This novel opens with a chaotic tangle of overwrought prose and self-indulgent metaphors, making it nearly impossible to connect with the narrative or its cast. Initially, it reads more like a writing exercise than a cohesive story, and the characters feel like caricatures driven more by theme than truth. While the story finds some footing after a pivotal event, and the internal worlds of the characters begin to surface, what follows is a deeply unsettling portrayal of adolescence, particularly in the way Anna's experience is filtered through disturbing, implausible adult perspectives.

In my opinion the only authentic voices belong to Anna and Sophie, whose final, silent miscommunication feels tragically honest amid a sea of disconnection. Unfortunately, what could have been a poignant coming-of-age exploration is undermined by a tone-deaf and often grotesque lens on girlhood, leaving a lingering discomfort that no narrative payoff can quite redeem.
Thanks to the Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC which I read in exchange for this review.

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott
Riverhead Books, released June 24, 2025

Among Friends opens with Amos and Emerson meeting in college and they become friends despite the economic differences between the two. Thirty years later, Amos, now a psychologist, is fully immersed in the wealthy white social circles with his wife, who is a medical doctor with family money, and his teenage daughter, Anna. Amos and his family are staying the weekend at Emerson’s posh New York house with his wife, Retsy, and teenage daughter, Sophie for Emerson’s 52nd birthday. The character's inner thoughts grow darker as everything culminates when one person commits a truly heinous act of betrayal. Should the characters stand up for what’s right and destroy all that they know….or keep their lifestyle and the status quo?

I am shocked that this is Hal Ebbott’s debut novel. The structure of the book is superb. He is able to seamlessly dive deeper into each character through their internal thoughts. Ebbott was able to get into the heads of both male and female characters along with teenage girls in a detailed and psychological way. Every word and phrase were important to the whole story and although the subject matter and the privileged status of the characters is difficult to read about, Ebbott made these characters seem real.

The second half of the book explores the characters after the shocking event. Two scenarios are laid out - do something - or do nothing and each character has to make a decision.

This book is a perfect book club read with themes such as male friendship, generational wealth, and betrayal (I don’t want to give away spoilers). I can understand why some may not like this book. It is a difficult read in that the characters are not likeable and the betrayal so horrible, but I will remember this book for a long time to come. It is a book I would love to discuss further and one of the best books I have read all year. I give it five out of five stars.

Thank you Riverhead Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 45%. Vapid characters that I didn’t care for the prose is well done, but very rich white people problems that I didn’t engage with after giving this book several attempts. Thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead books for an advanced copy for a honest review.

A tense domestic drama about two families bound by long-standing friendship but simmering with jealousy, resentment, and betrayal. When a shocking weekend incident forces hidden tensions into the open, loyalties and rivalries are laid bare. Well-written and layered, though it felt like it could have gone deeper for a stronger impact.

I had such high hopes for this book but was ultimately left super disappointed. The writing was all over the place and I felt no connection with the characters. There was no character development and the prose felt too long winded.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

This book is getting lots of bus, but I don’t get it. Maybe I’m not in the age group that it was written for, but it just didn’t spark anything in me. I’m sure others will like it.

When I heard about this book back in January I was so excited - and it lived up to its intrigue! A rich and complicated character study; how does love define us and our relationships and who are the people we would do anything for, despite what they do? I really enjoyed the prose and structure- like a sylvan fish darting through glistening water, unexpected and looping, but clarion and determined. I loved the mood setting ability to describe things in a few sentences. Precise and emotional writing that kept me locked in.

**Among Friends by Hal Ebbott - ★★★★☆**

This is not an easy book to recommend, despite its undeniable literary power. Ebbott crafts a devastating portrait of affluent middle-aged friendship that builds to a shocking betrayal, one that will leave readers deeply unsettled. Set during a seemingly idyllic autumn weekend at a New York country house, the novel follows two intertwined families celebrating a 52nd birthday—but beneath the comfortable rituals and decades-long bonds, something toxic is festering.

Ebbott's prose is genuinely beautiful, with the kind of precise, elegant writing that recalls literary masters like James Salter. He captures the insular world of privileged middle age with surgical accuracy—the dinner parties, the shared histories, the comfortable assumptions about their "finely made worlds." The slow build of tension is masterful, as small moments of envy and resentment accumulate toward an "unspeakable act" that shatters everything.

The novel's strength lies in its unflinching examination of how well we truly know even our closest friends, and how class, power, and unspoken resentments can poison relationships we thought were unshakeable. The ending is indeed powerful—a gut-punch that recontextualizes everything that came before.

However, this is literary fiction that demands emotional resilience from its readers. The betrayal at the novel's heart is genuinely disturbing, and Ebbott offers no easy comfort or redemption. This is a book for readers who appreciate challenging, beautifully written explorations of human darkness rather than those seeking escapist entertainment.

A significant literary achievement that will haunt you long after finishing.

It’s almost impossible to believe this is Ebbott’s debut novel. His writing is sharp, layered, and emotionally fearless. It’s an intricate tangle of inner lives that captures just how messy, flawed, and fascinating people can be. He doesn’t just observe his characters; he drops you right inside their heads, where no impulse is too petty, no motivation too ugly to examine. The result is a biting, often dark exploration of friendship, love, jealousy, betrayal, and trust. But what really lingers is how unflinchingly Ebbott dissects the frailty of marriage and the beautiful, bumbling cluelessness of parenthood. His ability to write across gender and age is remarkable. These people are mostly awful and completely riveting. I cannot wait to see what Ebbott writes next.

Best friends Emerson and Amos spend the weekend with their wives and 16-year old daughters to celebrate Emerson's birthday. But when a shocking moment occurs, they must make a harsh decision if they want to save their relationship.

Wow. I had such high expectation for this book and I could not have been more disappointed. The writing was pretentious and laced with too much subtext and metaphors and every adult character was WRETCHED. The pacing was awful, with the "big event" not even happening until 40% through the story. Without giving too much away, the event made me so incredibly mad and the lack of resolution for it ensured I will NEVER read this author again. Do we really need more books about men getting away with that? And especially written by a man just made the whole thing even more disgusting. Gross. I will tell everyone I can to steer clear of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was beautifully written and explored the dynamics between the characters in a very real way, while I did enjoy it I would recommend checking trigger warnings before picking it up. The only thing that is keeping this from a 5 star for me is how some of the mentioned triggering topics were handled, while it did not poison the well for me it did take me out of the narrative slightly, still enjoyed the read though!

What the hell did I just read? Unlikable characters and just left a very bad taste in my mouth. Pretentious and characters more concerned with their social standing and "friendships" than their own daughter. The way Claire treated her daughter was painful - this whole book was painful and I wished I had not read it.

This book is beautifully written, and is one of the most accurate depictions of the thought processes of someone who has been sexually assaulted. In addition, there are keen observations about friendship, marriage, and family relationships. Very well done. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Among Friends is an intensely introspective drama that focuses on family friends who have known each other for 30-odd years. Ebbott writes in sparse prose, as these characters grapple with a shocking event in the group.

Set over the course of a weekend, Among Friends is something of a literary thriller. The writing is top notch but there is a slow burn to a somewhat complicated ending.

I would say this was a great summer read for those who like quiet character studies with a little drama, in the vein of Herman Koch's The Dinner.

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott is an elegantly written, psychologically intense debut set over one autumn weekend at a New York country house. Two lifelong friends, Amos and Emerson, bring their families together to celebrate Emerson’s birthday, revisiting decades of rituals, inside jokes, and unspoken resentments. Tensions simmer beneath the surface until a moment of violence shatters their comfortable façade and exposes deep fractures in their relationships. The fallout reverberates through both families—wives, husbands, and teenage daughters—as loyalties shift, unspoken truths surface, and social hierarchies are scrutinized. The novel closes on an ambiguous note: its characters are left reeling from betrayal, their bonds forever altered, with no tidy resolution to their moral and emotional crises .

Part 1 made me want to take up the mantle of misandry, part 2 had me in my feels, part 3 had me right back at part 1, part 4 had me loving it???? Definitely had some good lines but idk if I liked it overall.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this novel that focuses on two men, Amos and Emerson, and their families who spend a long weekend in upstate New York to celebrate Emerson’s 52nd birthday. Amos and Emerson have been best friends in college and beyond. They cannot imagine each other’s Iives without the other’s family. The men’s wives and daughters (they each have one) get along well. This book was a slog for me. I was so intrigued about reading about a relationship between two middle-aged men, but it was so painfully overdone and I didn’t care about Amos or Emerson. The female characters were written just as one would expect a man to write them. They did not ring true. I stuck with it until the end, but probably should have abandoned it earlier when I knew it was not for me.

4-4.5⭐️ When two families reunite for a birthday celebration weekend, a shocking event will rock these long-held friendships, and marriages, to the core.

Right off the bat, this book reminded me quite a bit of The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison, both in content and format. And then..it veered. While The Heart of Winter is hopeful and romantic, Among Friends is gritty and biting. It’s slow and evocative, but before you know it, there are twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat— something not at all common in a work of literary fiction. It is simultaneously beautiful and uncomfortable, steeped in eloquent prose and set in the most picturesque of places. A quick read, with very short chapters, you will find yourself unable to put this one down— at least I couldn’t.

🎧 The audiobook is narrated by one of my faves, Rebecca Lowman, and is absolute perfection. I recommend both formats, but if you enjoy reading via audio, this is for sure the way to go.

Read if you like:
friendship fiction
character-driven stories
dual timelines and POVs
debut novels

Thank you Riverhead Books and PRH Audio for the advanced copies.

This book practically simmers with tension throughout the entire novel until its unforgettable ending. The writing is crisp and clear, the characters complicated and messy. Among Friends would make an excellent book club choice as there is much to discuss!

Ebbott blew me away as a debut author. I was looking forward to reading Among Friends and was thrilled to see it in me NetGalley library. Not everyone is lucky enough to have lifelong friends. Those who do realize how lucky the are and how precious that relationship is. This book explores the value that is placed upon it and the trust the two families have built up between them and have in each other.
Amos and Emerson were friends in college and while vastly different, their personalities compliment each other. As they’ve aged, instead of going their separate ways their families have become closely entwined. Like all families tensions arise with teen daughters and their parents as well as husbands and wives. Ebbotts characters are fully fleshed out.
When there is a situation of sexual assault the question arises of who to believe. Also what would each person be giving up by aligning with one side or the other. The answers are surprising. 5 stars and I heartily recommend this to everyone.
Thank you NetGalley for this amazing ARC and another thanks to Riverhead books for the opportunity to read it. These opinions are my own.