Book Recommendations: 5 Books about Friendship and the Inevitability of Change

In case you’re new to the Pond’s book recommendation posts, the recommendation posts are brought to you by Varian, the Pond’s very own Toadshifter who is knowledgeable in all kinds of magic! One of Varian’s ambitions is to get better at sewing, hence why whenever Varian has come up with their latest costume, they will always recommend a few books that inspired them!

It’s nearly the end of the year – a time of reflection, thoughtfulness, and change. I thought I’d do a book recommendation post on change because, well, change is hard! and scary! Even though we say that change is the one constant in life, it’s inevitable, and on and on and on, change is different and new every single time. When I myself face change, I look to books; in their stories, I find comfort in the discomfort and a little ray of hope that things are going to be okay, even if they aren’t okay for a time.

Our Friend is Here! An Interview with Miel Moreland, Author of It Goes Like This – On Exploring Friendship and Growing Up, Celebrating Queer Love, and Fandoms

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

Pride Month is a month-long event at The Quiet Pond, where during the month of June, queer authors and bookish content creators are invited to celebrate being queer, queer books, and their experiences of being a queer reader. Find the introduction post for Pride Month at The Quiet Pond here.

Pride Month can mean different things to different people. For all the nuances and complexities that come with Pride Month, I think at its very heart, Pride Month is about love and joy. For this reason, I love books that celebrate queer joy and love in all forms – and when I think of a recent book that I have read that encapsulates that, it would be It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland.

Book Review: It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland – A Charming and Heartfelt YA about an All-Queer Teen Pop Group, How Friendships Change, and A Love Letter to Fandoms

Synopsis:

Eva, Celeste, Gina, and Steph used to think their friendship was unbreakable. After all, they’ve been though a lot together, including the astronomical rise of Moonlight Overthrow, the world-famous queer pop band they formed in middle school, never expecting to headline anything bigger than the county fair.

But after a sudden falling out leads to the dissolution of the teens’ band, their friendship, and Eva and Celeste’s starry-eyed romance, nothing is the same. Gina and Celeste step further into the spotlight, Steph disappears completely, and Eva, heartbroken, takes refuge as a songwriter and secret online fangirl…of her own band. That is, until a storm devastates their hometown, bringing the four ex-best-friends back together. As they prepare for one last show, they’ll discover whether growing up always means growing apart.

Stories about friendship have a special place in my heart. As a younger person growing up, going through changes in life and seeing the people who I thought would be in my life forever slowly drift away and no longer exist in the landscape of my life was such a tough thing. Likewise though, I also had friends who changed with me, grew up with me (even if we became different people), and there were even some people where I grew apart from them, only to eventually come together. So when It Goes Like This was pitched to me, about an all-queer teen pop group who fall out following their breakup, but come together one last time and have to traverse the uncertain territory of reuniting? I was immediately intrigued – and, unsurprisingly, I fell in love with this gorgeous, heartfelt book.