By Sunny Jain, Staff Writer
“I can’t remember the last time a book haunted me this much. Long after I turned the last page, I shed tears for the love, laughter, heartache, and loyalty tenderly depicted in Firefly Lane.”
— Danielle Marshall, Powell’s Books
This all holds true, but only up to a certain point.
In her 2008 novel Firefly Lane, award-winning author Kristin Hannah touched the hearts of thousands of readers with this personal novel. The majority of her books focus on historical fiction, which led her to win the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction for her best-selling book The Great Alone in 2018.
Do you remember that one childhood friend that you promised yourself you would remain BFF’s with? That’s exactly what Kate and Tully promised each other in the summer of 1974 on Firefly Lane. In the eyes of teenager Kathleen ‘Kate’ Mularkley, the “coolest girl in the world” is now her neighbor. Tallulah ‘Tully’ Hart seems to have it all. Along with being at the top of the social food chain at their school, she also seems to have the most lenient mom who doesn’t care about establishing a curfew, or the parties that Tully goes to. After Tully reveals a devastating secret to Kate, they make their BFF pact, which they promise to uphold no matter what. The girls settle on wanting to be reporters, and dedicate themselves to being successful. For the next 30 years, they manage to uphold their pact, until a cruel and impulsive act from Tully destroys Kate’s trust in her. The girls struggle to keep their friendship afloat, but all is forgiven when a piece of heartbreaking news is revealed.
Initially, I liked this book. But as the story progressed, my opinion changed. This is the first book that I’ve read from Kristin Hannah, and overall I was disappointed. There are definitely parts of the book that I enjoyed, but the negatives outweigh the positives.
In the opening scene, we’re introduced to Tully when she was a child. This was the beginning of a complex character development, which I believe is one of the highlights of this book. She never knew her mother, and lived with her grandmother until her grandmother passed away. The childhood neglect from her mother explains why Tully, in adulthood, is withdrawn from people, and has a hard time forming personal relationships with anyone. The neglect also was partially responsible for igniting her need to be ‘perfect’ in all ways possible, especially her career. She was trying to fill a void in her life with materialistic things that she believed would suffice, but ultimately they didn’t. Tully’s character was the most developed in the story, much more so than Kate.
I feel as though Kate’s character assumed the role of the ‘side character’ in the story. The book was supposed to be a side-by-side comparison of the girls’ lives and the story of their friendship, but Kate’s actions usually helped Tully to reflect on some aspect of Tully’s life. Kate’s character itself was less complex, but her role in the story was more prominent and had a bigger impact.
The character that confused me the most was Johnny. John Ryan was Tully’s boss at the local news station where she had managed to negotiate an interview while attending the University of Washington. It was evident that Johnny immediately was attracted to Tully, but she was oblivious to this attraction. Kate also eventually started working at the station, and developed strong feelings for Johnny. This was the start of a love triangle which led to several complications further on.
There are several minor characters in the story which I felt were unnecessary and frankly random in the scenes that they were in, but had a part in the bigger picture. One of Tully’s ex-boyfriends, Chad, helped her reflect on her impersonal relationship with her mother, and he reminded her that “everyone has people in their life. A family.” This, while essential for the character development of one character, can be frustrating for readers since we don’t understand their role when they’re introduced to us.
There are several plots that come into play throughout the course of the story. It also seems as though each character individually follows a specific plot, which again aids their development. I thought this was interesting. The common plot between the characters is tragedy, where a major flaw within them causes their ultimate downfall. Tully is withdrawn from people, and prioritized one aspect of life, which left her unhappy; Kate is frustrated with the path that she chose and distrusts her husband’s relationship with her best friend; Marah is extremely stubborn.
The structure of the story was my main issue. The love triangle between Johnny, Tully and Kate was maybe the most significant flaw of this story. Johnny initially has feelings for Tully, strong ones, but after a one-night stand with Kate, he suddenly develops feelings for her. They also got married soon after. There was no substantial relationship development between them, so this made no sense. I also didn’t enjoy aspects of the girls’ friendship. There was so much insecurity, jealousy and disrespect between them. Kate didn’t trust Johnny and Tully together. Even after she and Johnny got married, she was always worried about something happening between Johnny and Tully. Even on her deathbed, she revealed her doubts to Johnny. After 20 years of marriage, they shouldn’t be reminiscing about an incident that occured so long ago. Tully was extremely disrespectful to Kate and Marah’s relationship. She would always ignore what Kate wanted for her own daughter, and would go against the rules that Kate had set. She would go behind Kate’s back and promise Marah things that no reasonable parent would.
There were, however, parts of the story that I enjoyed. The motherhood aspect of the book was realistic. The author accurately portrayed what it’s like to be a stay-at-home mother: the busy lifestyle, the feeling of never having time for yourself, the pent up frustration. It was refreshing to see an accurate representation instead of having a watered-down version of it. I also enjoyed the ending. I appreciated the definite ending that the author provided. She guided the story in such a way that I feel is essential to all books, unless they’re a part of a series.
I didn’t enjoy the overall quality of the writing. The thing that I disliked the most was where the author included in-depth descriptions of the character’s clothing, such as specific brand names and what material the clothes were made of. It seemed childish, and even though the writing style was informal, it didn’t fit at all. This might be too far of a claim, but I think the author got too comfortable with developing Tully, and thereby neglecting Kate. Tully was an extremely successful reporter and show host, but was often referred to and treated as a celebrity. This was confusing to me since it didn’t fit her career. She was well-known and had made connections over the span of her career, but wasn’t the paparazzi-level celebrity that she was described to be. Kate was planning to return to her career, but ended up being pregnant with her twin sons, so she again had to delay returning to work. The author continued to drag this along, and I was disappointed that Johnny never supported Kate enough so that she could resume working. I understand that the time period played a role in this, it being the early 2000’s and women being assigned certain roles, but Tully managed to be successful with no support.
I wouldn’t recommend this book. The character’s relationship development was off, the quality of writing was not up to a good standard, and the structure of the story just didn’t make sense to me. I thought that the story was going nowhere, and the author seemed to drag some of the events on. While there were positives such as the ending, my overall experience with this book wasn’t great. I understand that this is one of Kristin Hannah’s most personal stories, but don’t believe that this is her best piece of work.