I always enjoy her books. The main character in this one was an articulate girl I could actually almost relate to—she tried hard to do the right thing and be truthful even when there was fallout from her peers.

The prose and setting was lovely as was the early ‘80s setting.

4.5 Stars

’We are thirteen, almost fourteen, and these streets of Sea Cliff are ours. We walk these streets to our school perched high over the Pacific and we run these streets to the beaches, which are cold, windswept, full of fishermen and freaks. We know these wide streets and how they slope, how they curve toward the short, and we know their houses.’

Living in a somewhat close knit community of houses in San Francisco, where such notables as Paul Kantner from Jefferson Airplane / Starship lived with his daughter China - born the same year as these girls – these girls who grew up surrounded by the stories that echoed through the streets, stories of the lives of other famous people, as well as less famous doctors and lawyers lived, or those families who had inherited homes passed down through the generations.

’And most important, because we are thirteen and attend an all-girls’ school, we know where the boys live.’

These four girls, Eulabee, Maria Fabiola – who Eulabee considers her best friend since kindergarten – and Julia and Faith. Julia has a rebellious older half-sister named Gentle who dabbles in scandalous behavior. Faith was adopted, and renamed after her parents’ first child – also named Faith – died when she was seven. The four of them consider the streets of Sea Cliff to be their own, but it’s Eulabee and Maria Fabiola that know the ins and outs of the ins and outs of the beaches.

Their daring, audacious approach as a group is unlike their more compliant, good-girl behavior when they’re not together. And teenage girls can be fickle, sometimes requiring unquestioning loyalty – backing up lies told to parents, teachers, and adults in authority. And when a lie is told, and one doesn’t back up that lie, then hell hath no fury like a teenage queen bee that feels betrayed.
Looking back years later, as this story draws to a close, we see the changes brought about over the years of their lives, as well as the changes in Pacific Heights, and other neighborhoods now in the hands of Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists. But those are not the only changes that have come to pass.

Life, circumstances change people, sometimes childhood friends remain lifelong friends, and sometimes they lose touch and when they reunite through circumstance or happenstance, we barely recognize who they’ve become. And yet, our memories remain seemingly untouched.


Pub Date: 09 Feb 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Ecco

#WeRuntheTides #NetGalley

The Sea Cliff area in San Francisco is very posh and Eulabee knows it like the back of her hand. She and her three best friends walk around Sea Cliff as if they own it, talking about what famous person used to live where and who died when. Though Eulabee has four good friends there is one stand-out and that is Maria Fabiola, a name always spoken together with first and last, never just Maria. Maria's laugh transports Eulabee and everyone around her. She is like a wind chime on a breezy day.

Eulabee is very popular until she and Maria Fabiola have a falling out about something they see. Their perceptions differ and the whole group banishes Eulabee. She feels alone and struggles without her friendships. She is 13 years old and has gone through Spragg, a private all girl's school, with her friends since kindergarten. Yes, they are privileged white girls, many of them Swedish in origin.

As the term progresses, the reader cries and laughs with Eulabee. We are granted entrance to the world of 1980's San Francisco as seen from the eyes of a young teenage girl on the cusp on adolescence. Eulabee is funny, has a dark/noir sense of humor and is highly intelligent.

The adventures in this book are hair raising and stomach turning. Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I finished it overnight which is rare for me as I'm not that fast a reader. Normally, I'm not drawn to child or teenage protagonists but this novel is different. Vendela Vida gets it, and it was a rare gift for me.

Eulabee’s childhood at a San Francisco private school is shaped by numerous friendships, but the particulars of one relationship will have lasting impacts. Maria Fabiola’s behaviors go unchecked while altering Eulabee’s life forever.

I have to confess, I’m always excited for a Vendela Vida book and We Run the Tides did not disappoint. It is the story of teenager Eulabee and her best friend, Maria Fabiola who live in Sea Cliff, a seaside community in San Francisco. Eulabee is vulnerable, smart and endearing and the two girls attend an affluent all girls school. As close as they are, their relationship splinters after an argument about an incident they witnessed one morning on the way to school. Then, Maria Fabiola disappears, and the alleged kidnapping reverberates throughout their community. This is a beautifully written novel that contains a mystery, but it is also incredibly funny. It’s a story about the complexities of female friendships that takes place in a quieter pre-tech boom San Francisco. I absolutely loved this reading experience and I did not want this book to end!

I absolutely loved this book. It is a wise, hilarious look at a group of girls growing up in mid-'80s San Francisco. Vendela Vida' s writing is so engaging. I was highlighting passages every couple of pages.

The book is narrated by Eulabee and you'll really enjoy the pleasure of being in her company for 270 pages. She gives you a tour of the people and places around her with acerbic asides and insights.

Tremendous. I look forward to diving into Vida's other work. Netgalley provided me with an e-copy of this book in return for a review.

Oh, the imaginations, deviousness, and drama of young girls as they become young women. Vendela Vida nails it all

The writing was amazing, almost as if it’s poetry. The story revolves around Eulabee and her friends, roaming around their privileged community in Sea Cliff. What struck me about this book was how young friendships really can be ruined for 1 small thing such as a disagreement. When one of Eulabees friends ostracizes her it, so do her other friends and the entire school. Once Eulabees best friend Maria Fabiola goes missing and oddly returns, Eulabee hopes they can return to friendship but Maria Fabiola’s idea of friendship is one that shows how unaware they are about the privilege they have. So ensues Eulabees growth.

Vendela Vida writes like no one else. She writes in a distinct style with an ability to get far under the skin of her characters. Most of this book is a memory piece of growing up in privileged circumstances in the early 1980's San Francisco in the community of Sea Cliff where everything "... is about the view of the Bridge." What truly sets Eulabee and her friends apart is that they don't see their situation as being anything but normal, that the exclusivity of their lives only becomes apparent when a possible kidnapping takes place and they are made aware of how they are perceived by the outside world.

Although Eulabee has been friends with these girls since kindergarten, a disagreement causes her to be ostracized, most notably by her charismatic best friend, Marie Fabiola who has a laugh that "makes you laugh because you don't want her to laugh alone." Eulabee is cleareyed about herself, however, honest about her "sinister side," but also quite innocent in earthly matters.

A coda set in 2019 brings the story to a satisfactory conclusion, concluding Eulabee's history and those of her friends as well as the well known transformation of the City by the Bay and its current status as Silicon Valley's exclusive bedroom community.