The book opens with Alice calling 911 because her best friend Gretchen has attempted to commit suicide by swallowing pills. As the book progresses, we alternate between the present and the past to find out what happened between Alice and Gretchen up to get to this point, and wait to find out if Gretchen will make it.

While the premise of friends not always being who we think they are is intriguing and the author did well meting out the information to keep the reader in suspense, the dialogue was so terrible (especially that of Alice's best friend Vic) that I found the book difficult to read. Also, the whole book was told from Alice's point of view except suddenly a couple of scenes are stuck in near the end--one from the doctors point of view and one from Tom's--like the author just wanted to move the ending along and couldn't be bothered to figure out a way to do it from Alice's POV. Really, the only reason I stuck with it was because I had paid for the book and felt obligated. ( )

WHAT MY BEST FRIEND DID, by Lucy Dawson, is roller coaster of ups and downs in the friendship between Alice and Gretchen. They both meet on the job and become fast best friends. They have much in common and they have a blast together...for a while.

I can't remember the last book I read that made me as angry as this book did. Angry, in a good way (is that possible?). Dawson threw me into this seemingly perfect friendship between Alice and Gretchen and then she truly tortured her protagonist. This book solidified my reasoning for not having too many "girl friends" because sometimes they can really suck.

In the beginning, Gretchen was the perfect best friend. But after Alice shared an intimate secret with her, the ticking time bomb exploded. Gretchen's 'episode' (I will not ruin it!) flipped Alice's life upside down and revealed to her the true Gretchen and how big of a monster she really was. Dawson really got under my skin when she threw Alice into crazy situations revolving around Gretchen.

I liked the structure of the book too. The chapters switch from present to past, which gives little snippets at a time about Alice and Gretchen's relationship. Although, I wish there was a more concrete separation between the chapters to signify the switch in time, but after reading the first few sentences of the chapter I caught on quickly.

Overall, this was a great adult contemporary novel about the bad side of girl friendships and how deceit and jealousy tends to destroy them. ( )

From the outside, Alice would appear to have it all: a fantastic boyfriend who loves her and is ready to settle down, a rising career as a freelance photographer, and good friends. She’s not quite sure she’s at the “time to settle down” stage, however, and when she meets the beautiful and vibrant Gretchen, her world of parties and excitement is enticing. Alice becomes more and more entangled with Gretchen and her life, even becoming attracted to Gretchen’s brother, Bailey. At first she loves the whirlwind of shopping and parties, the emotional high that Gretchen always seems to be on – but then events start to spiral out of control. Alice discovers that Gretchen has a secret – and that secret may not be the darkest thing about her new friend.

What My Best Friend Did is a strong psychological thriller masquerading as chick lit. It starts out with Alice dialing for an ambulance to come get Gretchen, who has taken a bunch of pills with some alcohol. Alice accompanies her unconscious friend to the hospital, distraught and frantic. The entire chapter reads as you would expect, until the last sentence: “I can’t stop thinking: Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up.”

Alice then starts to tell the reader the story of her friendship with Gretchen. As the reader, you can immediately see the danger signs in Alice’s quick willingness to abandon her old friends and old life for her friendship with Gretchen, but can also understand the attraction. As the book progresses, the sense of impending disaster grows stronger and stronger, and yet the story pulls you inevitably onward, not permitting you to look away or stop until you understand the events that led to Alice’s 999 (like 911 in Britain) phone call.

What My Best Friend Did delves into the psyche of female friendship and how easy it is to allow oneself to be manipulated, used, and deceived. It wasn’t difficult to see that Gretchen was not quite what she appeared, and yet I was still surprised when I finally read the scene that portrayed the final minutes leading up to the alcohol and pills that put Gretchen in a coma and into the hospital. The ending kept me guessing through the last few pages, which I read with breathless suspense. ( )

If there is a textbook for "How to Write a Suspenseful Novel," then Lucy Dawson has surely read it. Her book opens on a suspenseful scene of Alice calling an ambulance for Gretchen, who has apparently tried to commit suicide by drinking and taking pills. But the reader is clearly not getting all the information. After a couple of chapters that build the suspense of what really happened and whether the truth will out, the action jumps back to when the main characters met. Chapters describing how the relationship among the various characters developed are intercut with continuing scenes from the hospital where Alice watches tensely to see whether Gretchen will wake up and tell everyone the truth. In the flashbacks, hints of the ultimate reveal are placed at exactly the right moments to ratchet up the tension, and the reveal itself is pitch-perfect.

So if technically good pacing appeals to you, you'll like this book. But there's one other problem: I think Dawson didn't quite make it to the end of her text. Although the secret itself is surprising while also being believable, and all the characters react realistically and consistently with how they've been described, the resolution is terribly disappointing. It's as though Dawson followed all the steps laid out in the textbook, but couldn't quite muster the imagination to bring it all together. ( )

What My Best Friend Did, by Lucy Dawson, is a story of a young woman dealing with a friend who is suffering from a mental illness. It's fairly depressing as a whole and I had a hard time relating to it. That's probably a good thing.

Alice is a young woman, living with her longtime boyfriend when she meets Gretchen. She and Gretchen become fast friends and Alice finds herself pulling away from Tom, her boyfriend. When she begins a flirtation with Bailey, Gretchen's brother, things start to fall apart.

Alice soon learns that Gretchen is suffering from bi-polar disorder and is not always rational, especially when off her medication. Alice feels guilty and responsible for helping to care for Gretchen even though she is dealing with her own problems.

I didn't really care for any of the characters in this story, except for Tom. Alice was whiny, Gretchen was manic, and Bailey was selfish. Tom was the only one who seemed to be relate-able. Maybe it's because I have not had personal experience with mental illness, but I found the story to be boring and annoying. I wish I enjoyed it more. The big reveal at the end was even a let down. This is one of those books that I will forget quickly. ( )