I was given this arc by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This was a fascinating book about teenage girls coming of age and the lengths they will go to be accepted. The story was truly gripping and grabbed me completely from the first page!

We Run the Tides
A Novel
by Vendela Vida
Ecco
You Are Auto-Approved
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 09 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 06 Apr 2021

I keep hearing about this novel which drew me to read it. This book was not a good fit for me. I finished it but will not be able to recommend it. Thanks to ECCO and NetGalley for the ARC.


3 star

On the quiet streets of the San Francisco neighborhood of Sea Cliff lives four teen girls - Eulabee, Maria Fabiola, Julia, and Faith. Eulabee is our narrator, introducing us to her best friends and their privileged lives in the mid-1980s pre-tech boom of the Bay area.

While they each play by the rules separately, they are fearless as a group. An event on the way to school one morning leaves them divided — the group turns their backs on Eulabee for disloyalty.
Eulabee, now an outcast, isn’t alarmed when Maria Fabiola soon disappears. The potential kidnapping leaves their community shaken but Eulabee knows her former best friend can be desperate for attention.

Years later, Eulabee unexpectedly crosses paths with Maria Fabiola for the first time since the truth was revealed about her disappearance and Eulabee finds herself just as mystified by the woman as she was with the child.

A YA/coming of age story mixed with a gothic mystery, We Run the Tides fascinated me with its look at the powerful memories we carry from youth.

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. We Run the Tides is scheduled for release on February 9, 2021.

I found the book We Run the Tides a strange, bizarre read. At first it began fine, four 13 year old girls who attend a private school in San Francisco. But then the story line just took a nose dive. I could relate to the ostracizing of one of the girls by the others. But I couldn't make sense of some of,the actions by the main character. I finished reading it, but I didn't really care for it or any of the characters.

We Run the Tides is a fantastic novel that you won’t want to put down. The author paints pictures with her words allowing you to feel you are part of the story. It awakened memories, it brings to life ordinary lives and portrays how the bonds of true friendship help three young girls weather the storms and undercurrent of their lives. Get ready to meet characters both strange and endearing.

It was great being taken back to the '80s, I am about four years older than the young ladies in the book but I could SO relate to the time they were teenagers in. (The Psychedelic Furs "Pretty in Pink" reference.) The author does a masterful job of creating the environment they live in, and characters with real depth, who were completely relatable, if not always likable. I was eager to finish, so that I could figure out the "big" mystery, but I certainly wasn't ready to let go of these beautifully flawed friends. I found this book enlightening, thought-provoking and so very enjoyable.

Vida's prose style is lucid, and the structure of this novel is masterfully-crafted. And I can see that this is a rumination on teenage female friendship, but the subject matter and plotting seemed more young adult to me, because the narrator describes her 13-year-old self without the overlay of adult experience. But I really enjoyed revisiting San Francisco in the early 1980s, and Vida perfectly recaptures the atmosphere of the city's posher neighborhoods.

We Run the Tides is a bubbling cauldron of complex characters and conflicting emotions which has as its basic ingredients the lives of four female eighth graders who are growing up together in San Francisco during the 1980s. The novel depicts the struggles of its main characters with the ebb and flow of life events which inevitably seep into the confines of their all girls private school. This intriguing mix becomes all the more turbulent when one of the four goes missing. Through this unanticipated disappearance, we get an in-depth and fascinating glimpse of adolescence through one of the book's main characters Eulabee and how she is impacted by the consequences of the unpredictable. This expertly crafted tapestry of Eulabee's experiences, wants, needs, and concerns, both before and after her schoolmate vanishes presents an intriguing and thought provoking backdrop for this "coming of age" story. I truly enjoyed this book.

Yaaaassss! Loved this haunting, nostalgic story of a group of girls who grew up by the sea. It's really a story of a girl, Maria, quite literally spoiled by her privilege as told by her childhood friend, Eulabee. Eulabee loves Maria but risks her relationship with her in order to stay true to herself and her own principles. Frought and glorious.

Enjoyable, well crafted novel set in the exclusive San Francisco neighborhood of Sea Cliff in the 1980s. Eulabee and her friends all attend an exclusive girls day school, while taking dance lessons and growing into high schoolers with all that entails. When one suddenly goes missing, the focus on her friends, their neighborhood, and her eventual return, rock the neighbors and the girls, all while they are combatting hormones, dating, crushes, and girl-fights. I found the ending a bit of a disconnect, but it did close out the characters well, it just wa a 30 year jump and chance meeting that didn't ring quite true. Worth the read.

*I was sent a free ARC of this book by Ecco in exchange for an honest review*

For fans of Maria Semple and Joy Williams, Vendela Vida’s latest novel We Run the Tides is a tribute to youth, love, and culture in 1980s San Francisco. We follow eighth grader Eulabee as her seemingly rock-solid friend group dissolves when their enigmatic leader, Maria Fabiola, goes missing. In the aftermath, Eulabee confronts the harsh realities of her burgeoning womanhood and the enduring transformation and loss that comes with time.

I was truly taken by surprise at how much I adored this book. The clarity and poignance with which Vida explores the intricacies of developing femininity and the delicacy of teenage friendships is remarkable. Her reflections on the teenage absurdity that Eulabee endures is clever and very funny but never feels condescending, and even the mysterious Maria Fabiola comes fully into focus in the final chapter.

While I think the marketing of this book as “suspenseful” and “a gripping mystery” are pretty off the mark, We Run the Tides delivers a story even more valuable - one about enduring, belonging, and growth.

This is a beautiful written novel about adolescent friendship. Thirteen is such a liminal age that describing the throes of it - how quickly feelings, behaviors, and relationships change, how emotions trigger impulsive choices and decisions -that many writers fall back on the easier task of telling rather than showing 'But Vida inhabits the inner as well as outer lives of her two central characters, Eulabee and the aptly named Maria Davila, so fully that the careful unfolding of their story feels like it's happening to the reader in real time.
Neighbors in the affluent Sea Clif community of San Francisco, the quartet of eighth grade BFFs
walk to and from their private, all-girls school together every day. By the time the event that changes the dynamic between them occurs, the outline of their differences is clear enough so that what happens as a result of how or even if the incicident that separates Eulabee from this tight knit group is less a surprise than it might otherwise have been. So too are Maria's later disappearance and Eulabee' s reaction to it. Similarly, the epilogue, which takes place when they meet again in Italy some four decades later, seems predestined. But plot twists and dramatic denouements aren't the point of this brilliant, acutely observed gem of a novel, which resonated in this reader's mind long after the last page was turned..

A gorgeous book, a window into what it was really like to grow up in San Francisco's Sea Cliff in the 80s. I lived in the Outer Richmond for years, but I dreamed of Sea Cliff. For all of us who walk the cliffs at Land's End, take the concrete stairs down to China Beach, and wonder what goes on inside the fancy homes with the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, this book is a revelation. It's also deeply funny, an un-romanticized look at girlhood, adolescent deception, and the way friendships can turn on a dime. This may be Vendala Vida's best book yet.

This book is pretty much the perfect book for someone my age, who is a Gen-Xer. I know it is a YA novel and is aimed at people who are young enough to be my kids, but let me explain. It is set in the 80s and auther Vendela Vida must have lived through them to write the 80s so well! It brought back a flood of memories that I didn't know I needed/wanted to revisit. It is also a book full of familiar characters and well-developed antagonists who are falling in love despite the odds. Just beautifully written, and a book I will most definitely be going back to re-read often.

Wow. This novel is incredibly weird, and yet I couldn't stop reading it. Author Vendela Vida has a gift for writing complex and eccentric characters. Kooky 13 year-old, Eulabee lives with her family in the Bay Area and attends a private school. She starts to drift away from her magnetic childhood friend, Maria Fabiola after a misunderstanding. Maria Fabiola is a beautiful but troubled young lady who uses and lies to people to gain attention and admiration. Eulabee refuses to go along with a lie that Maria Fabiola tells on their way to school one fateful morning, and their friendship becomes fractured in the process. This is a difficult book to review because I don't want to give away the overall plot points. It's better to go into this not knowing much. I absolutely loved that "We Run the Tides" takes place in the mid-'80s. I felt so nostalgic while reading it. Brought back wonderful memories of my childhood. I didn't grow up in the Bay Area, but I was born and raised in Southern California, and my family and I used to visit San Francisco a lot during summer vacation. Gorgeous descriptive imagery, and historical events about that time period were accurate and tastefully done. My only gripe is the way 13 year-old girls are written in this story. I felt like I was reading about 17-18 year-olds high schoolers rather than middle schoolers. It felt slightly overwrought and unrealistic. Even though the tone had this strange, gothic feel I did enjoy my reading experience. It's one those books where you love and hate it all at the same time. It was uneven, bizarre, and yet utterly intriguing.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins for the digital ARC.

Release date: February 9, 2021

What a fantastic book! One of my favorites of this year. Eulabee is a teenager from the Bay Area who has a falling out with her best friends after she tells a different version of an event they all witnessed. But there is so much more than that to the book. She is such a compelling protagonist, smart, observant and dry-humored. And speaking of humor, I loved how funny in an understated and elegant way this book was.
María Fabiola, Eula’s best friend turned foe, was a great character. She could have easily been a caricature of a popular pretty girl, but I didn’t feel that way at all.

We Run the Tides is a unique story about friendship and growing up. The story takes place in the 1980s in San Francisco and following four of eighth grade girls. The main character is an odd girl named Eulabee, who is isolated from her old friend group. The loneliness she feels is palpable throughout the book, and is heartbreakingly beautiful and relatable. One of Eulabee's ex-friends goes missing, and everything changes. We Run the Tides is a fun, quick read with relatable themes of growing up and dealing with friends, and Vendela Vida's prose is beautiful

It's 1984, and teenage Eulabee and her best friend Maria Fabiola live in the exclusive Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco. After a disagreement, Maria Fabiola shuns Eulabee, leaving our protagonist friendless and confused. What follows is a beautiful coming of age story set in a coastal paradise, accompanied by the poetic writing that Vendela Vida is known for. I love coming of age novels and this one was no exception - light enough to read in one sitting but profound enough to leave an impact. Pre-tech boom San Francisco comes alive in the pages - I loved getting lost in this world while reading.

Thank you to Ecco for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for allowing me an early read of We Run the Tides. The story follows four female characters who all attend a girls’ only school in San Francisco. One of the girls goes missing and the town as well as Eulabee, the main character, are left to make sense of what happened. This was a very quick-entertaining read that I did not want to put it down (only twice.) The characters were all quirky and eccentric which added to my enjoyment. I wanted more in the end but am very happy to have read this!

Ecco has easily become one of my favorite publishers as their lineup if full of great authors and fascinating reads.

Pub Date: 09 Feb 2021 
Book: 87/101
Star Rating: 4.25

I've been following Vida's work since her debut and have enjoyed all of it. We Run the Tides is no exception! The narrator's voice is consistent and the characters show growth throughout. While the ending was abrupt, I thought it was well-done. Overall a strong addition to her canon!

I loved loved loved this book. It was one of those rare books that immediately upon finishing, I wanted to read again. This is a coming of age story of a teenaged girl in San Francisco in the 1980s. I fell in love with the main character and all of her faults. All of the characters are so well written and they all live in that gray area of complexity that Is too often lacking in novels. The plot is enjoyable and I want to go on more little adventures with Eulabee even if they inevitably end badly.