Celebrating the publication of her new novel My Perfect Friend, author Sarah Clarke recommends six books that explore toxic friendships. Check them out below.
The old adage holds that we choose our friends not our family. But sometimes friendships feel like they have an energy of their own – we engage with neighbours, work colleagues, parents of our children’s friends – and before we know it, the relationship has snowballed. There are friends with baggage too. People we knew during a different stage of our lives who turn up wanting to rekindle what we might prefer to keep buried.
The world of toxic, dysfunctional or uneven friendships is a great theme for psychological thrillers, and one I explore in My Perfect Friend, between Beth, Kat and Saskia. To celebrate the publication of My Perfect Friend, I’m sharing six more great books that explore toxic friendships.
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty is a master at putting regular characters into difficult situations and exploring the fallout. In Truly Madly Guilty, she creates one dramatic event that risks ruining a number of different relationships, including the friendship between Clementine and Erika – two childhood friends with a complicated bond. The book explores how their friendship formed, the jealousies on both sides, and the contradiction of them both needing and rejecting each other – before bringing the story to an enlightening conclusion.
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Harper’s second Aaron Falk novel takes five female colleagues into the Australian outback. The adventure is supposed to promote teamwork and resilience, but cracks in their friendships quickly develop when things go wrong. And when they discover that one of them is missing, the toxic tension heightens exponentially. The story is a police procedural with a complex investigation fuelling the plot, but it is also a tale about friendships, and how they can both deteriorate and strengthen when we’re tested.
Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly
Watch Her Fall is set within a Russian ballet school in London. Erin Kelly brilliantly depicts the intensity of training for those ballerinas who dream of being the best in the world. As the dancers know nothing and no one beyond the walls of the ballet school, they forge friendships of necessity – but these are much more fragile than the rivalry between them, and coveting the leading role in Swan Lake puts them all in danger.
Shiver by Allie Reynolds
As a keen snowboarder, I knew I would love this book irrespective of the storyline, but I was also gripped by the toxic friendship between Saskia and Milla. As two British female snowboarders competing on the European stage, they train and live closely together. Milla quickly finds out that Saskia will do anything to win, but she still can’t help being drawn to her talent and charisma.
The House Guest by Charlotte Northedge
The House Guest revolves around a friendship between two very different women, Kate and Della. Like Kat and Beth in My Perfect Friend, their friendship is uneven from the start. Della is a successful life coach with a glamorous family while Kate is a low paid café worker escaping a sad childhood. This inequality drives the plot and puts Kate in a perilous situation that is hard to escape from.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
I couldn’t write a blog piece about toxic friendships without mentioning Donna Tartt’s classic novel The Secret History. When Richard first meets Julian’s clique of five students, he desperately wants to be part of their friendship group. But this is where another adage becomes appropriate – be careful what you wish for.
My Perfect Friend is out now in ebook and audiobook, and on 4th February 2023 in paperback.
