, life throws in a curveball and, thanks to a school know it all and some magic pond water, Zoe moves in across the street and suddenly, the perfect world that existed only in a yellow journal, is real. As with the best realistic fiction, what seems perfect is not, and through the imperfections, Jade learns much about being a friend, a sister, a daughter and how to let the wrong in life help make things right. Great characters in this book, excellent life lessons illustrated, and some emotional passages that will surly tug on a few heartstrings. But this reads like realistic fiction and the incongruousness of Magic pond water that turns a journal character into a live girl, and the ridiculous notion that Jade’s family would just except Zoe at their dinner table nightly without ever having laid eyes on her parents even casually across the street, and that Jade could simply write in food, furniture, and working phones for Zoe’s empty house all seem out of place and more befitting a book in the fantasy genre. One word summary—odd. But if the plot intrigues you and you see it fitting in with your readers’ preferences, there are many positives.

This book was so adorable and fun to read! The concept had me hooked from the first page. A fictional character, that you love writing about, actually comes to life and moves in next door? I couldn’t put it down.

I loved the author’s style of writing. She wrote the book in a sweet, charming, simplistic manner. I loved the concept of “Oppservations” where the character observes something opposite of what it should be. What a unique concept! I’m going to start using that in my life. The story has so many heart-warming moments as well. For instance, I loved when Bo uses his illustrations to fight the imaginary “Can Sir” (i.e. Cancer) that’s affecting his father. Also, the various writing tips that Mrs. Yang gives Jade. I am not an author, but if I decide to be one, I am going to follow some of these!

The characters are also written so nicely. Jade is not a perfect character, but you want her to have some friends and not be lonely. I really liked how the author mentions the difference between being a friend and controlling someone. Zoe is hilarious and perky and someone you just want to hang out with all the time. Everyone in Jade’s family is also mentioned in such a positive manner, even though they are facing challenges. On a side note, I also loved the magical elements included in the plot.

Honestly, I really couldn’t find anything wrong about the story to criticize about. It’s a simple, feed good, sweet story that stands out and makes you smile. Overall, “Friend or Fiction” is worth reading!

Aaah this was so cute! It didn't blow me away or anything but it was definitely enjoyable. Exactly what I needed right now.

Friend or Fiction is a middle-grade novel that follows Jade Levy who lives in a very small town in Colorado. She is very lonely and spends all of her time writing a story in her notebook about her imaginary friend, Zoë. When Jade's friend, Clue, does something with her notebook, Zoë suddenly appears in real life. What does this mean for their friendship? Jade has complete control over what Zoë does and knows. Does this mean Jade finally has a best friend?

I really loved the moral of this story. Jade finds out what friendship really means and what best friends do for each other. I also really loved Clue! He's such a cutie

I don't know how old Jade is since it isn't mentioned in the book (at least, I don't think so) but her behavior is really childish. Her dad has cancer and her mother told her to deal with her own problems if she can. Jade takes this somewhat too seriously and thinks everything is too much and that it will make her dad sicker. The same for when she is scared to stop continuing to tell her dad the Zoë stories. I was just a bit annoyed by that.

Overall, I really liked this and I definitely recommend it! But if you're quickly annoyed by childish behavior, maybe this one isn't for you.

Jade's had a rough couple of years. The small town she thought her family was just drifting through turned out to be more permanent than she expected. Her father was diagnosed with liver cancer, plus all the friends Jade managed to make have moved away. Writing stories in her notebook is the only way Jade feels in control of her life, and she creates a literary best friend for herself: Zoe.

Things get very interesting when a real life Zoe shows up to school, and Jade's frenemy, Clue, admits that he helped bring her to life.

This was a cute tale about friendship, the unpredictability of life, and letting go of what we cannot control.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Another beautiful Middle Grade book in the magical realism genre.

There is sometimes nothing you can do, but to create your own friend to cope with life's struggles.

Trigger warning: Illness

Magical realism and make believe friends! What more needs to be said? This book is so fun and honestly can resonate with SO MANY KIDS! I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t or couldn’t relate to Jade. I think every reader and aspiring writer would love Jade and fall into this book like nobody’s business. It’s so amazing.

A lovely book for young readers. This book tackles some big issues like cancer but is still a fun read for kids, and they will love the imaginary friend storyline.

I had the chance to read a preview copy of the book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers.

My heart feels full! This is a wonderfully important book not just for children, but for adults too. So many life lessons taught in a beautiful, simplistic on the surface and yet somehow undeniably complex underneath it all way.

My heart breaks for Jade as she loses friend after friend since no one seems to stay in their town for long. But through her creativity, she writes about a best friend who moves in named Zoe... and then Zoe becomes a reality! Beautiful book about friendship, cancer, family, and a bit of magic.

This book focuses on what it means to be a friend— told through a young protagonist navigating a lonely social existence and not knowing how to deal with the sickness of a close family member. Jade writes stories in her notebook to help her feel the sting of these pains less.

The book mixes in Jade’s written stories, and they feel appropriate to her age. I feel like the overall writing of the book gets stronger as it goes, but I don’t think a middle school reader would feel it was too juvenile or spoke down to them/ about them. It’s a good story and may help someone young to process their own feelings.

A fabulous read for middle schoolers!

Full of childhood wonder, Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper is a superb novel jam-packed with magic, wisdom and humour, but also contains a large sprinkling of realism. Set in Colorado, Jade Levy and her family are struggling with her dad’s diagnosis and treatment for a serious illness, and Jade herself is finding it easier to write about an imaginary world in her notebook than try to connect with the kids in her grade. Jade felt more like a good friend to me than a protagonist. Her struggle with aloneness, vastly improved by her vivid imagination, made her such a lovable character. The pages in this book seemed to whizz by. The author perfectly depicted different occurrences and the affable characters didn't end with Jade Levy. Her imaginary, dependable, and amazing best friend, Zoe and Mrs. Yang, Jade’s English teacher were just as winsome, as was her classmate, Clue. I wanted to know more about every single character in this book. Abby Cooper has fashioned a marvellous book that I highly recommend, without any hesitation.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Charlesbridge via NetGalley and this review is my own unbiased opinion.