Friday Never Leaving

Friday's unstable mother dies, victim of a family curse. Panicked and grieving, Friday runs away and falls in with a group of homeless teens. On the streets, Friday gains confidence and forges tentative friendships, but her constant interior monologue--brooding observations interwoven with childhood memories--reveals a complex struggle to both cherish and escape her mother's legacy. Tense and evocative.

For generations, Brown women have died by drowning, and always on a Saturday. When Vivienne Brown has a daughter, she teaches her to swim and nicknames her Friday. Vivienne is impulsive, unstable, and always on the run, but she holds Friday in thrall with her dark family lore and fierce protection. But Vivienne can’t outrun death forever: cancer strikes, filling her lungs with fluid and thus drowning her. Friday is left to bear the burden of the family curse alone. Panicked and grieving, she runs away and falls in with a group of homeless teens living under the watch of the beautiful, volatile Arden. On the streets, Friday gains confidence in her survival skills and forges tentative friendships with fellow runaways, but her constant interior monologue—brooding, lyrical observations woven with childhood memories—reveals a painful, complex struggle to both cherish and escape her mother’s legacy. Vivienne’s powerful presence and Arden’s beguiling cruelty sometimes overpower Friday’s more subdued characterization, but the deft parallels between these two maternal figures add considerable depth to Friday’s interactions with Arden. Tension rises precipitously when the two girls finally clash, leading to a shockingly violent conclusion, but Friday’s battle with grief and inheritance is tense and evocative from first page to last. jessica tackett macdonald