A big thank you to NetGalley and Riverhead for this ARC!

Among Friends was an extremely powerful, emotionally moving read that made me want to reach into the book and either shake a character by the shoulders or take their hand and lead them as far away from their world as I could. The inability to do that left me with a pretty intense feeling of desperation, frustration, or helplessness at times. While I felt connected to certain characters through the trauma they experienced, or the glimpses into their internal monologues that were provided, I didn't feel quite as connected as I wish I was. Perhaps this is an inability of mine that came specifically with this title, but I didn't feel that the timeline jumps into the past really added any deep context to any of the characters that felt truly urgent and important. Some flashbacks added context or a fuller picture of what informed certain decisions, but I felt that there was a shroud over these two families that was never quite lifted. While I am a big believer in not demanding full transparency from books or authors or their characters, this one could've used a bit more time or context to really develop that ability to feel closeness, especially in a book that deals with such intimate, fragile topics.

I enjoyed this read, but I think I wouldn't revisit solely for the fact that these characters are ones I would have needed to spend more time with in the context of their story and circumstances. With a very tragic but realistic end, I think the frustration/sadness I felt overwhelmed my ability to see a major payoff since I wasn't made to really deeply care for many of the characters aside from the ones with the most tragic ending. Maybe I need to work on being okay with accepting this! I am all for a tragic/sad ending, this one just fell a tad short for me.

A stellar debut novel about two lifelong friends coming from distinctly different backgrounds. With an undertone of envy and power, an unspeakable act occurs that will challenge not only their friendship but their moral fiber and their personal preservation. The writing is stunning and intimate, portraying the ultimate dilemma in a truly heartbreaking outcome. Can the motivation to belong be so powerful that it eclipses the integrity of your actions. Ebbott has created a novel that questions the true motivator of acceptance.

Thanks to NetGalley and RIverhead for an early read.

Hmm. Mixed opinions here. This is an author with a distinctive voice. He’s committed to pinning down - in fine prose - the absolute essence of a thing, whether it’s a mood or the kernel of a relationship. And he’s able to achieve this, at times, with acuity and precision. It’s a rare and notable ability.
But he also likes to meander around and delay, partly to augment tension and deliver background, partly, it seemed to me, because he seemed in love with the sound of his own voice.
I found the sense of indulgence overwhelming, while also, as mentioned, notable. I craved greater restraint,, or variation in tone, so that the reader wasn’t always being crushed under the weight of this overbearing style. And yet, when it worked, it delivered such a crystalline sense of whatever it was, that I forgave.
So there it is, a small, searching story that reached heights but sometimes was insufferable. Go figure.

Engaging and immersive. A recommended first purchase for collections where literary fiction is popular.

a poignant exploration of two privileged, intertwined white families, and all the betrayals that happen when keeping up appearances, connections, and smoothing things over take precedence over truth. A surprisingly quick read. I thought the end was especially great.

Quiet, desperate white upper-middle class family drama. Two men, Emerson and Amos, are best friends in their fifties. At Emerson's 52nd birthday party, angry and feeling impotent at his sprained ankle after playing tennis, he gropes his best friend's daughter in the laundry room. The second half of the book concerns the negotiation as to what the two families will do in the aftermath of this revelation.

Unfortunately this book was pretty mid. The writing style is extremely labored, the quality of figurative language is meh and gets kind of annoying, the characters somewhat blend into one another and have the MOST sketched out backstories (the book literally begins with ONE extremely brief and non-characterizing chapter of their meeting in college before jumping to the present day, giving us very little time to understand the nature of their lifelong and supposedly deep attachment), the bond between the best friends just isn't convincing or worth emotional investment in because of the book's structure, and the characterization work isn't particularly strong. (For example, we're told that Emerson will frequently just seem cruel and the book will give an example of a cutting line of dialogue that is like, okay that wasn't great of you to say, but also not memorable or even particularly terrible. Or it'll just be like, I glanced over and i could just TELL he was not thinking nice thoughts at that moment. The book does this multiple times, and the technique doesn't really work well to deepen our understanding of the nature of Emerson's cruelty.) Additionally, the names of the wives and daughters (Sophie / Anne / Claire / Retsy) are SO similar / easily mixed up and they aren't given enough distinct personalities for this reader to remember who is which wife / daughter, and which wife / daughter belongs with which husband, until distressingly far into the book. The roving 3rd person limited PoV doesn't really help with this characterization problem either. The book begins to finally pick up steam around the 50% mark when it gets to the actual conflict, and that part of the book is certainly better, and what ultimately earns the book a 3 star rating instead of 2.

It's clear that the book is trying to raise important questions about what people do in the aftermath of sexual assault that occurs at a blurred boundary / space re: belief, and the cost of such decisions to the families involved and the way that it is easier to just ignore / smooth over such decisions. Overall though, the execution was middling, and this book was a pretty forgettable contemporary literary drama.