Friendswood: A Novel

by Rene Steinke

A big, moving novel of one tight-knit Texas community and the events that alter its residents’ lives forever.

Friendswood, Texas, is a small Gulf Coast town of church suppers, oil rigs on the horizon, hurricane weather, and high school football games. When tragedy rears its head with an industrial leak that kills and sickens residents, it pulls on the common thread that runs through the community, intensifying everything. From a confused sixteen-year-old girl beset by visions, to a high school football star tormented by his actions, to a mother galvanized by the death of her teen daughter, to a morally bankrupt father trying to survive his mistakes, René Steinke explores what happens when families are trapped in the ambiguity of history’s missteps—when the actions of a few change the lives and well-being of many.

 Driving the narrative powerfully forward is the suspenseful question of the fates of four Friendswood families, and Steinke’s striking insight and empathy. Inspired in part by the town where she herself grew up, this layered, propulsive, psychologically complex story is poignant proof that extreme public events, as catastrophic as they might seem, must almost always pale in comparison to the intimate personal experiences and motivations of grief, love, lust, ambition, anxiety, and regret.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Adult, Relationships, Adult Fiction, Science Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2014

About the author

René Steinke is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow. Her most recent novel, Friendswood (Riverhead), was named one of National Public Radio’s "Great Reads" of 2014. Friendswood was shortlisted for the St. Francis Literary Prize, and it was an Amazon Book of the Month. Her previous novel, Holy Skirts, an imaginative retelling of the life of the artist and provocateur, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, was a Finalist for the National Book Award. Her first novel is The Fires. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, O Magazine, Redbook, Houstonia, Salon, Bookforum, and in anthologies. She is the former Editor of The Literary Review, where she remains Editor-at-Large. She has taught at the New School and at Columbia University, and she is currently the Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having grown up in Friendswood, Texas, I was very interested to read this novel. I was curious what spin it would take and if it would be true to the town I know and love.

Let me say, first, that I gave this book 3 stars mostly because I actually finished reading it. I think it was disjointed and the two separate story-lines running through the book were confusing and poorly written.

Let's also be honest - if you grew up in the area, you know that the toxic waste business isn't fiction. We all know what happened, and we also know who was responsible. If you are going to change names to protect the wealthy/guilty, do a better job. Also, renaming some things but properly naming others is just dumb. This includes people. Yes, I could even figure out a few of the teachers.

Spoilers coming..........................

The date rape portion of this book pisses me off. Yes, I know it happens. Yes, I know that it goes unreported, a lot. But acting like the whole town is shunning the victim where clearly everyone knows what is happening is crap. It is socially irresponsible to make the victim crazy while everyone else is getting off scott-free. Again, I am sure this happened to someone at some point, but this is not the Friendswood that I know. No teachers, counselors, nor police officers would let this slide just because the parents didn't want to relive it.

Also - Real life spoilers - they did rebuild homes on the same toxic waste site, though people who bought those new homes are either stupid or don't have a clue about the land's history.

And a small nit-pick: The geography is off quite a bit. It's annoying for people who actually know the area well.

I will say from my own family's battles with the City Council, trying to get them to take care of business is pretty spot on. If they don't want to deal with it, they will bury it. Literally.

[Devon Ashley]

I have to admit I'm a little curious about this novel. Because I was one of the kids who attended all seven years at Weber Elementary, where Monsanto and others dumped their toxic shit. I drank the water. I rolled in the ditches with my friends. My family and friends have reproductive issues...if they were born with reproductive organs at all. So many women I know have had lumps removed from their breasts, tumors from their ovaries and zero chance at conceiving.

I still remember my sister's best friend dying in high school when she was in remission, her battered immune system incapable of fighting off simple infections after all the chemo. I still remember an old elementary classmate living in the same college dorm with me keeling over and having to be carried down the stairs by my roommate and driven to the emergency room because a cyst was rupturing on her ovary - a common problem most of us faced. I still remember how our little neighborhood alone had an unprecedented number of rare cancers. Like the kind only one in a million cancer patients had. I still remember the first time I had my own pain...and breaking down and crying during my disposition because I couldn't even talk about it without crying. I'm crying now just remembering.



I was spared the reproductive issues. Don't know how, but it worried me for years I'd never be able to have children like my friends and family. No, I managed to baffle doctors in another way. Somewhere around the age of twenty I began to develop what was most likely a histamine reaction to drugs. Didn't matter which one I took, three days later, it all ended the same - what felt like a thousand needles relentlessly stabbing me on the inside for days, like my nerve-endings were firing as if Zeus himself was pissed and firing lightning strikes. Wanna know what it feels like? Something like this:


So, I now suffer severe reactions to most drugs, Benadryl makes me go into anaphylactic shock, and most pain killers don't work on me - including ones they use after surgery, unfortunately. I had to go twenty-four hours after my C-section (for which they had to completely knock me out because the drugs wouldn't work on me to keep me conscious) without a pain killer that worked. Not. Fun. I hardly acknowledged my baby on his first day of life because I was balled up in horrendous pain. And to top it all off, if I get sunburned, I have the same godawful internal stabbing.

So no. I'm not a fan of the companies who maliciously dumped their toxic waste behind my elementary school because they didn't want to pay to dispose of it properly. RIP to every person who's life they've already taken. And no, this next gif isn't very mature, but given they didn't give a shit about us, I see no harm in expression my displeasure.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Goodreads for picking little old me as a firstreads recipient for Friendswood! Because I really wanted to win this one and I really liked it!!!!

Okay, okay, okay. SO: this book was about a town in Texas that is completely and obviously contaminated by reckless chemical disposal from an oil company formerly located in the heart of the town. But of course justice never comes easily to people involved in these sorts of things (see Wikipedia entry for Erin Brockovich). Some folks are mad as hell and aren't gonna take it anymore. Some folks are in complete denial. And then there are the children, who are kind of bumping into one another with all sorts of problems and issues.

Each chapter is named for the character whose story we're about to follow. I really liked that. My favorite story-line was Willa's. Only we never do find out why she was having all those creepy visions. Was it schizophrenia? A brain tumor caused by the chemicals? what??? I was dying to know and we never get to find out. Poops. .

I was really happy to win this book. It was fresh and different, and had a creepy, odd undertone that I was really grooving with. True, it is a bit of a downer, but it really does make you think. 4 stars, nicely done.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two major plot lines in this book and ultimately, I don't think they worked well together. One plot involves adults--Lee, whose daughter has died of a cancer she believes was caused by toxic waste, and Hal, a real-estate agent and Lee's neighbor who is recruited to dissuade Lee from her attempts to prove that there is toxic waste on the site of a housing development. The other plot centers around three teenagers, Willa, Cully and Dex. Willa is the victim of a rape after being "roofied" at a party that Cully took her to. For much of the book, I thought Dex was the strongest character as he attempted to make the rapists pay for their actions. At least, he was the one character who seemed to think about someone other than himself and to feel something besides guilt and self-pity. I found myself wanting to shake these people and tell them to look at the rest of the universe.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Penguin in exchange for my review.

[Jen Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the tradition of William Goyen’s ‘House of Breath’ - the lyrical meditation on Goyen’s own hometown of Trinity, Texas - and Katherine Anne Porter’s short novels and stories, Rene Steinke’s Friendswood brings an earnest and complex Texas into accessible view.

The chorus of voices in Friendswood rise up like church songs, and fall down like hard rain in an ethereal kinship. It is easy to want to pick a favorite - the one we relate to, the one whose pain feels most real, or most important - but to do so seems to be missing the point that taken together their voices bring their fragmented realities into communion with each other.

Lee is a complicated and messy woman, whose self-awareness can be difficult to grasp at times, but who is ultimately good, and strong, and worthy of attention. Hal’s recurring defeats are often comical and sad, just the way it can be when you’re not sure where you’re headed. Dex is a breath of air in this place, and his imperfect teenage reality is painted with compassion. The revelations of self and of time are most clearly seen through Willa; her visions, her sense of body and memory, are explored deeply so that we are pulled close into feeling that maybe we cannot truly understand this world - Steinke’s Friendswood, or our own. The two, perhaps, are not that different.

As much as this is a literary and canonical book, there is so much to enjoy. The flicks of dialogue, the Gulf Coast landscape rendered bright and dull at the same time - dusty and thick with the essential truths of any real world imagined anew. This book is intensely readable.

I want to mention something about faith here, about the stringy religion that doesn’t feel like doctrine, and doesn’t read as judgement in Steinke’s adept hands. I can’t speak from a confident place of faith (only a lifelong complication with the Roman Catholicism of my childhood), but I know it’s there in this book - I feel it in the lives of everyone in the town, in their speech, in the simplicity of their experiences. I want to believe Hal’s car-ride prayers. I want also to wring the neck of Willa’s family pastor in his unswerving devotion to what he knows to be true. I want to go down with Lee to the church of bourbon and guilt and grief, into Dex’s trailer home pulpit. At times I wondered where is the grace, the forgiveness; where, in fact, is God in all of this?

Presumably, there is a not-so-distant past world on the fringes of Friendswood, where an African-American President is about to be elected, where a mortgage crisis is bubbling, where a war continues to rage. Steinke doesn’t need to ruminate on the significance of these events - they’re already there, lurking beneath the surface, as buried as the toxic sludge, like the corner of containers peaking through the malleable earth.

What I like most about this book is how skillfully Steinke gives form to each scene seamlessly beneath her evocative prose. The story she tells appears at once real and fabulous. Ultimately, this is strongly-woven tale about community and the hope that comes when it seems like all of the bad in the world is set to destroy it - and we emerge deeply changed.

[Kaethe Schwehn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The narrative is clear and straightforward, as other reviewers have described, and all of the characters (Lee, Dex, Hal, and Willa) are fully realized and fully human. What I loved most was the attention to image and the way in which Willa’s disturbing visions (many drawn straight from Revelation) collide with the “true” images of toxic chemicals snaking their way out of the ground. Steinke reminds us that real and surreal, darkness and light, are not so distant from one another. And for every image that disturbs (beasts and toxins, the pale sleeping face of a drugged teenager), there is an image that redeems through its revelation of the mundane as beautiful. This book suggests that even as we are haunted by evil, shadowed by harm, we are equally capable of seeing beauty etched into our surroundings or, in Willa’s case, into the very fibers of our skin. Highly recommended.

[Crivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rene Steinke’s Friendswood is a wonderfully written story in which the language and her percipient powers of description are like the music in the background you tap your foot to.

The characters are the real ride though, and she provides quite the cast. From teenagers trying to make it through, to the midlives of those trying to figure out what went wrong, or what is right, the book weaves together their stories flawlessly and balances the high literary techniques of what makes books great with a social critique that is not patronizing.

At its core, the novel puts on display the discomfiting realities of our times with geographical precision and an ear for exhilarating language.

There were many times while reading this novel I stopped to look out of my window and think about things. I guess that is the best thing I can say about this story. About any story really.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely give a book 5 stars but this one deserved them, I think. Lee lives by herself in Friendswood, Texas. Her daughter died as a teenager from an cancer that, Lee (and we) believe originated in toxic wastes that were never disposed of properly. Lee's marriage has broken up, after the death of their daughter, and she is a single-woman crusade against toxic wastes in this community. This story line mingles with that of a teenage girl, Willa, who has been raped by a group of teenage boys. There is a lot of struggle with fundamental Christianity and belief in the lives of some of the characters in this novel. Though Lee gets little overt support there is some community there for her. The only thing that felt unrealistic to me was the amount of support that Willa got, especially from her best friend. I'd like to believe that would be true in a real life situation - but have my doubts. Still, a very strong book about real life problems and solutions.

[Hawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a 3.5.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too Many Perspectives?
What separates a good book from one mired in mediocrity? What makes the difference between Brave New World and a book written around the same time that most people do not even know about? This of course is a multifaceted question that is quite subjective and dependent on the individual. But at the same time this is something that has to be addressed in every book review. Friendswood is Reine Steinke's third novel and its narrative is conveyed through the fragmented perspectives of four main characters. The novel sits in an interesting place as far as genre since it is considered an eco-fiction novel, meaning it uses a fictional story to tell about environmental issues like chemical dumping. The fictional story contrasts to the real characters and scientific approach of a book like Dan Fagin’s Toms River. The book also reflects themes of eco feminism by criticizing the idea of a male-dominated society taking full control of nature and abusing it for its own gain. Unlike many of the books in its genre that read like a textbook, Friendswood has a complete story. The novel takes its inspiration from events that happened in the author’s home town of Friendswood, Texas and it sticks to what happened there well. While the book is successful in conveying its themes and making its large points, such as how Willa and the environment mirror each other in how they are taken advantage of, the book is held back by its use of four main characters, somewhat slow plot, and flat adult characters. These points confound an otherwise solid concept for a book that brings up questions about ethics and environmentalism in the modern age.
Friendswood is told from the perspectives of four main characters, with chapters using all of their inner voices to move the story along. Certain characters are more involved with some characters than others. Generally, Hal and Lee make up the main characters of one story arc and Willa and Dex make up the main characters of the other main story. Willa, a fifteen year old girl who struggles with past traumatic events, visions, and a society that allows her little autonomy is the main character of one main story arc. Her friend, Dex, the other teenage character of the book, mainly fits within Willa’s story arc. Steinke paints him as a teenage boy trying to do the right thing and not compromise his morals after living in an abusive home. The two remaining main characters, Hal and Lee both sit on opposing sides of trying to get a neighborhood built on a polluted plot of land, Rosemont, Lee’s old neighborhood. Hal is a morally confused real estate agent who relies on religion for his solace. Lee, on the other hand, after losing her daughter to leukemia caused by the chemicals in her neighborhood, becomes obsessed with stopping that same land from being developed again. It is these two stories that drive Friendswood’s, at times, confused narrative.
By telling these two overlapping stories from the contrasting points of view of these characters, Steinke can confuse the reader with the constant change of perspective and lack of specific information told in a chapter. This is especially relevant in the beginning of the book where a reader could easily lose interest in the book due to its confusing layout. While having the internal thoughts and feelings of multiple characters can help to give more depth to an issue and make the reader question from more perspectives and evaluate motivations, it is not conducive to telling a story. For example, Steinke might be building the plotline in one chapter about how Willa is coming to terms with her sexual assault. But then, in the next chapter Steinke throws the reader into a new perspective with the internal thoughts and feeling of a character who has nothing to do with what the previous chapter. It is this changing of perspectives that can make Friendswood feel quite confused in its narrative and can break momentum of plot points for the reader. Essentially, the confusing layout of Friendswood can alienate and confuse the reader due to the chapters written with the voice of different characters.
Another main aspect that really can make reading Friendswood a chore is its slow plot and over attention to the setting instead of the characters. Steinke is very careful about setting up the moods for her scenes and does paint vivid imagery throughout the book. However, this makes the book quite slow to read and I struggled to get through it at times. This section of the prologue shows this over attention to detail, “From behind the slope, their daughter emerged on the black horse, loose shirttail blowing, and her silhouette melded to the animal’s, a sober, elegant loping against the sky.” (Steinke XIII). The mentioning of how Lee’s daughter’s Silhouette blends into the animals may paint a majestic picture but it is this kind of language that can make the book run into trouble. Steinke tries to achieve the perfect mood in her scenes but perfection is not always worth it. In part due to this, I never felt compelled to read more. Only at the end of the book when the plot wraps up and comes together did I feel intrigued enough to continue. In accordance with this, the narrative’s lack of a lot of information about who people are in the early days of the book makes reading the story feel like wading through literary muck. For example, the book starts with a flashback to when Lee was living in Rosemont before the chemicals. Then, it goes into the first chapter which sees Lee revisiting this the same site. And then, with that minimal detail, switches over to the perspective of morally confused realtor Hal, who the reader also gets little detail about. This first sequence is one that has far too much detail in the settings and not enough about the characters. It is generally, for me, not very intriguing to be left in the dark about what I am reading especially with something that is not inherently interesting. The writer has to build the story for the reader, not rely on the reader to be intrigued by minimal information. Instead Steinke needs put more insight into the character that helps move the plot. The meandering nature of the plot can be quite the obstacle to some readers but the story does eventually come together.
Yet another weak point for the book are Hal and Lee, the two main adult characters. Both appear very one dimensional and rely on guesses of the reader to make them feel real and complex. Take Lee for instance, she is motivated only by the fact that she does not want anything built on the chemical dumping field that was once her neighborhood Rosemont. This lack of depth is obviously caused by the lose she has suffered. However, it also makes the deepest question one can ask of her character be: How far will she go to reach her means? This can be problematic for the story since it makes Lee, one of the most important characters in the book, into a far too easily simplified character in the mind of the reader. Lee’s intentions take more meaning when the reader analyses her character but the novel relies on this extra analysis by the reader too much. Hal on the other hand is just a man trying to get through his realtor job and reconnect with his family. His arc is fairly flat with his intentions too as he just wants the neighborhood to be built in Rosemont, since it will bring him more work. As with Lee, he has experienced bad things in the past such as adultery and substance abuse. But, also like Lee, it takes post story wondering to truly appreciate his character since he appears quite one dimensional in the book. The ease with which these characters can be overlooked hurts the novel as they appear very simple in their motivations and ask too much of the reader to make them more complex.
Willa is the most essential character in Friendswood. The book could be greatly improved if Steinke did not try and tell multiple stories at once and instead shifted its main narrative to Willa, who narrate every chapter. If the story had Willa as the only character with chapters written from her perspective and centered around her, it could take a big step up in quality. Furthermore, by showing the plot from Willa’s perspective more mystery could be given to the development of the Rosemont plot line. Also, Hal and Lee's one dimensional characters would not be a problem since their motives would not be entirely clear and they would appear mysterious to the reader. The conflict among the people who want to develop and those who do not would appear very interesting if one heard it from someone living in the town instead of someone actively involved with it. With the interest added from the mystery of the Rosemont plotline, the book would be more exciting and less slow. If Friendswood was more focused on Willa it could help to patch up some of its weak points and make the novel have more narrative pull in general.
Friendswood’s depiction of a bigoted society in Texas shows the issues for all to see in both its treatment of the environment and the women in society. Successful with its big ideas, this book makes the big points when it needs to and gets them across to the reader compellingly upon some reflection. However, the book falls short of an incredible story due to its four main characters, somewhat slow plot, and flat adult characters. It is these that get in the way of a concept that could be very convincing had it been presented in a slightly altered way, such as by focusing on Willa. These shortcomings hurt the book but do not siphon away everything the book is trying to do with its more profound points. The novel has some major weak points, but not all is lost as the way that its confusing storyline comes together will leave the reader thinking about it long after they put it down.

[Christopher Buckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the first words of the first chapter of Friendswood, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. The book opens with a beautiful scene of a mother and father watching their daughter ride a horse through the apparently pristine Banes Field. It’s an image of a life that can’t get any better. It is all too fitting, then, that it gets worse, instead. It doesn’t take long to reveal that the people living near that field had to evacuate due to chemical contamination of the soil, and that the daughter died mere months afterward. She died of a blood disease that was probably caused by the polluted ground and may have begun before she even got on that horse. How perfect a metaphor for the book’s main topic, as it could also be said that all the economic growth and industrialization in the US over the last century or so was great until we realized just how much damage had already been done to the environment, and how much more could be done if we didn’t do something. Friendswood primarily focuses on how ignorance of environmental damage can cause the environment further damage and additionally cause damage to those who live in it, even if that damage is not immediately visible. It’s a provocative and frighteningly realistic novel that, at times, you may think you want to stop reading, but you can’t wrench your eyes away from the beauties and horrors of Friendswood’s world. This doesn’t mean it’s perfect; it can be a bit of a slow, clunky read at times, and not every character or plotline is interesting, but you will want to finish reading it, no matter how long it takes.

The story takes place fourteen years after the prologue, and is primarily comprised of two separate plotlines, each told from the perspectives of two characters. One focuses on the aforementioned mother, Lee, who tries to make the rest of the people of the town of Friendswood see that Banes field is still contaminated with dangerous chemicals and that the land should not be developed as a result of that danger. This brings her into conflict with Hal, the other main character of this half of the story and a realtor who really wants to sell the houses that would be built on Banes Field. The other plotline centers on a possibly schizophrenic high school freshman named Willa, who goes to a party with a boy she likes and ends up being sexually assaulted. Also at that party was a boy named Dex who, though he was once friends with the other guys at the party, cuts off ties with them over time and often comes to Willa’s defense out of guilt for allowing something so terrible to happen to her. While both of these stories are at least somewhat interesting on their own, they have almost no impact on each other. The multiple character perspectives are not inherently the problem; some of my favorite books, most notably those of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, have a similar structure of multiple plotlines told from the limited perspectives of individual characters. The difference is that, in that series, the plotlines intersect and characters see the effects of other characters’ actions, even when they’re in different locations. That happens little, if at all, in Friendswood, and the plotlines end up feeling like separate stories as a result.

Willa and Dex are probably the most interesting characters in the book, and certainly the most consistently likeable ones. However, their part of the story can, at times, feel like a distraction from the environmental message of the book, since it has so little to do with the other half of the book. On the other hand, however, I felt that the lack of a complete focus on the environmental message may actually have benefitted it. When I first picked up this book, I expected it to come off as preachy or in some way not convey its message well. I didn’t end up feeling that way, and the lack of a complete focus on the environmental aspect may be part of the reason I felt that way. There’s also the fact that one could see a symbolic connection between Willa and the environment, with her character being used as a device to help the reader sympathize with the earth’s defilement. This conveys the book’s message quite well, as it is all too easy to internalize the horrors humans have inflicted upon the earth when the earth is given a human form.
The Earth, of course, cannot actively repair the damage done to it, at least not in a human lifetime. Given this, it's worth noting that Willa doesn’t do much about what happened to her. Primarily, she doesn’t report her assault to the police, even though her best friend tells her to do so, and she tells as few people as possible about the incident itself. This, along with other factors, seems to indicate that she blames herself in some way for what happened. It could be said, however, that the way others around her treat it like it was her fault leads her to the same conclusion. Her inaction also parallels the fact that the environment can’t do anything to protect or repair itself, and must have others stand up for it, like Dex. It really tugs at the reader’s heart strings to be an outside observer to this horror, and to not be able to help.

Dex, meanwhile, has to deal with a less-than-ideal home life and the guilt of being too late to help Willa. He is the character that readers would root for the most, as he’s the most selfless one. He does his best to help out Willa – he reports her assault to the police, for example – but he also tries to help his mom and people around him in general. It becomes especially easy to root for him when one considers that he gains little, if anything at all, for his actions. Whether he’s acting out of the kindness of his heart or a self-imposed obligation borne of guilt is debatable, but it can’t be debated is that he does a lot of good things for a lot of people.

The story centered on Lee is where most of the environmental subject matter is explored. Motivated by a sort of mild vengeance for the death of her daughter, Jess, Lee tries to prevent a real estate developer named Avery Taft from building on Banes field. She also has to deal with Hal, who, despite claiming to be a saintly Christian who has overcome the temptations of booze and adultery, is only truly concerned with making money, and is willing to work alongside Taft and try to stop Lee from fighting against Taft in order to do it. While this conflict is interesting on its own, it gains nothing in being driven by Lee’s and Hal’s characters, who are difficult to get invested in and have little direct conflict. They only interact with one another twice and all that happens is that Hal tries to invite Lee to church and convince her she’s fighting for the wrong side, and then Lee not-so-politely refuses (This happens both times). This also makes for a good demonstration of Lee’s stubbornness and refusal to listen to others, and the fact that Hal only wishes to use his “faith” for personal gain. Lee’s cause is easy to sympathize with, but her seeming refusal to bring other people under her banner is not. The foolish, lone-wolf nature of Lee’s crusade and the farcical faith professed by Hal make it difficult to sympathize with either character, since they are both obviously doing something wrong. The conflict itself is well presented, with the struggle between the people’s need for a safe, healthy living space and their need for jobs clashing. However, the characters fighting for either side don’t make it any more interesting or tense, and the actual conflict between the characters is sparse to the point of almost not existing, holding the overarching conflict back even more.

Come to think of it, many of the female characters in this story seem to be held down or disregarded in some way by society. Almost every female character is viewed by the men around them as crazy, helpless, and/or too blinded by emotions to see reason. When Lee tries to provide scientific evidence of continued contamination to the town hall, she’s blown off, ostensibly because research had already been done by the EPA, but it’s also possible – and somewhat more likely – that they simply think she’s crazy. Lee herself asks the people at the meeting, “how many times have I been here saying the same thing?” and claims that “no one goddamn listens.” The way that Lee is simply ignored implies that her input doesn’t matter to those in the hall, and it’s worth noting that the mayor that tells her to sit back down is a man. In the other plotline, Willa is actively discouraged from bringing what happened to her to the attention of the police, primarily by her father. However, Dex reporting it for her also implies a lack of agency on Willa’s part. There is a strong case to be made for a parallel between this society’s patriarchal oppression and the unconcerned exploitation and contamination of the environment conducted by men like Taft. Like the women in this story, the earth itself has no voice, and it is only taken from, not given to.

The lack of a direct connection between the two plotlines can be jarring at times, and the story itself can occasionally be a bit of a slow read, but the story still manages to feel engrossing and immersive, if not exactly cohesive. It’s also a good book to contemplate after reading it, as it will linger in your memory and become more interesting the more you think about it. Even though the story is fictional, the events and characters feel real. More real, in fact, than any droning newscaster could make such events sound. This story serves as a lens through which reality’s beauties and horrors alike are magnified and shown in wonderful detail.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

With its guiding themes of pollution, sickness, and ignorance, Friendswood tells the age-old tale of a town struck by a corruption of morals and greed. Since humans switched from living off of Mother Earth and her resources to abusing her and stripping her of all she has to offer, they have had to keep making choices, deciding between what is best for everyone or everything and what is best for humanity personally. Rene Steinke describes this battle through the personification of what people are doing to the earth through her female characters in her ecofeminist fiction novel, Friendswood. In this work, Steinke points out societal problems including a lack of emotional intelligence, a lack of gender equality, and perhaps even a lack of communication. Regardless of some initial confusion with the plot’s purpose and writing style, Friendswood was an enjoyable read with some thought-provoking points. While the story suffered some setbacks with its character communication, plot pacing, and overall character purpose, a deeper look reveals that all of these aspects may actually add to Steinke’s critical purpose.
Steinke, also the author of two other novels, The Fires and Holy Skirts, is the Editor-at-Large of The Literary Review as well as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She grew up in Friendswood, Texas, the town that her story was based on, which gives her story a realistic feel. Although it is a work of fiction, Friendswood effectively raises an ecofeminist perspective through gender roles in a realistic manner because of Steinke’s intimacy with the town and East Texan culture. In fact, its status as a fiction novel makes Friendswood more successful because the story becomes even more relatable, more accessible, and less heavy with scientific and historic background as opposed to a work of nonfiction like Dan Fagin’s Toms River. In her novel, Steinke describes both gender inequality and the inattention to environmental care we see in today’s society through two main storylines: one with the adults, Lee and Hal, and one with the adolescents, Willa and Dex. While the adults struggle with environmental issues, Willa and Dex struggle with issues related to sexual assault, and readers are left attempting to find the connection between the two storylines.
Steinke utilizes character perspective in Friendswood by having four main characters rotate throughout the novel to narrate the various chapters. Unfortunately, Steinke’s rotation among character perspectives leads to confusion in the narrative and slows character development. While gaining these points of views was interesting, it would have been more effective and more unifying if the characters were to have reacted to the same storyline or situation rather than different ones. The chapters skipped among timelines and settings, providing sometimes small, seemingly irrelevant information. One second we would be with one character and his thoughts and another second we’d be with another character and with her unrelated thoughts. For example, at one point Dex is driving home after being harassed by Bishop, thinking that “this was the time of night when drunks rammed their cars into telephone poles” and about “what his dad would say about all this” (Steinke 81). On the very next page, readers are submerged in Lee’s narrative as she reminisces about first meeting her husband, Jack, who had “felt sorry for her at lunch” in the ninth grade (Steinke 82). This jumping around between the characters and storylines interrupted the fluency of Steinke’s story and added confusion related to grasping the plotline direction.
While jumping from narrative to narrative is definitely jarring, once the reader is inside the head of characters, the effect is useful in understanding that character's motivation. Jumping among narratives allows readers to understand each of the character’s thoughts on the same general problems, including resource abuse and sexual abuse. One might also say that the lack of communication among characters for most of the novel is another way Steinke points out a societal problem. In this case she is drawing attention to the lack of communication by showing that each person is stuck in his or her own problems and doesn’t care much for those of others. Readers see this lack of care for and even knowledge of other characters’ problems through Steinke’s use of perspective. She conveys that Lee is affected differently than Hal by Taft’s decision to build or not to build new homes, and in each of the two character’s chapters, the other person is made out to be the problem. This reveals that Steinke may have written Friendswood with parallel storylines to draw attention to the immersion in one’s own problems and oblivion to the problems of others.
In addition to criticizing the unawareness of problems not one’s own, Steinke also criticizes the lack of emotional intelligence in society by having characters who falsely turn to religion, using their faith as a deflection from their problems. In response to her rape, Willa turns briefly to religion. Why does she do this? It’s a mixture of trying to rid herself of her demons, demons that visit her regularly through her visions, trying to appease her parents, and keeping up her appearances in an attempt to remain friends with those from church. None of these reasons include true faith, a theme we see throughout all of religion’s use in Steinke’s novel. For example, Hal often prays too. However these prayers are directed toward his own wealth and success, not faith. He prays “to bring goodness and righteousness back to his family” and when he prayed “he [felt] the wealth coming, like sunlight in the clouds, the way one beam would come down and seem to point itself directly at him” (Steinke 149). He also transfers his views onto his son, who, like Willa, does not actually find this advice of false faith helpful. Instead, the use of faith seems like a method of avoiding both the confrontation of the characters’ true emotions and responsibility to act in response to their problems. Lee is the only character who does not turn to religion and, instead, actively works to find a solution to her problem of Taft attempting to build in an environmentally unsafe area. With this avoidance, Willa’s mental health deteriorates, as does Cully’s and and Lee’s, and Hal’s relationship with his son worsens. The more the characters avoid their problems, the farther they become from finding solutions. Steinke spotlights the lack of emotional intelligence in society today by drawing attention to one’s inability to resolve problems and deal with emotions.
In providing many examples of male roles that thoughtlessly strip female roles of what was rightfully theirs, Steinke is arguing that this lack of emotional intelligence produces pain and consequences. This makes the novel a good competitor in the feminist criteria along with its environmental aspect of pollution. Examples of the female roles being stripped by the male roles include Mother Nature being used and polluted by the oil company which is likely run by male figures; the homes that Taft would be building and Hal selling; Lee having her daughter and life taken away by the same figures who destroyed the land, and Willa being sexually abused by Cully and two other boys. This connection between the earth and the two main female characters offers an explanation for both the women’s purpose and experiences. Steinke successfully highlights these female roles and their abuse by the actions of men, as well as the abuse of the environment, making her novel successful in the eco-feminist genre. By applying what is happening to the earth to two female characters, Steinke humanizes and personifies how we are hurting the environment and how female figures are viewed in society.
Overall, I found Friendswood thought provoking and cleverly written once I found the purpose in Steinke’s writing. I gained more information when reflecting on the book more open-mindedly, allowing myself to look past the lack of character involvement and a slow beginning to the plot, and I would recommend Friendswood for anyone who could do the same. Although I found some problems with the way Steinke jumped from one character’s perspective to the next so quickly, this aspect allows the book to connect with many different audiences, from teenagers to adults and parents, and both men and women, since we can each pick a character to identify with. Because of this ability to appeal to a large audience, Friendswood provides a fresh take on ecofeminism, and I think readers should give the book a try if they are looking for something different rather than a novel solely focusing on environmental problems.

[Christian Riedinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Character Focus
It may seem impossible for an author to connect two unrelated ideas in one novel, but Rene Steinke has done just that. Steinke juggles two stories, one about an environmental issue plaguing a small town and the other a story of a girl who was raped by the football team. These stories do not initially have much to do with each other, and yet Steinke finds a way to connect the two. While Rene Steinke’s popular novel Friendswood has a rocky storyline and rather confusing ending, many fail to realize the positives of the book. Often times, people criticize the book for its format and the overall plot, blocking out the stronger areas in the novel. Steinke uses each character to help tell the story by naming each chapter after a character and telling the story through the eyes of that person. This makes the audience more able to focus on a particular character and see the story through the eyes of that person. Friendswood is a captivating and enjoyable novel through Steinke’s development of characters, which drives the plot.
All the main characters contribute to the novel in some way, but some characters have more to offer than others. Lee Knowles is essentially the center of the book and is very important, if not the most important character in the novel because of her involvement with the toxic waste problem. She seemed to be a woman who should have nothing more to ask for. A healthy family, a stable property to live on, she was leaving the simple life. But in a short amount of time, she loses her sixteen year old daughter due to a rare blood disease from the toxic waste problem and her husband Jack left her after years of marriage. At this point, she is essentially a dead woman walking. Her life is turned upside down in a short amount of time and no there’s nothing left to do for Lee besides fight for environmental justice in her town. One quality Lee exhibits constantly throughout the novel is her persistence. Motivated by anger and justice, she creates a campaign for herself to stop the building over toxic waste which killed her daughter. On multiple occasions, people shut down Lee and for most people, their efforts would have stopped there. Over and over again she is pushed aside by people not interested in what she is trying to do. She received messages from companies, such as the one from Ecological Society for Texas, reading, “Thank you for sharing with us your recent soil sample readings for Banes Field. We have put the site on consideration for our watch list for the future” (Steinke 230). Basically, this message is saying that they’re not going to look at anything you sent in, even if it shows a large environmental problem in the town. Yet another rejection Lee has to face, and she deals with it and moves on to continue her campaign for her daughter. This demonstrates how Steinke effectively uses characters to drive the plot and convey a deeper message in the story.
Additionally, Steinke shows how much love Lee has for her daughter and that everything she does is for her daughter, for justice. In the last few pages of the book, the author writes about how Jess years earlier was told the story of The Alamo, a very big deal amongst Texans. Jess’s history project was made about The Alamo and in it, she included, “a pioneer woman too, in a long skirt, with one arm reached in the air, the other wrapped around the shoulder of her child” (Steinke 395). The author uses this figure to reflect what kind of person Lee is. Her and the pioneer woman are closely related because they fight through everything and stay strong, for the love of their child. Steinke created a base story of a large environmental issue destroying a town. Within the story, she was able to convey the greater message about the toxic soil, that Lee is fighting for her daughter and nothing will stand in her way. The one time Lee regretted her actions regarding the toxic waste was after she blew up the building site and saw she accidently injured Cully. She realized that in her campaign, she hurt a child, when her goal is not to hurt anyone, rather to help everyone. Steinke again demonstrates Lee’s love for Jess by showing that when she hurt a child, she felt so awful that she somewhat gives up her whole campaign.
Another important character Steinke created to connect the two sides of a rape and toxic waste problem is Willa. She is a socially awkward teenager who falls for a high school football player’s invitation to go to a party during school hours and ends up getting drugged and raped. After she is raped, her parents end up finding out about it and instead of support her and try and get justice for what has been done to their daughter, they send her to a pastor and a doctor, neither of them are of any help. Steinke creates this character to show that within the two problems in the town which have no correlation, the main people involved are very similar on both sides. Willa is a character who can be closely compared to Lee in some instances. An example of this is how everyone around them shuts them down or pays no attention to them. Willa is left with no one to go to after she is raped even when everybody knows what happened. She is forced to deal with it on her own, which results in nothing being done at all. She feels hurt by the situation and lost, but doesn’t know what to do so she does nothing at all. Willa is the type of character that floats around and isn’t socially aware of things that most people are, meaning she can’t pick up on social cues. This is part of the reason she is raped, because she fails to see that the party invitation is a mere segway to the boy(s) wanting to hook up with her. While Steinke creates Willa and Lee to be similar characters in different worlds, she demonstrates one distinctive difference between the two that changes how each of the two characters handle their problems.
The last character Steinke develops to help connect the two extraneous ideas is Cully. Cully is your typical high school jock. He plays on the football team, doesn’t respect women and his friends are just like him, but only worse. While his dad is a recovering alcoholic and has turned to God for help, Cully has a problem of his own, but it religion isn’t the answer to his problem. After him and his friends raped Willa, he feels awful and remorseful, and his life completely changes. He quits playing football and realizes he doesn’t like hanging out with his friends anymore. The author even states that, “the blackness had infected his game. And now he didn’t give a shit about football” (Steinke 352). Clearly, Cully feels guilty about the whole situation and doesn’t quite know what to do, even though he wants to do something to make it right. When his friends Brad and Bishop try to get him to come out, he now feels like they’re bullying him to do things with them, and he decides not to go out. He notices that when he’s with them, “there would be more accidental fuckups like the one with Willa Lambert, which still clawed at him, the way her face looked when she’d passed out in that bed” (Steinke 351). The author explains that even though Cully did a horrific thing, it doesn’t mean he didn’t regret it. From the time of the rape until the end of the novel, Cully grows as a character positively and begins to set himself aside from the people who he thought were his friends. At the end of the novel, he finally receives what he believes is the answer to his problem. When Lee blows up the building site, Cully happened to be near the site and was injured from the explosion. She brings him to the hospital and he tells her to leave him there so she doesn’t get in trouble. At this point, Cully finally has found closure to the whole Willa situation. He believes the explosion was the universe’s way of punishing him for what he’s done, and he can now move on with his life. Steinke includes this particular section in the novel to show that Cully is a different person at the end of the book, he has matured and learned from his mistakes and now can be content because he is essentially punished.
The novel Friendswood by Rene Steinke is a favorable read through each character’s development and their role in the story. Each character is detailed and affects the story positively or negatively. There can be multiple connections made between characters such as Willa and Lee, because of how everyone around them treats them. The relations between each character help continue the plot and bring out the deeper meaning behind the story. Steinke’s storyline may appear out of the ordinary, however she focuses on the characters to convey the real message which lies in the story.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friendswood, Anywhere U.S.A.

Our media presents disasters occurring every day. These stories eventually fade away replaced by a new story of interest. However the effects of the disaster really never goes away. They stay buried in a person's mind and environment. Until one day these buried ghosts come back to haunt and threaten us again. In this way we can relate to Rene Steinke’s Friendswood, which takes us through a community's reaction to the rape of a teenage girl and environmental contamination. Friendswood starts out a little slow and confusing in the way the story jumps around from character to character, and it is difficult to see how these characters and their stories initially relate. While the chapter structure may cause character and plot confusion for some, Steinke overcomes this by her effectiveness in leaving memorable impressions drawing the reader into her storyline. She does this with intriguing plots and compelling characters reflecting different morals and gender biases that affects reactions to traumatic events. Steinke keeps us thinking about these disasters long after the book ends.
Friendswood is memorable through the compelling characters who effectively reflect different individual morals and gender bias by their reactions to traumatic events in the community. Each character contributes to keep the reader interested in the story. Steinke presents Avery as a relevant compelling character who has harmful morals. He is the villain that puts the townspeople in danger. He does this by ordering the reburial of toxic chemicals. Avery is a compelling figure because he symbolizes a wealthy, powerful, controlling male figure who represents those people who have a monetary interest in covering up a known harmful situation. Avery’s morals enable him to conspire with Hal to bring him under his control and to be able to profit from the toxic property. Avery uses Hal to contain Lee from undermining his plans to build homes on poisonous property. His extreme harmful morality doesn’t care if anyone ends up being hurt by his actions. Avery tells Hal “Here’s where I need you to keep my confidence...where they buried the chemicals, it popped up after the hurricane....I hired all of my Mexicans…(to) rebury it that night.” (Steinke 129). Avery’s morality and gender bias is apparent, especially when compared to a conflicting morality as seen in Dex.
Dex is equally compelling in the range of emotions and morals he struggles with in dealing with the gender bias of Willa’s rape. Dex struggles with how to handle reporting the rape and how much to say. He fights against the condemnation, ridicule and behaviors of gender bias directed towards Willa. Dex “didn’t want to be part of the lying about Willa. He knew they’d tricked her somehow...And they’d drugged her” (Steinke 154). Dex didn't follow his peers in blaming the victim by negatively judging and criticizing. This attitude of gender bias perpetuates the morals that girls are there and meant to be used by men. The following New York Times article supports Steinke’s plot where people with certain morals affect behaviors. This study shows “that the critical factor lies in a particular set of moral values...that the more strongly you privilege loyalty, obedience and purity — as opposed to values such as care and fairness — the more likely you are to blame the victim” (Nieme and Young). Friendswood portrays loyalty to a powerful male who may further your career, obedience to your parents, husband and purity of faith. These moral values impacted the way some townspeople judged others in the community. Each character was compelling because they symbolized conflicting moralities which either prevented the trauma, made it worse. or kept it the same. Dex’s morality makes him react to Willa’s trauma differently from many of the townspeople. Steinke effectively presents contrasts that are realistic and relatable between people who blame Willa and those who support her. The reader can identify with the characters many different moral facets. As a result, the characters choices and motives in making decisions becomes relatable to the reader. Just as interesting as the compelling characters is the intriguing plot that examines the conflicting morals and bias of the Friendswood community.
Steinke is able to create a memorable storyline by her use of interesting plots of conflicting morality. The individual morals is portrayed through the actions of intimidation, judgement and hurtful words. Hal bullies Lee, when he says:
“it's just not going to do you any good...Taft’s building is going ahead... It's good for everyone. You know that, don’t you?...I even talked with your boss...he agrees wholeheartedly...What we do need people to be in an uproar about is that Robertson Park...Now, you’re a reasonable lady. Do you really believe all this effort’s going to come to more than a hill of beans?.. So we understand each other?” (Steinke 258)
The morality of this statement conflicts with the morality of Steinke’s next character who is introduced as a woman whose morals are to protect the community. Lee brings awareness of the dangers that still exist from the toxic site catastrophe. The interaction these women have with the town show gender bias which contribute to the moral conflict. The men tend to be condescending and think they know better and try to intimidate the women into backing down and doing what they want. Lee was portrayed as less believable and even a little “crazy” compared to powerful men. Avery tries to bully and intimidate Lee through the threat of a lawsuit, Hal by saying he spoke to her boss. Hal uses different lying, criticizing and manipulative techniques to try to challenge Lee’s opinion. Hal reflects a community of gender bias where men think they are smarter than women. They show power and influence by their relationship with other powerful men. The reader gets drawn into an interesting plot of conflicting morals through the emotional battle and physical struggle to overcome bias in proving the existence of dangerous land. Steinke shows us that the morals and attitudes of most of the townspeople to trauma is their need to react justly and morally. We can see this type of situation unfurling in our own global warming crisis. Most of us want to do the right thing. It is a memorable call for the reader to recognize and to bring effective action to a relatable disaster.
Along with the plot of living in the shadow of traumatic events and conflicting morality, the plot becomes more intriguing because it happens in some way or form in everyday life. The moral conflict is shown in gender bias where it was said that, “Willa was reckless to go to a house full of boys if she wasn’t looking for trouble...Boys can’t be expected to control themselves”(Steinke 158). While another person said, “Men have been using that excuse for years”(Steinke 158). Morals and gender bias are expressed in the scene at Willa’s house where “white toilet paper hung in all the trees”(Steinke 193). These actions reflect the town’s support of the male football team over Willa’s rape. The team represents male power, strength and status. This gender bias is part of the town’s morality of doing what they believe is the right thing. Friendswood shows the morality of the towns perspective of supporting males, and the criticism and blaming of females. Friendswood is memorable because the plots gets us thinking about how Friendswood handled these disasters and that it is reflected on experiences we have with people in our own environment. This is an interesting, relevant story that makes us more aware of how and why different people react to events. It gets the reader invested in where the plot will go from here.
Friendswood is a story about real life issues that people face. Steinke does a good job of making the characters identifiable and relatable which makes them compelling to the reader. Steinke has successfully established how individual morals and gender bias impact decisions. Through her characters, Steinke allows us to examine our own biases and that of those around us, and how it impacts our choices. This is what makes the plot of Friendswood intriguing and memorable. The ending was not satisfying in that no character was presented as preventing future environmental and personal rapes. Everything continued on as if nothing happened. Perhaps these are behaviors of hope or denial, resignation or acceptance. The frustration in not offering a solution to the problem is also how Steinke keeps us thinking about the book and considering our own way forward in Anywhere, U.S.A.

[Paige Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It’s a Small World After All”: An Inside Look on Small Town Connections
Everything connects--the world as we know it is interconnected in some way or another. Every move we make has the potential to alter someone else’s life. This is the concept Rene Steinke was aiming for in her novel Friendswood. While this novel is quite different than Dr. Seuss's, The Lorax, this environmental fiction story generates the same feeling for readers, of “we need to protect the earth.” Steinke begins her novel with a quote by William Goyen: “Something in the world links faces and leaves and rivers and woods and wind and makes them a string of medallions with all our faces on them, worn forever round our necks, kin.” Through the perspectives of four main characters, Lee, Hal, Dex, and Willa, Steinke unmasks the inner workings of Friendswood, Texas, and demonstrates how each one of these seemingly distant characters actually connects in more ways than expected, when the news of toxic land in town causes a frenzy throughout the residents. When the character plots finally intersect, it is clear to see that each person plays a specific role on one another, and that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Throughout Friendswood, Steinke frequently interweaves symbolism, especially concerning nature, that is definitely enticing and adds depth to the story line. The reasons Steinke relates so much of her characters to nature is because she writes about how nature is in distress, especially when it is taken for granted. Steinke frequently refers to nature in her book, and she continually relates them to the soul, family, or self. For instance, when Lee reminisces on the night her daughter was conceived, she describes in beautiful detail how she felt intertwined with her surroundings: “The open mouths of crushed figs pressed against her thighs, and she wanted to give herself over to the humidity and green. It was an odd lust, spreading into her fingertips, the fig trees in their rows; the moon; the dark, fecund air; the moist dirt; the ocean twenty miles away” (Steinke 84). And as a character resolution, Hal relates nature to how he is going to behave with his family: “Every day he’d tend to things, and he’d watch these seeds, these fruits, these branches grow” (Steinke 374). Steinke intricately displays how nature impacts these characters’ lives, and therefore gives insight onto why Lee is so passionate about saving her old homeland. As for Hal, who lived in denial about the toxic waste infecting Rosemont, he finally comes to his senses at the end of the novel, as he does with his family issues.
The characterization of Friendswood has equal good and bad aspects, however it creates inconsistency within the plot. As a general relationship, Steinke can be said to have related one main character, Willa, to Earth. After Willa is sexually assaulted, she feels the need to hide, and is scared to reveal what happened to her -- and the people who know just want to cover it up. This compares to the situation in Rosemont regarding the toxic land that so many residents are in denial about. Willa had to undergo her parents’ hiding her assault, thinking that the problem would just disappear. Lee, on the other hand, tries to uncover the secret of Rosemont, and wants the problem to be addressed so it can be resolved. While the symbolism ties the book together, the novel seems to lose some of its potential due to character disorganization, lack of character development, and dull individual character plots. One of the primary examples of confusion is in Part I of Friendswood, where Steinke introduces all these characters with seemingly no connection and does not disclose on their connection until much later in the plot. Because her chapters are organized by character perspectives, it takes awhile for readers to comprehend the connection between the characters. Although eventual character development is evident, it is hastened at the end of the novel. For example, Hal undergoes a significant change, but it does not occur until his last chapter of the novel. No events lead up to his character development -- Hal merely states that he finally wants to do some good in his family, and he wants forgiveness for all he has done, but he has said those same things numerous times in the book to no avail. When Steinke finally introduces his “change of heart,” it is quite anticlimactic. This anticlimatic pattern is demonstrated in all the characters in the novel, and this is also contributes to disorganization of the chapters. Finally, in each individual plot, the characters can seem quite dull. While obviously some plots are interesting, Steinke goes into an awkward rollar-coaster pattern of leading her characters to a climax, and, once it hits, writing a decline in action; the flaw here is in the rapid repetition of this pattern for each character. It is usually only when characters interact, especially between the main four characters, that the plot intensifies, and more is revealed about the story as a whole. The ending, especially in terms of resolution of character development, therefore, can also come off as disappointing.
Ecofeminism, the combination of environmentalist and feminist movements, is also addressed in the novel. Various female characters in the book, including Hal’s wife, Darlene, are portrayed as weak, vulnerable, and hidden. There are only a few characters that break this stigma: Lee and Dani. Internally, Lee has feelings of grief after the death of her daughter due to the contamination of Rosemont. She has nothing left to lose, and will therefore take to extreme measures in protesting the reconstruction on Rosemont land. However, she is still undermined. Everyone in town thinks she is the local “crazy lady,” and when the residents finally see reason about the truth of the toxicity in Rosemont, it is because a male character finally reported illness from the toxins on the land, leading to an investigation which ultimately stops the development of homes on the land. This is despite the fact that Lee has been providing evidence for months prior, and has been actively protesting the construction of new homes on the poisoned land. Willa’s best friend Dani, likewise, is a strong, feminist character. Dani is wildly independent and headstrong, and commits small acts of defiance, like smoking cigarettes, standing up for Willa, and continuing to visit Willa even when Willa’s parents refuse to let them see each other. Willa, in contrast, is a sexually assaulted teenager who is forced to mask the crime done unto her. Her own parents, humiliated that this has happened to their daughter, have encouraged her to stay quiet, saying no one else needs to know. Dani desperately tries to get Willa to speak out about what happened to her, but Willa is confined to her own thoughts because of her parents, and it is unbearable for her to be kept prisoner in her own body. Even minor female characters such as Darlene are portrayed in this powerless demeanor. Throughout Hal’s perspective chapters, he is seen ordering around Darlene, criticizing her, even admitting to cheating on her. Steinke therefore activates a greater understanding and appreciation for feminism, because she subtly includes patriarchy throughout the novel, which -- unless you were paying attention -- might have gone unnoticed.
All in all, this book is an interesting read, one that young adult readers particularly might take an interest in. Friendswood contains not only the elements of love, loss, environmentalism, and ecofeminism, but it discusses real life issues and how one event can alter the lives of many. At first the novel may come off as slow and disorganized, but at certain points it can be a real page-turner and has a creative story line. Even though her chapter organization and character introduction is confusing, Steinke just adds to her point that the chemical spill in Friendswood caused much more than resident protest, but it actually influenced people’s lives. Steinke reflects on various young adult issues, including the environment and self-appreciation, and cleverly relates these issues to the people involved in her story. You definitely need a keen eye to spot all the connections, but once you catch them, Steinke reiterates throughout the text that we live in a small world, and we are more connected to each other than meets the eye.

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a Gulf Coast Texas town, in 1993, a disastrous pollutant sweeps across a development, rendering the place uninhabitable...and soon the residents evacuate.

The story picks up again in 2007, and we revisit the setting afterwards, through various perspectives, and see how the devastation has altered the lives of several characters.

Lee is a vigilant do-gooder, somewhat obsessed with the pollutants that still remain, and is trying to avenge her daughter Jess, who died of cancer shortly after the exposure. As time passes, and as she meets resistance, her obsession escalates.

Hal is a self-righteous man trying to redeem his alcoholism through religion and by "preaching" to all who cross his path, including Lee. A most unlikeable character, in my opinion, he is in total denial about what is going on around him.

Cully, Hal's son, is a young man affected by wrong choices, while Dex is an older teen who is trying to do the right thing, but coming up against those who do not. Willa, a teen girl who sees visions, is vulnerable and fragile because of one wrong afternoon that changed everything for her.

And hovering over them all is the arrogant specter of Avery Taft, rich and powerful builder, who is determined to expand his kingdom, no matter what might happen.

As we watch the struggles of these characters, there is a strong sense of foreboding that settles over the town as we gradually see what is just out of our line of vision. Will they all finally realize that you cannot ignore what is right in front of you? Are they all on a collision course that will change their lives once again? "Friendswood: A Novel" is a compelling story that reminded me of others in which one character is trying to do the right thing, while in opposition are those fighting against him or her, and how, ultimately, there will be some kind of combustion, whether philosophical or actual. Five stars.

[Juli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friendswood: A Novel in Pieces. Juliana Pensabene
Friendswood is a novel that addresses a number of controversial issues present in modern day life. Where or to whom do we turn when we feel we can’t escape our own mistakes? How do we put an end to patriarchal society? How can mankind learn the imperative, codependent relationship between human and environment? Answers to these questions may arguably also be the answers that teach the human race how to better society and improve the function of the world in general. René Steinke addresses each of these issues within her novel Friendswood through the perspectives of four main characters, Hal, Willa, Lee, and Dex, and sheds light upon the problems that are apparent in modern living, such as managing sorrow and the value of religion. Additional dilemmas Steinke includes in her novel deal with the dualism between masculinity and femininity and the fact that the coexistence of the earth and human beings is not where it should be, and in fact seems parasitic. These messages are enjoyable to read and are very strong, however, the compilation of all the messages and detailed plotlines make the novel confusing. Additionally, the switch in character perspectives causes frustration because it is difficult to keep up with the constant flow of information from each chapter that often does not relate to the information in other chapters. Despite this, each plot within Friendswood is riveting and interesting.

Friendswood’s success is in the strength of the messages within it; however, the author uses different characters to communicate each message, which causes confusion when readers are confronted with the question “what is this book all about?” This is due to the fact that it is nearly impossible to place each character’s chapters together to see if they advance the plot, as readers are forced to recall so many details. For example, Steinke’s four main characters are Willa, a teenage girl who attends a party at which she gets gang raped; Dex, who was also at the party, and who has a crush on Willa and longs to make matters right; Lee, who lost her daughter to a blood cancer that most likely resulted from the pollutants in the environment; and Hal, a recovering alcoholic who uses his faith in God to escape all his problems and find success in selling houses. Each character’s life is composed of so many details that readers must recall in order to understand what is going on in each character’s life. For instance, readers have to remember that Lee is still in love with her husband even though they’re divorced, Dex’s mother struggles with her weight, and Willa suffers from visions and has a bad relationship with her parents. Readers must keep these details and others in mind while constantly flipping through the different characters’ stories. Although this was frustrating in the beginning of the novel, as I read more I became more familiar with each character’s story and was able to enjoy the novel more.

Each character faces a personal issue that deals with a different message, giving readers the feeling that there is more than one plot. This makes the work insufficient because the reader thirsts for a stronger connection with a character but is unable to get one because of the constant change in plot. The author attempts to fix this by having the characters cross paths in the novel, however, this never impacts the plot. In other words, the meeting of characters is included only for the purpose of justifying the fact that each chapter is written from a different character’s perspective. The individual stories within the book do not impact each other in any regard and furthermore they are so drastically different that it seems awkward when characters from different chapters meet. Despite this, Steinke’s characters are wonderfully developed and readers find themselves getting attached to each one, sympathizing with them, and yearning to learn more about them.

Due to the fact that the novel focuses on each main idea and uses four different characters to tell multiple stories, Friendswood can be difficult to understand in early reading, making it challenging to continue turning pages. As I flipped through the beginning of the work, I found that I had to pay close attention to character experiences and details of the plot in order to determine the main idea in the novel. The shift of focus from one character to another, as well as the shift in main idea, is something one must become familiar with while delving deeper into the work. For example, the first two chapters are told from Lee’s and Hal’s points of view. Hal’s chapter discussed the issue of leaving all personal problems in the hands of the lord, and then the message switched when Lee’s chapter discussed the death of her daughter, Jess, as the result of polluting the environment. In chapter one Lee reminisces about the death of her daughter as she investigates grounds for chemicals that may have rose from the earth after a storm. This gives readers the idea that Lee’s story and drive to protect the environment for human health will be the main focus of the novel. However, before readers learn too much about Lee’s findings or her daughter’s death, Steinke switches focus to a second character, Hal. With the switch of perspective there is a switch in main idea, as reliance on religion seems to be the main problem of the chapter. Hal prays that God will take away his problems and “devilish thoughts” and bring him fortune by helping him sell a house. “This was it. He felt it. He’d prayed good, and he’d prayed right. Avery might just offer him what he wanted” (Steinke 22). Rather than motivating himself to make change, he leaves it up to God. Additional confusion is seen when Dex’s and Willa’s stories are introduced. Dex’s hopes to maintain his mother’s heath and Willa’s struggle with coping with the events of the party add to the multiple stories within one novel.

The switch in focus that comes with the switch of characters was included in the novel for the purpose of getting readers sucked into the story and constantly needing to know more about the plot and characters; however, in the beginning this change in focus is not successful in encouraging readers to turn the page. In fact, the author’s intentions had the opposite impact because the switch resulted in confusion and disinterest due to the lack of a solid plot or main idea. Despite this, as one continues reading, it becomes clear that there are multiple messages being communicated. Once this is understood, the book becomes easier to read.

Friendswood is written in a way that can be broken down into different, successful, entertaining, but separate stories. Each storyline is written with loveable and relatable characters and a strong message. Willa’s struggle with what happened to her at the party as well as everyone’s dismissal of it draws attention to the issue of patriarchal society, how it is accepted that women are inferior and should be influenced and controlled only by men. Lee’s struggle with losing her daughter due to the improper disposal of toxic waste as well as Lee’s fight for the preservation of her community stress the importance of interdependence of health and environment. Hal’s struggle with finding his own moral compass through faith teaches that one cannot rely on scripture alone to receive blessings and solve problems. Dex’s struggle with fitting in and doing the right thing stress the impacts and importance of honesty and responsibility. Despite the fact that the work is composed of various stories, each character’s story is thrilling to read despite the novel’s slow and confusing start. Steinke overcomes the initial confusion in the novel both through use of engaging plotlines and strength in her messages about society’s vices and by creating characters readers will want to learn more about. Regardless, Friendswood is a book that draws attention to key elements of successful living and challenges readers to think about difficult questions. Anyone who reads the work will put it down with new values and understandings of how our world functions and what needs to be done to live successful, happy and progressively while bettering society.

[Jake Morillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes it is hard to get your message across. People can ignore you, walk all over you, and go against your best wishes. These are aspects that Rene Steinke’s Friendswood puts into play, not only regarding the environment but also regarding people and their relationships to each other. Friendswood was an interesting take on an environmental story. As opposed to a more cut and dried, purely informative environmental book, Rene Steinke’s novel is a narrative, with the environmental bits playing somewhat of a smaller role than the characters, who take center stage. The environmental message is nuanced and happens largely in the background, but given the nature of the plot that is to be expected. Throughout the course of Friendswood, we see several perspectives and takes on certain issues. This is the format throughout the entire novel. The storytelling components of Friendswood were flawed throughout the novel due to the awkward pacing, less-than-interesting characters, and poorly-developed relationships.
Rene Steinke structures her novel around chapters that are written from the point of view of different characters. While this an interesting concept, this technique doesn’t really add much more to the story, and actually made the story less engaging. When the reader begins to get into a character’s perspective, switching to another’s can be jarring; and, furthermore, this technique has a tendency to make the reader less interested in the next chapter due to the fact that the reader is not ready to leave the previous chapter. Throughout the novel, Willa’s plot line seems to be more important than most of the other characters’ plots. A reader is justified one character more than another, but with Friendswood it feels as though the characters other than Willa are just padding. Her moments are very emotional and meaningful, especially when she wakes up after her assault. Steinke shows Willa’s thought process on what just happened with lines like, “You hardly ever make just one mistake,”(Steinke, 107) and “She prayed, I’m just the same. Make me exactly the same” (Steinke, 108). These quotes are so powerful, and they reveal a lot about her character and how society wants her to feel about what was done to her. These few words really cement her spot as the most important character, because she is dealing with the most difficult issue of any character. This is one of the many reasons why the story just doesn’t hit the note it wants to. Meaning, many of the sections involving characters other than Willa are rather uninteresting. Willa’s perspective is certainly the most engaging and sympathetic, and Friendswood would have been a stronger novel if the perspective had stuck with Willa throughout the entirety of the story. This would have allowed us to have more of a front-seat perspective of her evolution throughout the novel, and it would have given Steinke more time to to develop her character, helping to further engrain the symbolism (which I thought was clever) that Willa represented the Earth itself.
“What is this symbolism?” you may ask. Well, the story revolves around a concept known as ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is basically relating the struggles of the woman to the struggles of the environment, and vice versa. As woman are oppressed and taken advantage of in society, so is the Earth. The concept of ecofeminism was portrayed through the struggles of Willa and Lee, yet they are half-baked at best. There is no real resolution to the issues that were brought up regarding ecofeminism, and moreover, most of the problems of the novel remain unsolved at the end. What of Willa’s traumatic event? Will anyone be brought to justice? Is Willa just going to move on and forget it ever happened? It’s an unsatisfying ending to say the least.
Many people are familiar with the concept of Chekhov’s gun. For those not acquainted, he claims "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.” This is a great idea to think of when including a certain element into a story. Will this be relevant later? Will the payoff be rewarding? Is it worth the set-up? These are questions Rene Steinke must not have asked herself when creating Friendswood. She seems to like placing elements here and there for no apparent reason other than to just have them there. For example, throughout the novel Willa has these strange visions. Now, one might think they are explained later, or she comes to learn a lesson from them, or they stop happening. But no, none of these options were taken by Steinke. She opted for just ending the book, without paying any attention to the unresolved plot points. If loose ends are elephants in a room, then Friendswood is nearly on the level of Jumanji.
When going through a fictional novel that fails to efficiently employ storytelling methods and techniques, readers can be left feeling disappointed. Even a non-fiction novel, Toms River, which was another environmental book, was far more interesting and captivating. Dan Fagin, the author of Toms River, crafted an engaging story with interesting characters and a strong plot. Steinke seemed to have difficulties executing this style of novel, which is due to the poor development of each character. In Toms River each section has a certain pang to it. Each perspective is fresh and informative, without getting stale or repetitive. In Fagin’s novel, characters feel as though they’re all guest stars, making brief and satisfying appearances here and there, which all help to move the story along. In Steinke’s novel it feels as though she tried to dole out equal attention to each character, resulting in major characters who are too minor, and minor characters who are too major. According to an article on the 6 elements each complete narrative should have, one of the main points is a distinct main character. Steinke does not achieve this component in her narrative, which takes away from the overall impact of everything she wrote.When a non-fiction book can execute these basic elements of a story more effectively than a fiction book can, clearly there is a problem. J.R.R Tolkien pinpointed how I feel about this book very accurately with his statement, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” This perfectly encapsulates my feelings regarding Friendswood because, while the “butter” — or development — each character receives is sufficient, it feels as though it is thinly spread across too many characters which ultimately results in underdevelopment.
The lack of interaction between characters puts a huge damper on the story. Throughout Friendswood we see a myriad of characters relaying their problems, yet we don’t really see how they piece together until far too late in the book. I found myself saying, “Wait, who’s that again?”, more times than I would care to admit, and this is a major issue if the story is character driven. The less difficult the author makes it for the reader to understand the relationship between characters, the easier it will be for the reader to make connections and understand each character’s point of view. The lack of development regarding character relationships makes it difficult to relate them when they’ve never spoken to each other or even been in the same room.
Rene Steinke’s Friendswood is a tribute to her own hometown by the same name. The book was not successful in it’s goal to make the reader feel engaged with the entire cast of characters, and feel as if it was a real town. Steinke failed to tie up several loose ends, resulting in an unrewarding and bitter ending, did not develop her characters nearly as well as she should have, and lack of proper storytelling techniques all contributed to delivering a book which was less-than-satisfactory.

[John Notte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beauty of Friendswood is in the Eye of the Beholder
In this world, there are few art forms that allow humans to express their heart and soul in such versatile ways as one can in literature. Whether it be through writing a song, a poem, or a novel, there is a near infinite amount of opportunities for people to express themselves and spread their message out to anyone. Rene Steinke’s novel Friendswood is a prime example of this, helping to spread the message of environmental and societal damage caused by people’s lack of care for the earth. With many different plot points and twists placed throughout the book, often featuring negative and dark connotations, this tale sends the reader on an emotional rollercoaster, as long as the reader is able to follow along Steinke’s writing style. The story of the small Texas town, sharing the same name as the novel, is a very interesting and emotional tale that excels in pulling at the readers hearts while struggling to put together many different story lines in a cohesive literary manner.
The story begins extraordinarily by pushing a setting that would drastically change for all involved. The initial few pages show a quintessential life in the early 1990s detailing a scene of a happy family in a seemingly picture perfect American home. Steinke uses this scene to show the readers how these characters lives will change drastically as irresponsible chemical practices begin flipping the town upside down. The main point of the story is trying to show why certain people make decisions based on events in their own personal lives. For instance, the character Lee loses her daughter due to the effects of chemical pollution which completely shapes her demeanor and temperament throughout her story. With her emotional attachment to losing her daughter, a theme focused on throughout the book, she is one of the only people still fighting to make sure these issues do not arise again. Sadly because of this, she has the reputation of being a lunatic who is unable to let go of the past, allowing previously pushed away issues to begin anew and cause different characters in the town to go into a frenzy.
One of the key literary techniques that makes the story so interesting is also one of its biggest complications for the reader. Steinke writes the novel so each chapter follows a character and their individual story. If incorporated correctly, this writing style can do wonders as the reader learns more and the story builds more suspense, such as in the hit literary and film series Game of Thrones. Here, the audience follows multiple different characters in different parts of the world. This works here as there are so many different character arcs in so many different settings, it aids in molding a cohesive and interesting storyline that would otherwise seem lost and confusing. In Friendswood, however, it becomes confusing, especially in the beginning as we are still learning what is going on. As the story progresses it becomes more apparent but especially for the first section of the book where characters and connections are still being introduced, it can be very complicated and hard to follow up on. A prime example of this occurs early on in the story where Hal and Avery meet up for the very first time. Here they talk about the area where the chemical waste was causing cancer for residents years prior. Avery speaks of how he just wants to build houses there so he can maintain business but one person, Lee Knowles, keeps fighting to have the area cleared and tested again. Here, Hal responds out of nowhere with “Well, she’s my neighbor. I sure do know her” (Steinke 49). Without any sort of build up or even forewarning, that is the first time the reader is told this information about Lee and Hal’s surprisingly close connection. Even one small chapter where Lee and Hal go outside and speak for a few minutes, or something of that sort, could have cleared up a few questions from the beginning. Small subtle hints such a these written throughout the novel, and earlier in it, would’ve helped to connect larger plot lines and heighten character development and relationships, making the story flow much better in the eyes of the reader. This is not the only case, but small details like that which are told to the audience seem unexpected, rushed, and make it tough to understand the connection and events going on throughout the entirety of the story.
One of the great positives this book holds onto is its connection to realism. Dan Fagin’s novel Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation is a great example of a book entailing all of the events and background of mistreatment of chemical waste in a small town in New Jersey from a nonfictional stand point. Unfortunately, it gives very little personal connections with characters and focuses more on the actions and events that take place over the span of multiple decades. In Friendswood however, we see the point of view of these events but more specifically from the people who were involved and affected. It gives a more personal prospect into the lives of others and helps the reader to understand why they choose to do what they do. The personal story of Hal tells readers about his alcoholism, lack of money and employment, and his other personal demons that force him to make questionable decisions based on his situation. Despite him knowing how impractical and unethical the work that Avery makes him do is, he works through it as he knows he must deal with his own personal issues before he worries about what is right and wrong. As dark as this is, Hal’s struggles are very relatable to the common man; it’s the natural hierarchy of problems. For example, if a man is invited to celebrate their girlfriend’s birthday but suddenly has a personal family emergency, it is understandable for that man to not attend the festivities, one event is more pressing than the other. When people have any sort of issues in their life, they must mend whatever is going on with themselves before they begin aiding others. This sort of thinking makes the story more believable and easier for the reader to make connections between characters and themselves. With this being said, Fagin mentions how Toms River was split into two groups of those that wanted to solve the mystery of the town and those who wanted to forget about it and stop tainting their towns name. Steinke’s scenario shows the troubles in the individuals lives and helps to explain why some people believed and acted in the way that they did.
Rene Steinke’s story Friendswood is one that speaks of unethical business choices and people fighting for the right choices to be made. Yes, the story has its faults throughout from storytelling to character development, but that should not hinder the fact that this book has a very enticing narrative and gives great insight as to what someone involved in a tragedy like mistreatment of chemical waste goes through mentally and physically. It allows the reader to experience a different sort of relation with different characters and see what each person individually has to deal with, allowing the reader to connect with at least one character in one form or another. All in all, a seemingly simple tale of different families dealing with hardship sends the audience down a rollercoaster ride full of emotions, allowing the reader to look into the eyes of many different groups.

[Nicole Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Close your eyes. Picture a small town with many people who face a lot of problems. They all have one thing to help them and that is the love for church. Friendswood, Texas, is a small town with a big love for church. In the novel Friendswood by Rene Steinke, we are greeted by several characters who have a big role in each other’s lives. The town’s reaction to a rape, the cold heartedness of people, and the result of death are important aspects of this novel. It deals with people’s level of concern about both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the rape of a young girl. Do these two narratives really relate? This realistic fiction novel has us as readers very confused, even up to the end of the novel, with how these two storylines relate.
Steinke has a very interesting way of wording the novel and describing events. We first read the beginning of the story, which starts to confuse readers when she writes, “The air did not yet smell of dead lemons. The red and blue sores hadn’t wriggled up from the ground. And she had no idea that this world was not without an end” (Steinke xv). In this she is telling us that Lee’s daughter is dying, however the reader does not really find this out until later. When reading these first couple of pages, we just see a family who is happy and going to their friend’s house and you cannot really get the sense that someone has just died because she uses the images of nature. We see how by Steinke’s wording, we do not totally understand what she is trying to get to.
Each chapter is sectioned by character, which you might think this is a good thing because you will get to learn more about each character, but I felt like it was more confusing. This is because once you were starting to get to an interesting point about the character, it would switch to a different character’s chapter, and by the time we got back to the character you would not remember what last happened. Seeing that this happened throughout the whole novel it made the message a little unclear. Because of these different sections, the message was hard to understand. I feel like the novel’s message could be how people should care more about each other, but as I later learned, the message could also deal with Ecofeminism.
This book, which is considered to be realistic fiction, seems to loosely use what is required for a good realistic fiction novel. The way she presents the story line seems like some people connect with one person and others do not. In the novel we have two main female characters, one named Willa and the other named Lee. These two characters do not seem to really relate to each other, which normally would be a requirement of a work of realistic fiction. In the novel, we also see that characters do not really seem to grow because of the lack of relation with each other. We see the characters trapped. For example, Lee had a daughter who died of cancer because of toxins in the environment so she has been fighting Taft because he wants to just build over these toxins; on the other hand, Willa gets raped. These are two completely different ideas. Steinke should have chosen one topic for the story and then related the characters together.
On a good note, Steinke does a good job at relating this book to the real world. She talks about places that are real and does not use magical elements. Instead, she makes the characters face real life problems and describes fictional things in a realistic way. In the book a girl named Willa gets raped by Cully and throughout the book that has been in her mind. During one of the chapters she tells her friends and they try to make her do something about it; however, she does not want to because she feels like nothing will ever be able to help her get over the fact of what happened. In the novel it states, “It’s not going to change anything, she was thinking, winding the past the Summers’ house on St. Abbans. She could barely see where she was going” (Steinke 306). This quote shows us how, because of the rape, she feels like she is less than everyone else so they will do nothing to help her. We see how people today feel like when this happens to them they cannot come forward because they are afraid of either being judged or even just self-guilt, which makes them want to not tell anyone. I also feel like she did a good job describing the setting of the places, which were a big part of the story. She was able to describe the place where the toxins were and she was able to describe the scene when Lee’s daughter was riding the horse. Overall, we see how even though Steinke’s work is a hard read, we are able to see how successful she is in relating it to the real world.
The characters in this book were very different in certain ways. She was able to bring characters into the story, most of whom I did not like. However, I was able to like Willa because I felt bad for what happened to her. For the rest of the characters, I feel like they were not really interesting or I disliked them because of things they did. For example, Hal had an affair and because he prayed he felt like he was forgiven. I feel like this is not true because that is something most people do not actually do. I also disliked some of the characters because of the way they acted or the fact they used drugs and/or alcohol. Steinke would have been better off having only a couple negative characters, so we could find characters that we would like to learn more about during the novel.
One thing that sticks to my mind is that in the beginning we had to realize that someone has died and she died because of cancer. During the novel I felt as though it did not connect with all of the characters; meaning some of these characters could have been taken out. What also confuses the reader is that there is alcohol, drugs, greed, sexual violence which does not seems to relate to how the girl died. Kate Southwood of The New York Times also commented on this book:
“Friendswood” asks us to relate its many conflicts to the blighted ground, but while a couple’s divorce following the death of a child made ill by contamination proceeds in a straight line from A to B, most of the themes here — alcoholism, greed, sexual violence, deceit — do not, and the connections between them feel less than organic.
This is showing us how not only did the novel not have a clear point at first, but it went to skipping the main theme to add all these other problems to the novel. Steinke should have kept up with one main focus and then related them all together rather than taking one topic and then adding all these other topics which do not relate to each other.
This book overall is an unsatisfactory read because of how much the novel jumps from character to character. The book had good intentions, however failed to put the pieces together. It deals with a lot of characters, some who are not needed, and relates to big themes, sexual violence and the environment which are hard to relate the two together. If the novel was not so jumped and had a faster reading pace by not being all over the place then we would be able to see a nicer result of why the characters were put into this position and the outcome. We can see, however, that the story presents a disappointing event that could change something for the better.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Novel of Many Issues

A novel of many issues, both analytical and within the story. Friendswood is 300+ page realistic fiction novel written by a Fairleigh Dickinson University staff member Rene Steinke. The book takes places in the Gulf Coast town of Friendswood, Texas; a typical southern American suburban town with plenty of church going folks. Friendswood, a community that seems so perfect, holds many secrets and problems amongst its residents. Friendswood focuses on environmental problems that are prevalent in our real world within the United States. The author targets the negative aspects and actions of the Environmental Protection Agency and how their delinquency negatively affects citizens of Friendswood. The poor actions of the EPA significantly affect the characters livelihood and deal with the situation similarly to our modern era of environmental activism. After reading Friendswood, the novel was received as being unfavorable due to multiple story plots and the weak relationship between environmental problems and the characters.
Many emotions go through the town and create passages of light and spirituality among the residents. Religion is very prevalent within the town as characters look towards the bible and the pastor for help and guidance. The novel includes aspects of dualism in many scenarios. The book really touches on ecofeminism as being the relationship between women in the modern era and the environment. As sexual assault is a heavy topic within the book, it ties into the EPA and how our earth is being assaulted by humans. In this case, property in town is plagued with chemicals in the ground near a house. Putting the negative aside for a moment, this novel has a good message “to pray and look inside of yourself” (Steinke). Steinke focuses a lot of the characters and one positive thing that can taken from it is to find yourself and not compare yourself to other people.
Jess is a young daughter of a couple who moved to a new house in Friendswood which Avery Taft, the real estate mogul, was selling. Even with his knowledge of the hazardous chemicals leaking up from the ground, he cared more about selling the house and making money than the well being of this couple and their daughter. Even as the EPA clears the property as safe, it is later apparent that they were far from being right. The health issues and eventual death of Jessica bring large problems and fear among people that the EPA are negligent at their job. This topic in itself is similar to those who don’t believe in treating our environment with care or that environmental issues are an issue, even with mass media publication. Jess’s sickness was the main point of the story, but instead it got pushed to the side by the other numerous storylines that were relevant to the harmful chemicals that made Jess sick. In addition, there were too many factors that lead to Jess’s death and therefore it isn’t even proven that it was the chemicals and the EPA, which takes back from the point of the story since they are not entirely positive.
Willa is a main character within the book as she struggles with an experience from sexual assault and lack of other understanding the situation. Willa’s reputation “leads to a drug-induced assault and a terrifyingly imagined case of self-loathing” (Bissell). From this, Willa becomes a very complicated character with weak ties towards others in the novel. Being the town is very religious, they don’t feel comfortable dealing with the situation up front or the legal aspects and decide to take the religious route instead. Willa is viewed as irresponsible and so no one in the town really cared about this tragic event that she endured and some even felt like she deserved it, as a women’s body did not need to be respected. After her rape, Willa starts to see and invision demons. Throughout the town and with her mother, there were “lines and lines of disappointment, chaotic scribbling”, for an action that Willa did not commit (Steinke). These are representative of the struggles she is enduring from the assault as well as everyday teenager high school life that can be hard enough to deal with especially when she is not accepted. Reading about Willa’s assault and her mother’s poor actions is difficult to read and not exactly something that interests the average reader. This story line has the book go from an environmental issue to a whole different topic and problem in which the reader was not intending to come across.
Then there is Hal. Hal is a recovering alcoholic who thinks that God and the bible will fix all of his problems for him. The only thing Hal does when acknowledging his son, Cully’s, rape of Willa is throwing the bible at him. He is lazy and does not want to do anything for himself as he expects it all to be figured out for him through simply just praying. Hal eventually realizes he needs to change his life and actions for the better and grows out of his poor habits and negligent fatherhood. Hal’s character is irrelevant to the story and the main topic of environmental issues. Hal’s issues just add on to the many characters and their own problems to only make the novel more confusing. Hal is supposed to show that bad people can eventually become good, but Hal’s non existent punishment towards his son’s actions make him a very undesirable character to explore.
With a love of Willa, Dex stands in a bad position. He has knowledge of Willa’s rape but feels he is in an awkward position to share it. Meanwhile, Willa only feels a friendship for him but that does not stop Dex from manning up and defending Willa publically even though it puts other townspeople in a negative limelight. Dex is a character that is difficult to read about as he cannot make up his mind about any situation until the very end. Dex is almost a middleman character between Willa and Culley which adds to the confusion of the numerous situations and relationships going on within the town.
Overall, Friendswood shows that there is always positives in life and perseverance is important to overcome negative obstacles. In addition, whether it be leaking chemicals or a rape, everything in the world eventually ties together. Although it being a fictional book, it is realistic fiction. Despite the constant unfavorable confusion of the multiple story plots and character relationships, readers can learn many important lessons from the book which significantly relate to the problems we see in our everyday lives within the past few years in the media.
Although it was not my most favorite book that I ever read, I would recommend this book to those that are interested in environmental activism or maybe even if you oppose that view or enjoy reading about controversial topics. Either way, there are numerous story lines within the novel that may interest you as the reader as some readers prefer a more complicated book with a lot going on. Other books that are similar to this are realistic fictions novels that focus on eventual environmental destruction such as the Hunger Games.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Friendswood: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Many people may have never heard of the book Friendswood, a 2014 new novel by National Award Book Finalist Rene Steinke. (Aufiery, 1). It is a Coming in Age novel, touching basis on the crisis on what a small town has to offer. Instances such as, human health being at stake, innocent people dying and a roughneck mother making ends meet to protect the town, as well as her family from what seems to be the cause of the resident becoming sick. Steinke seems to have trouble with outlining the problem taking place in the novel, as well as the structure of the novel and implementing a large amount of characters in the novel. Chapters are based off the different characters that are being introduced in the novel, which makes it morally confusing for the readers. When reading the novel, I was more intrigued by the whole idea of characters acting and trying to support their town. It never occurred to me how much people would go through just to have their voices heard. One of the main characters, Lee lost her daughter due to the lack of
poor management the town seems to offer. This caused many people to become sick, handicap or even death. Even though this has not yet been proven, Steinke has a character that tries to retrieve justice, after the oil rigs seemed to have caused the death of her daughter. The town does a great job in trying to cover the tracks of the oil rigs. They do this by trying to lower property
value of the homes, so that more residents will live there. I found this to be one of the only interesting topics in the novel. Friendswood is an unsatisfactory novel because Steinke does not deliver a cohesive plot scheme, an organized structure of the book and it is very frustrating trying to keep up with and remembering how many characters there are in the book.

In the event that, Steinke made the book strongly about a small Gulf Coast town in Texas, that suffered a severe hurricane weather. This resulted in the effects of the towns soil to have oil seeping through it. When reading the novel, Steinke seemed to have had a lot of ideas when writing this book, but many of them seemed to be rather irrelevant or all jumbled. There had been events where she would talk about Lee and how she was trying to find the evidence of the oil; “I have new evidence that gives a different picture of things”. (Steinke, 89), then next she’d talk about high school students drinking beer on top of cars, “Underneath his nervousness, he felt a familiar dull rage in his forehead, and savoring a sip of beer, he wondered why he’d been bothered.” (Steinke, 76). The plot seemed very baffled and did not integrate properly. Still, I cannot seem to put my finger on to what the plot of the novel was. Steinke had many good topics she brought up but did not seem to relate to the book at all.

Moreover, I struggled even more trying to get the gist of the structure of the book. The author would talk about nature, then women being raped. The story lines for this novel were
too wishy-washy and have failed to keep my attention present when reading. Personally, if Steinke had just stuck to one storyline, it may have keep readers more alert and attentive when reading. Being about to try and keep up with the storyline and the plot was a lot to bear. This is what made reading the book became such a project. Having to go back and piece things together. I found myself having to re-read things that I have read in previous chapters to try to refresh my
memory to keep up with the book. If you have to constantly have to keep going back and forth with re-reading something in the novel off of confusion, the author must of have not done a great job.
Despite, Lee being the one in Friendswood taking things too far, as her husband Jack may say. Friendswood has more things to offer then just Lee. Personally, I strongly feel that even though the book was satisfactory to me; with the help of adding Lee into the novel, it did lack a few things. For instances, I found it confusing how the book had many characters in it, but the author would not mention who they were until much later in the novel. I found that very tiresome and complicated. Steinke had a great plot twist with the EPA, the Superfund site, realtors, and aggravated residents. But the significant amount of characters was hard to keep up with. When writing a book and having a lot of page numbers to go along with it, it seemed like it was a project going back and forth trying to see what Steinke was talking about. Some occasions I felt like I must have misread something when being introduced to a new character. In a way, it felt that new characters were just being dropped into new chapters out of nowhere and you would have trouble knowing who they were without any background information on them. If it is a good enough book, I do not think there should be any confusion as to who the characters are and how many characters there are in the novel. You should be able to name all the characters without any problems. Many readers struggle just to remember five characters, let alone ten plus characters that are in the book. Many of them do not even serve a significant role in the novel. Many of them are just irrelevant and uninteresting. It became a nuisance to me to have to remember each character and the role that they play. For instance, one character in the novel by the name of Ms. Coller was buying a house. I did not feel like we had to remember who they are and what they did.

All in all, Friendswood, by Rene’ Steinke was a frustrating read and would not recommend reading it again nor advising someone else to read it. Steinke had a challenging time presenting to the readers what exactly she wanted them to get out of the book, the formation of the novel; had the readers rather confused and disconnected with the book, and the numerous amount of characters in the novel made it difficult to comprehend what was going on. When reading a book, you should not have to struggle trying to comprehend what is going on. Steinke made it easy for readers to become stumped and baffled by the read. The plot of a novel should be clear as day, not pulling teeth trying to find it. The arrangement of the book had me morally confused. Talking about a mass number of topics leaves the readers more puzzled, than connected. Losing the audience in a minor situation like that is poor management. Steinke needs to work more on managing wat topics to talk, rather than just spilling everything into the book and not making sense. Even the amount of characters that was present in the book was not needed. With each chapter being titled as a character and then talking about them made it difficult to keep up with the other characters she implemented. Morally, this novel is not something you would be interested in reading.

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Humans VS Environment

Friendswood written by Rene Steinke is unlike any other book that explores the environment. It tells the story of multiple people and how the environment affects their everyday lives. Each character not only struggles with the changing environment but also with personal troubles. The book explores greed and how it negatively affects people and the environment. Although the author uses multiple characters and story lines to help explain the wide array of connections between people and the environment, there are too many characters involved as well as a format that is hard to follow and the use of techniques such as dualisms that make the book extremely confusing and hard to follow.
First and foremost, this book struggles with using the right amount of characters. The author, Rene Steinke attempts to incorporate multiple characters in an effort to try to give the reader a look at what life is like for multiple different people living in the small town of Friendswood. Steinke wanted to show how many different kinds of people are affected by the hazardous dumping as well as how each is separately affected. The intentions of the author are made to seem that she wanted all the characters to be connected some way. For example, Taft is connected to Lee because Lee’s daughter died from cancer which was a result of the dumping of harmful waste. The dumping of hazardous waste and the deception driven by greed, led Taft to sell a home that was built on the dangerous material and as a result, Lee’s daughter died. Hal’s lack of empathy for members of the middle class, led to the tragic death of another character’s loved one. Another example would be the connection between Willa and Cully. In the beginning of the book Willa thinks the best time to tell her friend Dani about her vision problem would be at a party where Cully would also be, “Saturday there was a shed party in the woods, and she might tell her then. Cully would be there with his dogged eyes and secretive mouth, his tallness.”(Steinke 20). Essentially Steinke tried to introduce Willa and Cully early in the book to establish who there characters are but also to show the connection between them. These two characters become even more connected later on in the book. Although these are good example of how characters were connected by Steinke, other characters seem to have no significance to the storyline. In order to format a book this way, there needs to be a limited number of characters and a clear connection between them otherwise the book becomes very confusing and hard to follow.
In addition to having too many characters, the format of the book is very confusing. Steinke attempts to use multiple characters and continuously switch between them telling their stories as they become relevant to another character in the book. Instead of flip flopping between characters, the reader would have a much easier time understanding the storyline if the author told one characters story fully then moved onto another character. In the case of Willa, she is connected to multiple characters those including Cully, Dex, Dani and Bishop. Her being connected to so many characters creates additional confusion for the reader. It is not till the end of the book that it becomes clear how they all interact with each other. Dex explains to Willa and Dani what he knows about the night Willa was raped, “They put something in your drink. Bishop Geitner had planned it all along. He wanted to prove something.” (Steinke 305). Dex thought that Willa was safe with Cully but in fact she was the target of Bishop. As mentioned before, this book builds onto the story of each character. In the beginning of the book the reader learns about Willa’s viewpoints and activism but as the story continues, her character experiences sexual violence that dictates the book from there on out. Willa’s personal story in particular is one that unfortunately many people can relate too in terms of the violence that what used against her but it can also connect to the environment in a way that readers might not catch onto. Willa in a way represents the Earth. The Earth is raped of natural resources by people who do not care about the effects of their actions much like Willa’s character was raped with no regard for her physical and emotional health. This is an intentional and purposeful connection made by Steinke that can very easily be missed due to lack of structure throughout the book.
While structure acts as the outline of the book, the plotlines fill in the extra space by adding literary techniques that make the writing more interesting to read. In this book, the technique that is most often used are dualisms. Dualisms are a way to compare two opposite ideas. For example, man vs woman, mind vs body, spirituality vs religion, economic process vs nature. These dualisms are represented through the action of the characters. In the beginning of the book when the reader first learned about Lee and her husband Jack and the loss of their daughter, Lee was the one to stand up and protest the dumping of the hazardous waste. The typical idea is that men are the ones who fight for others and men are the ones who stand up against people who are doing wrong. Men are the tough ones while women stay behind the scenes and support the men on the sidelines. In the case of Lee and and her husband, Lee was the one to voice her opinion more so than her husband. Lee was also the one who participated in activism for the environment and actively took part in making a change for the better. This is a clear example of a dualism that was used in this book but some of the other examples that are used are not quite as clear as the example just mentioned. Dualisms are can make or break a book depending on how relevant they are. This book is difficult to get into when the reader does not know what dualisms are. They make up such a large portion of the text, that the book can become even more confusing for those readers that lack the knowledge about dualisms. It is a risk to rely so heavily on one literary technique like Steinke did and it is evident that the risk was not worth the reward.
Overall, this book brings to light the idea of environmental harm and the role it plays in people’s everyday lives. The author Rene Steinke attempts to incorporate a large number of characters while also trying to connect each character to another in some way. This attempt was not successful. The format of the book as well as the use of a literary technique were too disorganized and overbearing to provide the reader with any structure and additional context. The topics touched upon throughout the book were very realistic and true to the world we live in but the way they were explained did not make for an easy or fun read.

[Brian Masaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different style of writing and personal connections with the characters in Friendswood is what made the book interesting and enjoyable to read. By having each chapter to be dedicated to a character is what makes the novel to be different from others. At first the reader can be confused because the book starts off telling a story from one characters point of view then the next chapter goes on to tell a story. The way how Steinke structured the book made it an interesting read because as reader you wanted to read the chapter to be able to put the pieces together. My personal connection to the key characters, as well as the two themes of the silencing of a woman’s voice and moral responsibility, both drew my interest in this novel. Overall, I would consider this novel as good book because of the qualities it has.
Friendswood, by Rene Steinke, takes place in a small town in Texas, where there are two storylines. The first story, which the novel starts with, is of a mother named Lee Knowles who lost her child to a blood disease because a company did not properly dispose of their waste. Avery Taft is planning on building homes on the site where there is toxic chemicals. Lee visits the site to collect evidence to prove that is not safe to build homes there, and she found a container with chemicals that came to the surface. Lee then goes to court with evidence but no one wants to listen to her because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that the chemicals do not cause any harm to the environment and by building homes it creates more jobs. The other story was about Willa, a teenage girl who was raped at a party and is silenced by the town.
Throughout the novel the reader can feel a connection with Lee, Willa, and Dex. I sympathized with Lee because she’s going out of her way to try and save people from getting sick but no one wants to listen to her. What I like about her character is that when she her lost her daughter she could have decided to not doing anything and let the people who end up moving to site suffer. Instead, she decided to take responsibility and do what is right. The reader can connect with Willa because she cannot speak about what she went through and have her own voice because her parents do not want her to speak about it. The town also pushes her story to the side. Of all the characters the reader can connect with Dex the most because he many responsibilities, such as trying to do good in school and being the man of the house. Dex stands out to me because he had the courage to do what no one else did, which is to confess to the officer, Mr. Garcia, what he saw and later found out, even after all the threats he received. What surprised me was that the officer did not congratulate him or tell him that he was doing the right thing; instead, “Mr.Garcia nodded, but his face didn’t show any emotion, and this made Dex more nervous” (Steinke 319). Having this connection with the characters makes the book more the reader more interested in the book because the reader finds the character’s story to be interesting.
The other theme that the author wants to get across to the audience is responsibility. The way Steinke brings about this idea is through Lee and Dex. Lee shows responsibility by trying to prevent Avery Taft from building homes on the site, which contained toxic chemicals, even though she could just let it go and not care about those who decided to buy a house there. She showed by going to the area where there were chemicals and collecting evidence which “... was the thing she’s been waiting for, but didn’t know how to name, the thing that would redeem her”(Steinke 27). Dex demonstrates responsibility by telling Mr.Garcia what happened that night at the party even though no one wanted to speak up about it. The way how Steinke portrays responsibility is to do what’s right. This contributes to making the book to be a good book because readers can take something from this book which is doing what’s right.
One of the issues that the book explores that connects with the real world is environmental issues, and our moral responsibility to attend to them. This is a problem that we are still facing today. For example, just like how the water supply in Friendswood is polluted, the same thing is happening in Flint, Michigan where the water supply is contaminated. Nothing is being done about it because, just like in the novel, the government and private sector are more focused on creating more jobs and making more money than worrying about the health of the people. Having a connection with the real world is something that is not often seen in novels which is why what makes the book to grab the reader’s attention. This connection with the real world makes the book a better read because in the book Steinke explores environmental issues which we still have today and it helps to spread awareness to the reader that this is happening that something should be done about it.
Another theme that the book examines is the silencing of woman’s voice. For example, in for Lee’s part of the story she was trying to prove to the court that there should not be homes built on this contaminated land. Even though she had evidence that proves the land is contaminated the court doesn’t want to listen to her. In Willa’s case no one wants to listen to what happened to her. This is connection to the real world that Steinke talks about. In today’s society victims of rape sometimes go unnoticed. Having this connection to the world makes the book more interesting because this is an issue that we still have today and as a reader you get to see things from the victim’s point of view.
The way Steinke structured her novel made it interesting, but at the same time difficult to understand. Steinke designated a character to narrate each chapter, which at times made the story hard to comprehend. At first it starts off with Lee’s voyage to a site where she finds evidence of harmful chemicals at a site where homes are going to be built; then the next chapter Hal and how he plans on helping Taft by trying to get Lee to back down. This back and forth was confusing and hard to follow. What makes the story difficult to the reader is that it sort of jumps from one topic to another, which makes it hard for the reader to understand what is going on. If Steinke instead focused on one story, then it would make it easier to understand. Steinke should have focused the story to be mainly about Willa because her story was more interesting than Lee’s story. This part of the story could have been improved, after all, nothing is perfect. Overall, I would consider this book a good read because of the connection with the characters and the themes the novel has.

[Elizabeth Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

FRIENDSWOOD tells the story of two small-town tragedies, one in the past and the other in the present, crimes which entangle these Texas citizens and put them on a desperate quest for 'home'. It is a marvel of compassion written in that same exquisite voice that got Steinke nominated for a National Book Award with her last novel. How does she know so much about people? And a whole slew of other things you will have to read the book to discover?

[Jennifer Hanford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping exploration of guilt and accountability, both public and private, told from the different points of view of several members of a troubled community. I loved this book. I was not previously familiar with Rene Steinke's work, but upon reading this immediately purchased her two earlier novels, and will be looking forward to her future work.

I won an advance digital galley from Penguin's First To Read program.

[Calista Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

What world do we live in?: An environmental fiction
Polluted air, Oily sludge and ignorance are all traumatic events that impact the small Texas town in the novel Friendswood written by Rene Steinke. This environmental fiction describes the dangers of the town through the lives of main characters Willa, Cully, Dex, Lee, and Hal, as well as surrounding characters. All have a certain uniqueness to them that makes the story interesting. For example, we have Willa, an ordinary sophomore in high school who has the ability to experience vivid “hallucinations”. Also, there’s Dex whose just a regular student trainer. Meaning, he helps out the football players when they have injuries, but somehow finds himself tangled in a huge fiasco involving the jerks on the football team, and Willa’s rape scandal. With all of this being said, I appreciate Steinke making an effort to approach the novel in a traditional fashion by giving all of her characters their own personality, all the while connecting them to different storylines. One involving the domination over nature, and another with the domination over women. With this, there is a constant change in characters that gets overwhelming and makes it harder to comprehend.
Having too many characters was one of the flaws I noticed almost immediately. There were those that contributed to the book, while others were portrayed as irrelevant. In terms of what I did like, I appreciated the way Steinke portrayed Dex’s personality. He’s the type to not want to get involved with those that are only seeking trouble, and he actually cares about the ones that get hurt. For example, when Willa was given the opportunity to stay home because of the trauma that she might be feeling, Dex thought it’d only be polite to continuously check in on her just to make sure she was ok, even though he didn’t really know her all that well.
Pertaining to characters that I didn’t like and their purpose, Hal had to be one of them. I personally have different preferences when it comes to religion, so I did have to unfortunately disagree with Hal whenever he told his son Cully to turn to God and his bible as if they were going to give him all of the answers he needed. Also, Hal wasn’t very sincere whenever he talked about the bible. Although I may not be as religious as Hal, the bible is a sacred piece of history. You shouldn’t wave it around and hit your son on the head with it as if it has no meaning. In addition, I believe his purpose in the book was a bit unnecessary. Meaning, after understanding that he was a real estate agent and was cully’s dad, I didn’t see the need for him to get involved in the rest of the book. It’s almost as if he was just an extra character that Steinke felt the need to put in the book to in essence balance out her intended storyline.
Out of the whole book, I had to disagree with on the way Steinke structured her novel. As I mentioned before, there is a constant change in characters and their stories, so there isn’t a set format. For example, in part one of the novel, Dex is only mentioned twice, once in the beginning and once before part 2. For the first time, his mom is brought up. “Hey, Mom?” he said. She looked at him, chewing. The doctor had diagnosed her with diabetes last month. ‘You shouldn’t be eating that’ She swallowed and smiled a closed-mouth smile. ‘Oh, I know. New diet starts tomorrow.”(39) Later on in the book, there is no continuation of Dexs’ previous story and new information is brought up. This second chapter describes his position as a student trainer, and later on shows him hanging out with the football players, but this has nothing to do with the actual storyline. For example,
“After the game, it was his job to account for the equipment in the field house, and he needed to tend to Hershel’s newly sprained ankle”, and “From habit and because he didn’t want to go home yet, Dex drove over to the laundromat in the dark Stones Throw shopping center parking lot, where he knew some players and other guys would be, drinking hidden beers. When he got there he was disappointed not to see Weeks’s car, be he pulled his truck up behind the others anyway, and took out one of the beers he’d stashed under his seat”(75). I understood the content, but confused
how she jumped from talking about one thing to another. There was way too much back and forth going on.
More specifically, I commend Steinke for doing her best in trying to give the reader the opportunity to fill in the blanks and showing both sides of the spectrum, while trying to relate everything back to the dangers of the environment, but there was too much information. For example, “I’m here at the request of the city council, to address Taft Property’s request to build next to the old Rosemont site. As you know, that area, which had been listed as a Superfund site, has been treated with the method of burying the chemicals in approved containers”(88). Further down, “We’ve done extensive testing, and we’ve found with our scoring systems for near-term decisions, there’s no real risk to human health from these chemicals”(88). These quotes explain the environmental aspect of the storyline that Steinke is approaching. However, not even nineteen pages down, a chapter of Willa is shown again, and this is where Steinke approaches her domination over women storyline. For example, “She sat up, felt the pinch of her open zipper, cold air on her arms and breasts...She hugged her knees to her chest. There was a sharp pain between her legs that radiated into her thighs. She tried to ignore it, shifted her legs to the right”(107-108). This was where I had a lot of doubts about the book. It was almost as if the both plots could be two separate novels, but then there wouldn’t have been enough information to carry out each story. After a while, it got tiresome just reading about how bad the environment was and what Lee was doing to help it. On one hand, the rape made me want to read more, but on the other, I couldn’t quite get the reasoning for it being mentioned in the book. I constantly went back a couple chapters just to get a refresher of what the book was really about.
In the end, I didn’t like the book. Initially, I was excited to read it, but that mindset quickly changed when I realized that one I wasn’t able to understand what the book was about because of the new stories being broup up with. The storylines were not connected in any way; their needed to be a little more character growth. In addition, there wasn’t an actual resolution. The book basically continued with the same format and didn’t reach any type of resolution. It could’ve been a much better novel but I appreciate the effort.

[Maddie Haney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Faces of Friendswood
From the moment I began reading, I knew that Friendswood, by Renee Steinke, would not be like other novels that I have read. By looking at the cover, the novel appears to be just another typical book that features an environmental issue with a simple plot. However, upon further examination and after reading several chapters, I realized that this novel was much more than that. With its emotional plot line and the series of tragic events that occur, Friendswood brings a combination of events and emotions together that you would never assume to be connected in any way. Renee Steinke features a wide array of characters who all struggle with different conflicts living in the quiet town of Friendswood, Texas. When a deadly black sludge makes its way up from the depths of the ground, townspeople are forced to leave their houses and memories behind and move into a new life that is plagued with soaring cancer rates, strange diseases and inexplainable consequences. Although they might not all know each other, the people who lived in what was once the cozy town of Rosemont, all had an encounter with one another in some way, whether they go to the same high school, or even something as simple as being neighbors. Because of the way Steinke presents the novel to the reader, Friendswood has the ability to seem interesting to anyone who may pick it up.
Friendswood has two main storylines that consist of Willa and Dex, two teenagers who encounter problems that many high schoolers often face, and Lee and Hal, a couple of adults who struggle with several important decisions that could not only affect themselves, but also their entire community. For Willa, things are a little different. After attending a well known student’s party, she is sexually assualted. As a result, she is plagued with hideous looking demon hallucinations and she wonders if she is going crazy. Dex, who has a crush on Willa, does everything in his power to support and stand up for Willa during the time after she is assaulted. Although Willa sees Dex as just a friend, he still continues to help her in various situations that they encounter. Dex struggles with his own inner conflict throughout the novel as discovers who he wants to be as a person. Lee lost her daughter after her old hometown was infected with hazardous toxic chemicals that produced an array of medical issues Sadly, this eventually led to her daughter being diagnosed with leukemia. Hal is a recovering alcoholic who relies on the power of God to lead him through life when he feels that he cannot rely on himself. He is also a realtor who is just looking for his big break in order to get some money.
When the Rosemont land that was once contaminated by toxic chemicals is finally deemed “clean” by the city council, Hal tries his best to start to resell the land to unsuspecting buyers, unaware of the horrific problems that could arise. However, Lee knows what would happen if anyone were to rebuild on the land and is just trying to help her fellow townspeople from suffering through what had happened not too long ago in Rosemont. Lee knows firsthand what it is like to deal with the consequences of toxic waste that is disposed of incorrectly. This leads her character to be a strong willed woman who is not afraid to stand up for what she believes is right, even it if includes breaking the law.
Steinke’s unique use of the character point of view rotation for each chapter makes for an interesting way to keep the story flowing. The connectivity between the characters is most prominent this way, but may be seen as slightly confusing or hard to follow at times and could perhaps work better if there were less of the character’s point of views. However, it still provides a look into the minds of all of the main characters, rather than just focusing on one, which makes for a better understanding of the conflicts occurring throughout the town. Without the views of both Hal and Lee, the reader would not be able to fully understand both sides of the problem with building upon the Rosemont land, and having the ability to look into the thoughts of both characters makes for a more interesting story for the reader. Lee’s chapters show the true problems with rebuilding and without her, one might assume that Hal is right to want to build on the site, as it was deemed “safe” after all. Steinke’s detailed descriptions, although sometimes long, provide clarity to the reader and leave nothing to be questioned.
Steinke’s novel is not just about the characters present in it, though. It also brings forth many issues the correlate to today’s society. One of the ever present themes that can be found throughout the book is the idea of environmental protection and the importance of the proper disposal of toxic waste. Even though the novel is fiction, it perfectly mirrors events such as the Toms River disaster, which also included a small town, much like what Rosemont used to be, that was dramatically affected due to the poor decisions made by chemical factory owners and operators. Friendswood creates a world around the trauma and makes personal connections from the characters to the reader. Steinke asks the reader to look beyond the world of Friendswood and into the real world, where parallel events can be witnessed on a daily basis. Although one of the main themes of Friendswood is the importance of the environment, Steinke also brings forth other relevant issues such as greed and alcoholism in Hal’s case, sexual violence in Willa’s, and dealing with the loss of loved ones in Lee’s. One may argue that it is hard to create a genuine connection to issues like such in the real world, but Steinke’s way of approaching each of the situations makes for an eerily real feel. The novel can easily be related to by the reader because of the wide range of situations each character faces.
All in all, Friendswood is an enthralling story about loss, love, and learning to start fresh again. Although it may be slow at first, the novel is definitely worth the read, and could be considered as one of the best examples of not judging a book by its cover. It is one of the few books that successfully manages to incorporate four very different lives and stories into a web that somehow all makes sense. After reading Friendswood, you will be surprised by what you have learned along the way, and will hopefully take away something from this novel just like I have.

[Paul McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a review of this book in a Texas monthly and bought the book. Outstanding story. The author has a rare gift in that she can write from both the female and male point of view and be believable. It doesn't happen often but this author is a true talent, and this was a great book.

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book. The story slowly pulls you in and then doesn't let go. Haunting, raw, alarming and suspenseful. It was reviewed in the August Book Page edition. I liked it!