What do readers think of The False Friend by Myla Goldberg? Write your own review.

Have you done something as a youth and now in your adult years you feel the need to correct or amend it? That is the problem for Celia in "The False Friend". When she returns to the place of her early years she is thwarted in her attempts to make amends. Goldberg's portrayal of the young girls inter-actions with each other was very accurate. Her other main characters, Celia's parents and boyfriend were weak and too self-centered to help. I enjoyed Goldberg's occasion challenging vocabulary (zoetrope, divaricated, and augury). Confronting one's past in order to attain peace in one's life makes an interesting plot for this book.

Memories "light the corners of my mind" until they suddenly rip into real life to send you on a search of what really happened. "Misty, water-colored" become murky and dark as the journey toward the truth takes many twists and turns. "The way we were" is not necessarily the way we were but perhaps what we believed is the way it was.

The book started out immediately drawing the reader in ,wanting to know more and then it gradually slowed down to a more even pace still leaving enough unanswered questions for the reader to want to continue until all the loose ends were tied up. But were they? Memories.... friends...

P.S. I live in Syracuse

Myla Goldberg captured my interest in the first pages of "The False Friend" as she brought me into a jolting and raw memory of an episode from the childhood of the main character, Celia. From there her story carried me through a very slow and painful reentry into the world of Celia's worst nightmare. Goldberg's ability to immerse me in some very mercurial childhood relationships while also bringing me home to reenter the relationships with Celia's parents and boyfriend shows her strength as a writer in making the reader share intimately in her relationships. Life is not always what it seems is an apt wrap up to her intense exploration to find a deep truth. It was a compelling story!

Almost stopped reading this book about one third of the way through as I just couldn't connect with Celia, the main character. Nevertheless, something compelled me to read on; I was interested in how Celia resolved the issue of what really happened. My disappointment in the ending was strong enough to send me online to read other comments and lo and behold - most readers felt as I did. It wasn't just me! We similarly felt the ending was most unsatisfying, leaving us to draw our own conclusions when we would have preferred having the author do it for us.

I did not enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. It took me a while to get into the storyline and the characters were not very interesting to me. I am not saying that the novel was bad, but there was something missing and the characters did not come to life. I have never read any of the author's other books so I cannot compare them. I was disappointed with the ending because it was vague.

In the book "The False Friend" by Myla Goldberg the reader is thrust into Celia's dilemma in the first several pages without knowing much of who Celia's is or was, and the character development comes along with plot development. It is a book that reminded me of girls' childhood interactions and however seemingly innocent, the subtle bullying that females participate in and continue to play a part of even as adult women. This book brought me to recall several scenarios of my own and may do the same for others in a forgiving way, without having to deal with our past lives on Facebook.

The back-cover synopsis of this book was enticing, and I was mentally prepared for a great book. What a disappointment! The characters were flat, the ending was vague, and I had to force myself to finish reading.

How much do incidents from our childhood influence our characters and our lives? Can one life-shattering event, remembered or not, be instrumental in causing commitment phobias and other problems later in life? These and many other questions Myla Goldberge tackles in 'The False Friend' as her main character, Celia, struggles to understand what is happening to her. More than a mystery, this exercise in psychology will have you tuned in until the last word.