The Reunion by Amy Silver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sometimes you pick up a book and from the very first sentence know that you are going to engage with it. This is one of those books. I really loved it. Yes, it's been done before; yes, it probably is quite predictable in parts but it is also very moving and compelling; it totally gripped me and I couldn't put it down.

Jen, Lilah, Natalie, Dan and Andrew were the best of friends at Uni but after events 15 years earlier they grew apart. Now they are back together in Jen's French house in the middle of December and dynamics are not quite what they used to be. Jen is hoping that things can be put right between them all by spending a few days together and chatting about old times but is that ever possible?

The story unravels with flashbacks to the past interspersed with the present day relationships between them all. From the start it is obvious that one person is missing - that person was Jen's boyfriend but it is not until the second day that we learn what happened to Conor. Natalie and Andrew are now married; Lilah is still out to cause trouble, thinking only of herself; Jen drops a bombshell; Dan is a well known film director but all of them are strained and anxious. All thought they knew each other so well back then, back when they were inseparable but as tensions grow and chinks in armour appear it would seem none of them are as innocent as the others thought.

The reunion doesn't end well but six months later we are back with the group for another, sadder reunion. Nat and Andrew seem to be in trouble and there is something still not quite right between Jen and Dan but this time they all pull together for Lilah and as more secrets are laid bare Lilah takes it upon herself to finally put things right.

This just really worked for me. It's not a new concept, old friends meeting up, secrets in the past, but Amy Silver has done this remarkably well. There's no big secret, you can work out what's happened and what's going to happen but it is so well written and the characters so real that none of that matters. You can absolutely imagine this happening and as such can empathise (sometimes!) with the characters. It really is a thoughtful and quite moving read.




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