Review of A Conversation with a friend

[Korey Ann]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Conversation with a friend" by Cristina Caymares.]

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1 out of 5 stars

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"A Conversation With a Friend" by Cristina Caymares is an interesting novel. The premise of the story is a great idea. I enjoyed how the novel includes a style of relationship that has become one of the norms of today's society, a social media one. The book follows a relationship blossoming between two people via text messaging and shows how relationships can change quickly. 

While the novel's premise is an excellent idea for a story, especially with technology being so important today, it is tough to follow. The book uses solely text messaging dialogue, and the dialect confused me. The novel is riddled with misspellings and grammar errors, and this is not just because of the text messaging dialogue. The conversation jumps from one topic to another, including multiple non-borderline profanity words. There are also so many omitted pictures and hyperlinks the characters send each other that the readers cannot see. 

As a teacher, I am used to the main characters being strong role models who might make mistakes but learn from them and try to improve themselves. However, in this novel, the male main character constantly calls the female main character the wrong name (at least something different than the name that appears on the text screen). Also, he keeps hitting on her and asking what turns her on and if she is single in the middle of an unrelated conversation. As the female main character tries to avoid his advances, the topic jumps around and starts to mix. I hoped the male character would grow, but he says sexist things throughout the novel. If someone texted or talked to someone I love or me this way, they would not be considered friends. On the other hand, the female main character is trying to convince the male main character to send her money. The ending of the novel felt very abrupt as well.

I would rate "A Conversation With a Friend" by Cristina Caymares 1 out of 5 stars because I found it extremely hard to finish the book. In my opinion, the novel is more geared toward high school students, college students, and adults. Since the book covers topics that include religion, sex, love, and family matters and includes non-borderline profanity, I would not recommend it to younger children. The idea is different and exciting; however, it needs some editing to make it less choppy and confusing.

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A Conversation with a friend
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[Neto Onuoha]

The author had a great idea and a unique one as well for this book but didn’t execute it well. A very nice review as well but one thing I want to point out is the chaos in the texting can be deliberate as some conversations follow that pattern and the author was just trying to be real in that aspect.

[Helen Waziri]

Wow, thank you for the detailed breakdown. I was intrigued by the idea of a novel told entirely through text messages, but your comment about the constant name confusion and the lack of character growth gives me pause. It’s disappointing when a promising format isn’t supported by strong writing or respectful character dynamics.