Five people-- former housemates at Penn who split up after the death of the sixth, Bea-- come together and must confront their pasts, on what would have been Bea's fortieth birthday.
Twenty years ago six Penn students shared a house, naively certain that their friendships would endure. Then the death of their ringleader Bea splintered the group for good. Now, mostly estranged from one another, they gather at that same house on the eve of what would have been Bea's fortieth birthday. Along with the friends come old grudges, unrequited feelings, and buried secrets. Reunited in the place where so many dreams began, and bolstered by the hope of healing, each of them is forced to confront the past.
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Five University of Pennsylvania alums and former BFFs reunite twenty years after graduation to commemorate the birthday of the sixth friend who passed away four years earlier. Long-held resentments and secrets come out over the course of a weekend, and they all emerge slightly scarred but better prepared to face the next twenty years. Not much of what happens is surprising, but it's an enjoyable piece of women's fiction. The characters are not particularly likeable, especially the women: a workaholic control freak, a prickly commitment-phobic pop singer, and a wealthy PTA mom who posts pictures of her perfect life online while remaining oblivious to her husband's philandering. But watching them struggle with the complex group dynamics and come to terms with the changes that have occurred in the past two decades is both entertaining and sobering. The ending is fairly open-ended, so readers who like everything tied up in a nice, neat bow may be disappointed, but overall a welcome return for an author who has survived mainstream publishing, self-publishing and now Amazon's publishing imprint without losing her distinctive voice.
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