United States Publication: April 8, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing | Legacy Lit for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

I was really interested in reading this book based on the summary provided by the publisher. However, the book I managed to read 50% of didn't live up to the claims, in my opinion.

I expected this book about friendship to flow, but it read choppy, much like a research paper from a high schooler. That's not to say it is poorly written, but it didn't flow and overstated Vulchi's points. I also got to the point where I would scream if I read the word "friend" or "friendship" one more time. The book is about that topic, but those two words were overused. Almost every sentence had a version of the word, and that's where an editor should have intervened. When it comes right down to it, this book needed a stronger editor. Vulchi has some important insights into the value of relationships and how they can be a force for good in this unstable and unjust world, but her insights are lost in the quality of writing and editing.

Since the pandemic, friendship has been having a moment. For good reason, it’s one of our most important relationships, and I think Priya shows that in this book. For the most part, I love how she weaves many thoughts on friendship by sharing anecdotes from famous people. But, at times, it was hard to follow, and at times, some of the thoughts or quotes didn’t seem to be very fleshed out, but I still enjoyed this book.

Good Friends by Priya Vulchi offers an insightful exploration of friendship, but it doesn’t quite deliver on the promise suggested by the description. Instead of a traditional narrative about the dynamics of friendship, the book leans heavily on quotes and reflections, offering a lot of explanation and analysis. While the intention is to provide deeper understanding and context, it ends up feeling somewhat disconnected from the type of engaging storytelling I expected.

The book does provide some thought-provoking perspectives, but I found myself wanting more substance beyond the quotes. The approach can be interesting for readers looking for introspective exploration, but for those hoping for a narrative-driven story, it might feel a bit lacking. Overall, it's a decent read, but not quite the friendship-focused content I anticipated based on the description.

If you're into books that dive into deep reflection and quote-based structure, Good Friends may appeal to you. Otherwise, it might not fully meet your expectations.

#GoodFriends #NetGalley
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
-
Good Friends does exactly what it sets out to do by exploring friendship from various aspects and showing why these relationships should be valued just as much as familial and romantic ones. Using the life experiences of many influential historical figures, we see the different ways friendship can impact society as a whole -- not just you as an individual. It was a bit slow to get through at times and had some repetitive elements but overall, if you are interested in reading about friendship, this is worth the pick up.

Overall, the book was well written and I did really enjoy it. Thank you for this advance reading copy!

Expecting a book on actual friendship - the cultivating and care of, what I found was a book more on friends and identity.

If you go into this looking for a book on friendship, you’ll likely be disappointed. However, what it is is an extremely interesting read and I would recommend for some (likely) new ways to think about friends.



Thank you to Legacy Lit and NetGalley for the DRC