"We Run the Tides" is a beautifully written story about female friendship and betrayal set in 1980's Sea Cliffs, San Francisco. Eulabee and her best friend, Maria Fabiola, are part of a close-knit quartet of teenage girls that finds itself fractured after Eulabee fails to fall in line with the others about what they witnessed. As she grapples with what telling the truth cost her, Maria Fabiola suddenly disappears. The swift pacing and dark humor in Eulabee's character makes it easy for the reader to follow along but as things unfold, I felt underwhelmed by the reveals. The last section of the novel, the time jump to 2019, also didn't work for me. It didn't feel like it added anything to the story.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of We Run the Tides. This book was published and available on 2/9/21.
The book begins as a memory story and the middle school years of Eulabee, growing up in privileged circumstances in the early 1980's. It takes place in the San Francisco community of Sea Cliff where everything "... is about the view of the Bridge." We navigate through the friendships of 4 girls, the betrayal and the so called kidnapping of one of them. We follow Eulabee as she struggles with trust and loyalty with her friends and then ultimately having to find her way as she is outcast from the group.
I found the book slow in pace, but interesting enough to keep me reading. I found the end of the book to be the most engaging and wanting to know where the ending would take me. The book reinforces that the what you see isn't always what is. I thoroughly enjoyed how the author rounded out the book and didn't leave you guessing or wondering. There was an end to the saga that took place so many years prior. I rated this book 3 stars.

Friendships can be unhealthy. Girls that are young don't always have the easiest time with friends and the edge of love and hate is very very thin. I liked the main character and her stories. She made odd decisions but had a great sense of humor. I thought the Valentine's were funny (but an unwise choice.). I loved her reaction to her Language Arts teacher. This was an interesting but odd story.

A well-written atmospheric coming of age story about 13 year old, Eulabee, in 1980s pre-tech San Fransisco. I was fascinated by the elite Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Fransisco, and I loved seeing it through Eulabee’s experiences. I found Eulabee’s honesty and dark sense of humor to be charming while she navigated the trials and tribulations of being a young teen. The pacing of this book kept me engaged and I felt like I could truly escape. I especially enjoyed the 2019 section of the book where we are updated on everyone’s lives.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for proving me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. We Run The Tides is scheduled for release on February 9th, 2021.

𝗪𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒, by Vendela Vida was a book that for my tastes had a lot going for it before I even began reading.⁣
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A coming-of-age story. ✅⁣
Set in San Francisco. ✅⁣
Takes place in the 80’s. ✅⁣
Friendships gone wrong. ✅⁣
Teenage angst. ✅⁣
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Honestly, isn’t that enough? Close, but not quite. 𝘞𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 also delivered a story of friendship that withered in unexpected ways. Parts were just as you might expect: girls’ loyalties shifting, a popular girl everyone wants to know, budding interest in boys. Then, it took a turn with lies that went too far and friends turned cruel, putting narrator Eulabee on the wrong side of popularity, as she held tight to her own truths. I wanted to wrap my arms around poor, earnest Eulabee, who struggled mightily with her shifting world. Though the story may have leaned a bit towards the hard to believe occasionally, I enjoyed every minute and especially loved the ending.
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Thanks so much to @eccobooks and @vendelavida for this lovely book.⁣

It is 1980s San Francisco and Eulabee is discovering the complexities of female friendship and young adulthood. When Eulabee’s former best friend Maria Fabiola goes missing, Eulabee’s world turns and she’s forced to face her authentic self.
I am amazed by Vendela Vida’s writing. It is honest, funny, and beautiful. It reminded me of Elif Batuman’s "The Idiot," but Vida’s writing was more humorous. It captured the unique feeling of being a young girl and discovering idle truths about oneself.
I really enjoyed the protagonist of the novel, Eulabee. She is one of the most unique and beautiful characters I have ever come across. She is everything I wanted to be as an eighth grader. She is honest, funny, and loyal to herself.
As much as I enjoyed this novel, I was confused by one of the scenes included within the story. It occurs near the beginning, but it doesn’t overall detract from the novel. It’s an inappropriate situation that happens, and while that may be the reality for many young girls, I didn’t feel it fit into Eulabee’s narrative.
I gave this novel four out of five stars for its wonderful characters and story. I recommend it for those who want to enjoy a unique perspective on girlhood.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well drawn and their arcs were convincing. They author did a great job of evoking the San Francisco of that time. Recommended!

Title: We Run the Tides
Author: Vendela Vida
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3 out of 5

Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters—as well as the upscale all-girls’ school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act—or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance—a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.

This clearly wasn’t a good fit for me. Solid writing, but I found it on the edge of boring. I know it’s about young teenage girls, but it veered between over-the-top dramatic and bland and I just didn’t care about the characters. At all. The author did a wonderful job of bringing the setting—ritzy neighborhood, private school—to life, but I found it almost impossible to relate to the characters.

Vendela Vida is an award-winning author. We Run the Tides is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Ecco in exchange for an honest review.)

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida is a literary novel that follows Maria and Eulabee, two teenage friends who live in the Bay Area. Following a troubling event, Eulabee and Maria's friendship is fractured as they differ on their interpretation of that precipitous day. Their friendship reaches a breaking point but is unable to be repaired as Maria soon goes missing and unravels the lives of those in the Sea Cliff area.

This novel is a character-driven story that explores themes of coming-of-age using dual-timelines in 1985 and 2019 with the present-day timeline explored in a final chapter. This book was powerful as the character, Eulabee, comes to the realization that not everyone is well-meaning and that people may lie even at the expense of others. It also explores the thread of distrust that is sown from one little lie and how it has the potential to taint everything else someone says. This book had beautiful writing and captured the themes of privilege, growing up, the immigrant experience, and the loss of innocence. Overall I recommend this book for those wanting a character narrative on growing up and coming to terms with the realities of adulthood.

Many thanks to the publisher Ecco and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I want to start by saying I am really grateful for this ARC. I really wanted to enjoy this book, and it was ok, but I honestly didn’t love it. The story centers around Eulabee who is the main protagonist, and is 13 years old. The story is set in the 80’s in Sea Cliff California which is right outside of San Francisco. Eulabee spends all of her time with her BFF Maria Fabiola, and their two other friends Julia and Faith. One day when the four girls are walking to school there is an incident and when reported to the school Eulabee’a story is drastically different from the other three girls. A wedge is drawn between the girls due to this event, and Eulabee finds herself alone and ostracized from her friends. When Maria Fabiola goes missing a few months later Eulabee is the only one who feels she’s really run away for attention. Eulabee learns a lot about the girl she thought was her BFF since kindergarten and soon realizes she never really knew Maria at all.
My biggest issue with this story was that Eulabee just didn’t come off believeable as a thirteen year old. The things she was doing and saying were not how a normal middle school child would act even in the 80’s. Eulabee acted far too old (a weird sexualized encounter with a guy who was in his 20’s and about to get married, along with a weird feet kissing episode with her friend Keith) and I kept having to remind myself she was a only in middle school. Eulabee and Maria are really unlikeable characters, but Maria clearly has issues so it makes sense. It just doesn’t make sense why Eulabee had to be such a far fetched character who did so many things that were just annoying! If you can get passed the annoying characters you may like this book. There are a lot of good reviews so hopefully this will be in some readers wheelhouse.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

Vendela Vida’s We Run the Tides is a coming-of-age tale set in the 1980s, about two teenagers and their experiences growing up in the privileged, wealthy enclave of Sea Cliff in San Francisco. Eulabee and Maria Fabiola are best friends who’ve known each other since Kindergarten – more than that though, they also know every nook and cranny of the oceanside neighborhood they grew up in, even down to the history of each house and its current as well as former occupants. Now in eighth grade, the two of them attend the elite all-girls school Spragg, where their circle of friends includes two other girls from their neighborhood, Faith and Julia. One day, as the 4 of them walk to school together, they encounter an “incident” involving a man in a white car that becomes a huge source of contention between Eulabee and Maria, to the point that it ruptures their friendship. Then later, their relationship suffers further setback when Maria suddenly disappears for a period of time, claiming upon her return to have been kidnapped, which Eulabee finds hard to believe. With their friendship becoming increasingly fraught, can Eulabee and Maria Fabiola overcome the rift that separates them to salvage a once close relationship?

I found this to be an interesting read that captivated me from the first page. I was invested in the story early on and even though I didn’t particularly like the characters (more on this later), I still felt compelled to keep reading because I wanted to find out what happens to the characters and how things pan out for them. Vendela Vida’s portrayal of the mercurial and sometimes confusing relationships between teenagers in the midst of navigating their adolescence was spot on. The teenage angst, that overwhelming desire to belong, to be accepted and liked, petty grievances that change from one day to another, the self-discovery and gradual realization that all actions have consequences, etc. — so much of this is explored through the lens of Eulabee’s coming of age.

A unique aspect of this story is that it provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the rich and privileged, but through the perspective of an adolescent who has known no other way of life. As a reader, I felt like an outsider looking in, observing a way of life that I can’t even begin to relate to. For me, stories revolving around the trials and tribulations of the wealthy elite are a slippery slope, as the attitudes and behaviors of the characters are ones that I usually find difficult to reconcile, which more often than not turns me off to the story. In this instance though, the story worked, for the most part — despite Eulabee’s sporadic bouts of naïveté and ignorance (which, if I’m being honest, did annoy me quite a bit), I still couldn’t help feeling a certain amount of sympathy for her at various parts of the story.

One thing that surprised me was how well-developed the characters came across, especially given the limited insight we get into the characters due to the story being narrated entirely from Eulabee’s first person point of view. We see all of the characters — Maria Fabiola, Julia, Faith, all the parents, etc. — through Eulabee’s eyes and yet, we still learn quite a bit about the characters, enough to determine how I feel about them. I thought this was an interesting way to tell the story and appreciate how Vida was able to pull this off given that almost all the characters were largely unlikable (at least to me).

Vida is a “new-to-me” author whose work I wasn’t familiar with before but I’m glad to have discovered. I’m definitely interested in exploring her backlist and hopefully get a chance to read another novel of hers at some point.

Received ARC from Ecco via NetGalley.

A powerful coming of age story, the majority of which takes place in the mid-80s in San Francisco, and chronicles the friendship of two key characters. I really enjoyed the retro feel of the novel. There were segments that had me both cringing and laughing out loud - so relatable! I especially appreciated how well it captured the emotional angst of being in middle school in that particular time and space. I would definitely read another book by this author

The story is about thirteen year olds growing up in a wealthy neighborhood in the Bay area. We mainly follow Eulabee and her best friend, Maria Fabiola but then something happens that changes their friendship forever.

I don't really know how to describe this book because the story cover so much, but I think I would say this was a whirlwind of teenage quirkiness. It was really weird at times, funny, and sometimes dark. That being said, the author did a really good job writing from the perspective of teenagers.

I saw someone mention that this would be perfect for fans of the Virgin Suicides, and I totally agree because it has the same vibes. I didn't love the Virgin Suicides, so I just think these types of books just aren't for me.

I definitely recommend picking this one up if you're looking for something similar to the Virgin Suicides or a coming of age story in general!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc!

I love Vida's writing style in this book! She's a new author for me and I will definitely go back to read more of her books!

I enjoyed the teenage girl perspective. It's easy to say you wouldn't feel the same way about things as an adult, but the reader has to remember the age of the characters. The choice to speak up is difficult for a teen. There are so many pressures of adolescence that can drive the moral compass.

The setting of San Francisco was unique for me too.

My only issue was the pacing. It was a bit of a slow burn for me.

If it’s wicked pleasure you’re after – flavored with Mean Girls and a light sprinkling of social/political commentary – look no further than Vida’s latest, a coming-of-age tale set in the privileged San Francisco suburb of Sea Cliff during the pre-tech 1980s. In this relatively less turbulent moment, the large homes with sweeping views of the Golden Gate bridge belonged not to tech entrepreneurs but wealthy and sometimes bohemian families, many of whose daughters attended the Spragg School. So it is for Eulabee, the older of two siblings to a gallery-owning father and Swedish émigré mother. Eulabee’s BFF is Maria Fabiola, a sugar heiress of outstanding comeliness. Two other girls make up their set of four, but everything goes awry for Eulabee on the morning that the foursome encounters a possible creepy male, on their way to school. Three of the girls report this incident as sexual harassment; Eulabee begs to differ.

Now she is ostracized from the group, and despite her robust character, she suffers all the pain of this sudden exclusion. Matters are made worse when Maria Fabiola disappears. Has she been kidnapped or, as Eulabee suspects, is something more weirdly self-aggrandizing going on?

Despite serious undertones, there is much comedy to be found in the novel, deriving from Eulabee’s deadpan directness which may be a little advanced for her teenage years, nevertheless offers guiltily-enjoyable judgementalism towards many easy targets, from her parents’ thrifty, often Swedish habits, to her privileged social group. Also under the microscope are boys, sexual exploration, menstruation, booze – all predictable enough targets, but evocatively done.

Yet, for all her icy smarts and quick wit, Eulabee is a sensitive soul whose attachments are sincere and thus whose alienation at the hands of both male and female friends runs deep. A destructive spiral of self-absorption leads her into plotting an escape of her own, but Eulabee is not a fantasist, unlike her friend, and coming to her senses means setting her life on a different, more grounded trajectory.

A last chapter, delivered decades later, traces Eulabee’s intervening years, career, marriage and eventual resettlement. Concluding with an encounter between Eulabee and Maria Fabiola on the dreamy isle of Capri, Vida draws a deeper distinction between the then and now, the real and the fake, the honest broker and the liar. This epilogue delivers darker roots to an otherwise relatively easy-to-consume piece of work. It’s welcome but doesn’t change the book’s overall impact. Vida writes compellingly. She enjoys woman-centered scenarios and the exploration of character enigmas. This is one of those, and it’s an unthreatening pleasure.

Set in San Francisco in the 80’s, teenage Eulabee and her best friend, Maria Fabiola, rule their street in Sea Cliff, an upscale, oceanside, neighbourhood. They know the who’s who in their own neighborhood like the back of their hand. One morning while walking to school, a private all girls school, they encounter something they couldn’t agree on. Then with Maria Fabiola sudden disappearance, their community is abuzz with what really happened and finding the reason behind will expose an ugly truth.

This book is about female friendship during early teens and all those teenage drama, the challenges of finding one’s identity and seeking peer acceptance, and the community we try to belong. It is an interesting start for me then it drag a little bit in the middle part but glad it pick up and throughly enjoy it. The author is able to weave the through the intricacies of teenage world and comes out with a heartwarming story.

Thank you Eccobooks and NetGalley for giving out this advanced e-copy. We Run the Tides out today Feb 9.

A wonderful coming-of-age novel centering on adolescents in SF, California. This is great for people who enjoy those types of novels (character-driven, not a huge plot) and themes of growing up, especially from an immigrant perspective and in a place that has been changing rapidly.

Remember Eighth Grade?

Vendela Vida’s We Run the Tides has Eulabee, a teenage girl in the eighth grade, as its major character. Set in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, in the eighties before the tech boom changed it, the novel offers a sensitive account of how Eulabee is rejected by her best friend, Maria Fabiola, who is fabulous in appearance and personality, but who is fatally drawn to the fabulous or imaginary. Central to the narrative is Maria Fabiola’s apparent kidnapping.

What Eulabee learns to come to terms with is her friend’s inveterate lying. She seems unable to distinguish a lie from the truth. Or rather, she believes in her own lies. It may be no accident that today we associate this characteristic with Donald Trump. The transition from children’s assumption that everyone tells the truth to a teenager’s realization that people lie, that their world is naturally deceptive, lies at the heart of this story.

The structure of this short novel emphasizes this theme. Thirty of its chapters cover Eulabee’s life between 1984 and 1985. A long final chapter is set in 2019 when Sea Cliff has succumbed to the age of technology. Eulabee runs into Maria Fabiola in her late forties and no longer believes what Maria Fabiola tells her.

Vendela Vida writes beautifully. She can instantly seize your attention, as she does in the first sentence of the fourth chapter: “I am at Faith’s house the night her father kills himself.” And she can capture what it is to be one of a group of four thirteen-year-olds: “We want all the boys . . . to pay attention to us. We want to want. We want to love. We want to want love.” Her similes are highly original—and appropriate: “The Female Teacher’s Lounge is crowded and smells like the shallow vase water of dying flowers.” And she has a quiet sense of humor: “Fall gives the flashers who like to stroll by Spragg [School] an excuse to wear trench coats.”

Eulabee’s narrative offers a sensitive insight into what it is like to be a thirteen-year-old girl in a privileged neighborhood. Each reversal or betrayal contributes to her growing awareness of what life holds in store. Let Eulabee conclude for me. She has just had an embarrassing sexual encounter with a boy:

“How do you feel?” Ewa asks.
“Betrayed.”
“By who?” she says.
“Whom,” I say.
“Who?”
“I feel betrayed by my femininity.”

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

We Run the Tides gave me younger, more chaotic The Virgin Suicides vibes. The plot follows a group teenage girls that drifts apart after one of them refuses to go along with an apparent lie about something that happened on their walk to school. Along the way, a web of lies is weaved by one of the girls after she suddenly disappeared. Then another disappearance and death just seemed to a blip in the plot.

However, in the end, I don't think the plot came together. The ending seemed clipped off and missing something. It did seem like the main character, Eulabella, was validated after catching her old friend Maria in a lie thanks to her husband quickly telling Eulabella that Maria was lying. If Maria was lying about children, what else did she lie about throughout her life?

This was a quick read. I'm not sure what kind of reader I could recommend this to, but I do think it would be a quick read to pick up and read on vacation.

my first ARC! and i absolutely adored it.

it’s always fascinating to read books set in places you’ve lived - you’re able to picture streets and views and neighborhoods with nostalgia and precision. one huge reason i loved this book is that i was reunited with my sweet, sweet San Francisco. the book is set in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, which is now where all the uber rich tech CEOs reside, but was more of a typical community in the 80s when the book was set - certainly wealthy and privileged, no doubt about that, just not quite on the level of Jack Dorsey.

the main character Eulabee and her best friends know their corner of San Francisco like the back of their hands - they know exactly when to run through the swell on China Beach without getting swept up by the Pacific Ocean. they know the Lands' End trail back and forth. they know the ins and outs of their all-girls school. they know the intricacies and dynamics happening all around Sea Cliff - sometimes more so than the adults.

the author did such a good job developing Eulabee - she was a teenager through and through, suffering embarrassing moments, classic girl drama (cold shoulders and all), and also some serious theatrics from her (ex-)BFF Maria Fabiola. but at the same time, she was very mature and self-aware, standing up for her own truth with confidence and fortitude - something that’s not always that easy as an impressionable young girl. she contained multitudes. when some crazy, but very real nonsense goes down in Sea Cliff, Eulabee navigates it through both of these lenses.

i found myself wanting to ditch all my plans and read this book. the writing was deep and delicious, but kept the story moving - there was never a dull moment. ultimately, it’s a love letter to San Francisco, wrapped up in a gripping story of a young girl in a privileged neighborhood, around a scare that shocks the whole community. if you’re looking to get lost in a book and be reminded of the city by the bay, this one’s for you.

out on Tuesday!