Review by Katie Rose Guest Pryal
Tully (don’t call her Tallulah) Hart has spent her life being left behind: by her addict mother, when she abandons her with Tully’s grandparents, and then by her grandmother, when she dies just short of Tully’s 18th birthday, forcing Tully into the hands of social services. Then there’s Kate Mularkey, Tully’s awkward, across-the-street neighbor on Firefly Lane. Kate has a loving family but no friends, not really. In the eighth grade, Tully and Kate become unconventional best friends. And when Tully’s grandmother dies, leaving Tully with no family to turn to, the Mularkeys take her in, becoming the family Tully never had.
So begins Kristin Hannah’s decades-spanning study of female friendship, career, family, and more, starting in the 1970s, crossing the 1980s and 1990s. As a mother who also chooses a career, this book spoke to me deeply, as it examines the choices—and sacrifices—women have had to make about motherhood and work in the past—and how much those choices have not changed, not much at all in fact, today.
As a story of friendship, Firefly Lane is really a story of sisters, sisters who may not be related by blood, but by promises. But, in the end, all of the best sisters are held together by promises—even the ones we’re born with. The journey of Firefly Lane is one of love, memory, history, and women’s lives, a journey that will stay with you long after you finish the final page.
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About Katie Rose Guest Pryal
Katie’s latest novel is FALLOUT GIRL, which came out on May 7, 2018. She is the author of the Hollywood Lights Series, which includes ENTANGLEMENT (2015), LOVE AND ENTROPY (2015), CHASING CHAOS (2015), and HOW TO STAY (2017), all with Blue Crow Books. She is also the author of many books of nonfiction, including LIFE OF THE MIND INTERRUPTED: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (Raven Books 2017). Her essays have appeared in MOTHERWELL, FULL GROWN PEOPLE, THE TOAST, CATAPULT, and more.
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