How to Make Friend by Fleur Smithwick

As a lonely child, Alice found comfort the same way so many others do - she invented a friend. Sam was always there when she needed him, until one day...he wasn't. 

Now, Alice's life almost resembles something happy, normal. She has a handful of close friends and a career as a photographer. But when a tragic accident shatters the world Alice has constructed, the sense of isolation that haunted her in childhood returns. And with it, so does Sam. To Alice, he looks and feels like a real person, but how can that be so?

And who will decide when it's time for him to leave again?

I finished reading How to Make a Friend last night but have left it until today to write my review as I am confused about my thoughts on this book.

The storyline jumps back and forward in time but follows Alice and her friend Sam, the problem being no-one else can see or hear Sam. Alice had a very challenging childhood with her mum and dad separated and her mum not a nurturing mother, Alice was often left to her own devices and she became a very lonely child but Sam was there to be her friend. Fast forward to the present time and Alice is involved in a car accident and while she deals with the consequences of the accident Sam reappears but her friends and family are worried for her own mental stability.

The first thing I will say about this book was that it had me hooked and I couldn’t put this book down so it does have an addictive feel to it and although the storyline moves back and forth in time it worked really well with this book and I didn’t feel like I was getting confused with the toing and froing. I loved the beginning of the book it was fast paced and eventful and it sparked my interest in our main character Alice and her clearly dysfunctional family and I was looking forward to seeing more of the friendship between Alice, Rory and Daniel but unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of that.

The book began to slow pace when Sam arrived and I was intrigued by his presence and the interaction between him and Alice at first but as the book progressed I began to get very confused and frustrated about Sam and also the way Alice was telling people about him even though she knew that people were concerned about her sanity I just wanted to shake her!

The book picks up towards the end again and the ending was not predictable. This is certainly a unique storyline, although I have read books before about spirit guides, ghosts and guardian angels this was something completely different.

Although this isn’t a favourite book of mine it still had something about it that kept me intrigued and I do think it was because it was unlike any storyline I had read before but it still didn’t win me around entirely but I would love to read another book by this author because her writing style was easy to follow.

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