East Coast Girls

 East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter  368 pages

 There is nothing new in the plot of “East Coast Girls”: Four best friends are traumatized from an event that happened when they graduated from high school, twelve years ago. HOWEVER, what makes this one different is the lyrical, literary writing and the event that happened was shocking, totally catching me off guard.

Best friends Hannah, Blue, Renee and Maya spent their summers at Montauk, Long Island, at Blue’s nana’s cabin. Since their last summer there, twelve years ago, they have barely spoken or seen each other. That night destroyed the family bond that they had created and left each of them adrift, all their dreams

Hannah has no life other than sitting at the bedside of her high school boyfriend, Henry, hoping and praying that his brain will begin to work again. She is a neurotic mess, barely able to function without Xanax and is a total germaphobe.

Maya drifts from job to job, never keeping one for very long and watches her bills pile up. If she doesn’t get it together soon, she will become homeless.

Blue lives in Manhattan and is the most successful of the four. But she, too has paid a price. She’s a workaholic, but I was never really sure exactly what she did—real estate? Wall Street?  Whatever it was, she is a wealthy woman. Lonely as hell, but wealthy. She does stay touch with Maya, but only because Maya needs money---all the time.

Renee, well, only Maya seems to know about her. She and Blue had a huge falling out, but no knows what it concerned.

Now, as the girls are celebrating their thirtieth birthday’s, Maya is getting the gang back together at Nana’s cabin in Montauk.  Will they ever be able to re-capture their dependence on each other?  Can they ever let the past go?

I LOVED this book. I was hooked from Page One until the very end. I really like that author Kletter didn’t give away the shocking event until almost the end. That way I had had time to conjure up images of what I believe happened, but nothing prepared me for the shock.  “East Coast Girls” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.