The Best of Friends

One of the novel’s three first-person narrators, attractive, blonde-haired Kendra lives in a gated upper-middle-class neighborhood in a small town in Southern California, where she and her husband, Paul, own the town’s “top real estate firm” (69). Both in their early forties, Kendra and Paul have two sons, 16-year-old Sawyer and 14-year-old Reese. At the novel’s start, Sawyer is killed in a mysterious shooting at a friend’s house, a tragedy that puts tremendous strain on Kendra’s life, marriage, and close friendships. The teenage sons (Jacob and Caleb) of her two best friends were also involved in the shooting, creating conflicts with these friends that escalate throughout the novel. Sawyer’s death plunges Kendra into a deep depression, and for weeks she spends much of her time, including all of her nights, in Sawyer’s bedroom, where she snuggles under his bedsheets, “inhaling” the lingering scent from his clothes.

Kendra prides herself on owning a larger, more luxurious house than her two best friends, and for having a closer rapport with their teenage sons than they do; fancying herself their “adult confidant,” she often sits up late with them, gossiping and binge-eating, almost like a teenager herself. Much of Kendra’s behavior hints at a nostalgia for high school, when she was a popular “queen bee.