Set in San Franciso of the 1980's, We Run the Tides is a coming of age story of a teenaged girl. Eulabee attends an expensive private girls school in the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco. There she and her charismatic best friend Maria Fabiola roam the streets and beaches of their neighborhood. One day while walking to school, the girls and their friends are approached by a man in a white car. They each come out of it telling a different story of what happened. This causes a rift between Eulabee and Maria Fabiola, and then Maria Fabiola disappears.

I really enjoyed this. From the nostalgia of the 80's, to Eulabee's desire to belong yet her drive to be honest. These were the glory days of being a kid...no distracting internet... the freedom to roam your world on your own. THE MUSIC! The story itself was tense yet touching. We see a teenage girl on the cusp of innocence vs adult awareness & responsibility. The story was a nice blend of coming of age and mystery.

What to listen to while reading...
Head Over Heels by The Go-Go's
Don't Stand So Close to Me by The Police
All Day and All of the Night by The Kinks
Love My Way by the Psychedelic Furs
Save a Prayer by Duran Duran
Let's Go Crazy by Prince
We are the Champions by Queen

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollins for this advanced e-proof!

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida is a coming-of-age story set in the ‘80s burbs of San Fran.

But there’s a twist: shortly after mc Eulabee refuses to corroborate her friend’s lie about something they saw on the way to school, that friend goes missing. Eulabee tries to figure out what actually happened while the media frenzy takes over her community.

I do feel like Eulabee’s narration took me out of the story sometimes: it was hard to imagine a privileged 13-yr.-old being that insightful and skeptical of authority figures. Don’t get me wrong, I know the intelligence girls are capable of, obvi 💅 But she was intellectually mature in ways I felt weren’t warranted yet; how could she know so much about life when she’d barely experienced it?

Still, I appreciated the narration because it added richness to the story, even if it was a little unbelievable. This book is heavy. There are a lot of traumatic things Eulabee goes through, and they’re not really fleshed out because she’s a child always moving onto the next thing. She doesn’t have the emotional capacity to linger on these events, but I definitely felt like I got whiplash a couple times as a reader.

Ngl I devoured this one. It’s a fast-paced and interesting story. Super curious to know what you think if you’ve read it!

CW: pedophilia/child sexual abuse, rape, death

Also if you read this book DM me so we can hate on Mr. London!! One of the worst characters I’ve read about in a minute!

I really loved this mesmerizing, lyrical coming of age story about one eventful year in the life of a 13 year old girl and her friends in San Francisco. I listened to it on audio, performed by the talented Marin Ireland, and felt completely absorbed every time I pressed play. Vendela Vida beautifully captured the magical, painful, exciting and awkward reality of passing from girlhood into womanhood. It brought me right back to my days roaming the beach in Florida with my friends in our new bikinis, simultaneously fascinated, flattered and freaked out by the attention of creepy older guys. She also reminded me of the way friendships change at the age practically overnight. Despite some painful moments including sexual assault by an older guy (beware if this triggers you), Vida keeps the tone of this story light and you will love the quirky character of Eulabee and her hilarious summations of the people around her.
Really loved this.
Read this if you love coming of age stories and breezy narratives of every day life.

This is now my new favorite book. I grew up right outside San Francisco, and know the neighborhood and streets in the book well. The way the come to life in this book is so spot on in its details, so wonderfully enjoyable to read. The story grasped me from page one. It was truly FUN to read. I love the way the author tells a story. I loved the protagonist’s feelings, her inner monologue. And I loved the character of Maria Fabiola, who seems like an amalgam of many people I grew up with. My jaw physically dropped when the story arrived in Capri, a place I spent every summer growing up. The descriptions of Capri were equally as on the nose, and wonderful. I’m unsure if I would have loved the end so much if I didn’t have a personal attachment to the place it was tied to, but it was clever and enchanting until the last word. It wasn’t all fluff either, to be very clear. There was poignant commentary about class and personal identity. Especially of the passage of time. I will recommend to everyone I know, especially my people in the Bay Area and my local friends in Capri. Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read the author’s previous books and was looking forward to this. Unfortunately 20% in I am finding myself so bored and don’t care. I will not be reading anymore.

I didn't love We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida. To be honest, it seemed a little slow for me; it's more character-based than plot-driven. The setting and neighborhood where the book takes place sounded gorgeous, but none of the characters seemed relatable. I found the most exciting part to be the ending, where it fast forwards 30 years. The writing was beautiful, but I never connected with this one.

This book was a bit of a slow burn and a bit random at times, but it still kept me wanting to see how the story of this teenage girl would end. There were some laugh out loud moments which made me reminisce on my own time as an adolescent growing up. It’s an understated novel that I’d rate as a 3.5 ⭐️ rounding down to 3 ⭐️ stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

We run the tides took me right back to that weird awkward age in middle school. When you’re not quite teenagers yet and you have your friends from kindergarten and you all start to branch out and come in to your own,. I think everyone experienced or was a part of Maria and Eulabee friendship. I enjoyed this book

Thanks to Ecco for the free review copy.
This is a case where I should learn to not jump into a book because of hype alone. I went into this one not knowing much, and it did not work for me. Middle school girls are vicious, and this was not a time in my life that I enjoyed, thus I didn't care for this book. This is a giant case of it's not you, it's definitely me. I think that it will be loved by the right audience. My favorite part was the ending and reflection of the time 90% of the book takes place in. I hope it gets into the hands of the readers that will love it for the story it is.

I had to DNF at about 30% because it was just not keeping me engaged. It felt like there was a lot going on at one time. It also felt jumpy like one thing would happen then switch to another. Birth control in the coffee. And then hiding on Halloween once they were out of candy. The writing felt very short and abrupt, but also was taking a long time to get to the main point. I couldn’t stick with it.

I loved the descriptions of San Francisco, specifically the Sea Cliff neighborhood. This was a well written, evenly paced, almost hypnotic novel about friendship, lies and betrayal. It was difficult to put this book down.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

SoCal suburban-by-the-ocean life from the past century as seen through the eyes of a somewhat typically troubled but precocious teenage girl. Well done if that is to your taste.

This was a compulsively readable novel. The coming of age aspect was so well done and the exploration of friendship was beautiful. The narrator was sharp, witty, and darkly funny. This was a slim novel that attempted to cover a lot of ground. I was left wanting certain aspects of the story to be more fleshed out and the quick succession of events at times felt jarring. The epilogue was vital to the progression of theme and plot, but it felt a bit disjointed.

At first I did enjoy this book but then it started to read very YA to which I realized that this is indeed YA. I found the coming of age story endearing as well as entertaining although the plot was a bit strange. I think I’d still recommend this one!

Thank you #netgallery. This was a little slow to start but the last half was great. Good depiction of middle school girl relationships.

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida is my very favorite type of book-a literary girl coming of age story.

Vida nails the complexities of the awkwardness and eagerness of formative years through an adult lens that still very much remembers emotions experienced, namely the competitiveness and shame associated with girlhood, in particular the oftentimes self-manifested troubles of girlhood of a certain socioeconomic status.

Vida’s girls strive to impress, excite, and carve names for themselves. They struggle with what it means to find one’s own self while still being accepted by others, lying and creating high stakes situations to paint the portrait of themselves they *think* they want the world to see, with no scope of the consequences of their actions.

I found myself both cringing at and wanting to hug the main character, Eulabee, with her efforts to be taken seriously amongst the pressures of society as a whole, the male gaze, and the expectations of her female peers.

Coming of age novels tend to go one direction or the other, either showing how characters grow and change or how they end up being the same in the end, despite years having gone by. We Run the Tides managed to show the reality of both sides of how adolescence shapes adulthood and, as a result, has a tone of warmth and empathy that is exceptional.

Even though the setting of this book was nothing like my life, my coming of age was 90s east coast not on the coast, it brought me straight back into those years of being a young teen girl and running around with best friends feeling like you were everything and nothing, like you owned the town but we're invisible. I liked the writing style and the story was engaging and had a good pace. Eulabee was a funny and likeable character and I don't have anything negative to say about the book at all.

“And I feel as I did when I was thirteen—that her laughter is a reward, that her attention is a prize.”

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco Books for this copy in return for an honest review.

This is a coming of age story set in California during the 80s following teenage Eulabee and her group of friends. I could easily connect with these characters and felt the author did a good job of displaying a young teenage girl’s feelings. It took me back to middle school where all a girl wants is to be accepted by her girlfriends and noticed by the cute boys. When Eulabee and her best friend have a difference of opinion, her world as she knows it ceases to exist. Her best friends won’t speak to her and everyone at school is treating her differently and then suddenly her former best friend goes missing. The reader gets to see her navigate this tough formative time in her life and is then treated to an epilogue to see where the girls all ended up.

Overall I enjoyed this story and am rating it 3.5⭐️s. It was a captivating read but Eulabee at times seemed way older than 13 and there were some disturbing events that were never fully explained and didn’t seem to add to the storyline.

~ 3.5

This was a well written (and narrated) book about friendship, belonging, and secrets. The tone and setting felt fresh and I was entertained by the quirk and humor of our main character. The friendship that played a central role in the plot didn’t feel like it went deep enough to really engage me though. An ending that was satisfying but ultimately a little short.
Pick this up for an enjoyable literary fiction about tween girls growing up in 1980’s San Francisco.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review on my blog. Thank you for your consideration