Golden Days

by Caroline Barron

'Nostalgic and tender as a bruise.' - Jacqueline Bublitz, Before You Knew My Name
Becky thought she'd left Zoe and that summer far behind.

Set in 1995 against the backdrop of Auckland's burgeoning party scene, Golden Days is the story of an intense late-teens friendship between bookish Becky Chalke and star-dusted Zoe Golden, and what happens after one terrifying night changes their lives and destroys their friendship forever.

After finding out that her husband has been cheating on her, Becky is mourning the end of her picture-perfect marriage at the bottom of a bottle. The trauma of the break-up brings back harrowing memories of a summer she thought she'd left far behind. But with Zoe's reappearance, Becky is forced to reconsider her interpretation of events, as well as where blame lies, her true nature and her place in the world.

Music, clubs, art, collaboration, spirituality, sex - Golden Days is a thrilling and nostalgic ride into the past, where nothing is as it seemed.

Genres: Audiobook

302 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

Caroline Barron is an award-winning author and sought-after host of literary events. Her debut novel, Golden Days (Affirm Press, Australia / Hachette, New Zealand, 2023), was praised by Woman’s Day as ‘a riveting read that also acts as a nostalgic ode to growing up in Auckland in the ’90s’. Her memoir, Ripiro Beach (Bateman Books, 2020), won the New Zealand Heritage Literary Award for Best Non-fiction Book.

She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from University of Auckland (2015) plus a journalism degree and, in a previous life, owned and ran Nova—a leading model and talent agency.

Reviews

[Deborah (debbishdotcom) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading this book I was blown away. I adored Barron's writing and marked paragraph after paragraph.

"After a time, though, rather than acting as a salve, the stories created even more space inside of me until I felt cave-like and echoey. My life wasn't unapologetic or brave or tinted with magic. My life was just my life." p 10

I even contacted the publisher asking if it was possible to get a hard copy of the book as I wanted to review it on my website rather than just on Goodreads / NetGalley. Sadly I was advised they only offer hard copy books to those with certain numbers of followers [*shrugs*], so I was left with my digital version and then procrastinated for over a month (after finishing it) before finally putting fingers to keyboard.

Barron introduces us to Becky at a point of crisis. Her childhood friend Meg arrives to provide support and it's a combination her presence and the sense of grief Becky's experiencing that sends her back into her past and the arrival of Zoe into her life.

We go back and forth in time, but Becky's memories of her 18 year old self are now sharpened by maturity and experience. She considers the way she pushed Meg aside on the arrival of her bright new shiny friend and how it impacted on the relationship she had with her family, including her brother.

Barron creates a complicated and sympathetic character in present and past Becky. In some ways I found it unfathomable that she hadn't wanted answers before now but suspect the events in the present are the catalyst that finally allow her to deal with the past.

And though I was worried the climax could be a little too cliched or obvious, Barron takes us in a different direction - one I didn't see coming.

When I first read this book I noted that Barron was a manuscript assessor and writing teacher and though her experience is evident, so is her talent.

4.5 stars

[Craig and Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Affirm Press for sending us a copy to read and review.
Golden Days is a smart, punchy short read that you can easily read in one sitting.
Becky is on a downward spiral in Auckland, New Zealand.
Her best friend at the moment is a bottle of booze after she found out her husband is cheating.
While in this frame of mind her memories of the summer of 1995 are invading her psyche.
Back then she meets charismatic, intelligent and beautiful Zoe Golden.
So begins a strong, intense and close bond.
And one dark tragic night changes everything and ruins the friendship.
They never see each other again……. until now!
Zoe returns and Becky is confronted with the shocking truth.
Caroline’s writing drags you into an addictive plot with characters you can relate to while set amongst a backdrop of today and New Zealand in the 90’s where music, drugs, sex and clubs run rampant.
Just like an addiction you will be drawn in and kept there, it’s quite a clever and creative read.
I didn’t expect to enjoy it so much.
An original and fresh idea about back in the day when close friends were important and you spent every second together until sometimes it all falls apart.
Get your hands on a copy and enjoy.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I want a book about messy and intense female friendships that tend to happen in your teens and twenties? Yes. Is that what I got? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Ehhhh.

Golden Days starts strong. The collapse of Rebecca's marriage leads her to reflects on a time when her life last fell apart. A summer seventeen years ago and the woman at the centre of it all. Zoe. The balance of Rebecca's present and her reflection of the past is handled quite well in the beginning. Moving seamlessly between her current day overindulgence to past overindulgence but as the narrative moves along it seems to fall even increasingly apart.

There is a lot of convenient occurrences that don't really come naturally, with the beautiful prose it's a litany of jarring "and then this happened" moments that rip you from the world the author has tried to create. And Caroline Barron has crafted quite a world, so it's disappointing to have what seems to be a transition issue with the plot. It's a shame because there's a good story there, the relationship between Zoe and Rebecca is so tender and heartbreakingly nostalgic but truely destroyed by some weird directions we go in the third act. Possibly, if the idea of the unreliability of memory was introduced earlier as a concept and given a more complete rendering as opposed to its half arse introduction that was brushed aside almost immediately, the general narrative might have benefited.

But mostly it was a novel of possibility that was failed by unestablished plot points.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe more like a 3.5. A beautiful snapshot of time and place - 90s Auckland felt real and Becky a convincing unreliable narrator (if that makes sense!). Some of the dialogue in particular felt a little cliche but otherwise the writing was really beautiful.

[Mary McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more days that pass after reading this, the more I realised that I liked it.. The scene, the vibes, the relationships, the stories, urgh, it is 1990’s nostalgia (albeit based in Auckland) but it’s still there and we are all still wishing we were back in our early 20’s with not a care in the world.

Caroline Barron’s debut contains everything; main character Becky, childhood best friend Meg and of course the rollercoaster that was Zoe Golden. We see them clubbing, dating, fighting, loving and surviving. This story flips between then and now. Then being before and leading up to the accident, and after, the current life of Becky.

You can tell from the first chapter that Caroline is a writer. She has a way with words which sucked me into this story and it’s characters. I was invested in their lives, where it was going and who was going to be hurt. She has been able to emotionally mature the characters and push the friendship boundaries. I thought at some points it may have dragged out, however 97% is great and I would recommend to anyone who wants to travel back into time and relive some 1990’s debauchery.

Thank you to @bookpeopleau for the prize!

[KhrissyS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book , so much of Becky and Zoe’s story resonated with me . The summer of 95/96 , the music , the books mentioned all took me back to my late teens and to be honest back to being a young adult .

[Caitlin Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! NZ based drama which follows the life and trauma for women at 20 and late 30s.
Dragged out at the end

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Only Mum called me Rebeca, and only when she was pissed off."

Becky’s life changed when Zoe Golden entered it and one summer night changed her life forever. She thought she’d left Becky behind forever until now.

The story flicks from current life and Auckland in 1995. Becky’s world shatters when she find her husband cheating on her, she’s mourning the loss of her marriage with copious amounts of liquor which brings up past trauma. Best friend Meg arrives to help bring Becky back to life when Zoe makes contact forcing her to relive that day and maybe even see things from a different perspective.

Golden Days is a nostalgic ride of friendship, experimentation, sex, art, love, betrayal and loss.

I found this book so special and nostalgic of places I was travelling while reading. Friendship, love, heartbreak and finding you place in the world. What an incredible debut congratulations Caroline.

[Dan Organ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t like this book. The story was full of cliche characters and I could see the story arc coming from a mile away.

I would sum this story up as silly privileged girls making bad decisions that lead to bad outcomes and not wanting to face up to the consequences of their actions.

However, the writer can actually write really well and I will try to read some of her future work. It is just that this story arc sucked.

[David Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a teenager growing up in the African bush, this story was about a world I never dreamt existed.
I am still fascinated by the behaviour and self-entitlement.
Barron's writing captivated me with its impressive technique and flow.
I will reread this book several times to gain further insights to improve my craft.

[Barry Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd heard about this book hitting the market, but it wasn't until I went to the Auckland Writers' Festival and heard the author talk about it as a novel of female friendships that I felt motivated to read it. I'm so glad I did.

Becky is the central character - she met her best friend Meg when she was five years old, and feeling a bit lost in a new school. She kind of dropped Meg when Zoe came along - all shiny and fill of zest - when Becky was at University. But that was only a flash in the pan really - after a nine month period, Zoe is gone.

The novel is told from the present (where Becky's husband has had a heart attack in the arms of another woman, and Meg is there to pick up the pieces) but is largely flashbacks, and most of them are to the brief time Zoe was around (her surname is Gold) in 1995 - 96. There are lots of anecdotes about their time in Auckland, where Zoe took Becky from her dweeby hangouts to the cooler, more edgy and adult places of Auckland's nightlife. I was involved a bit in the Auckland nightlife at that time: it was great to read of scenes and people I was familiar with.

It slowly emerges that there's a deeper story, about a car accident in which Becky's brother dies and for which she blames Zoe. But as her father says, other people may have different perspectives. In what is probably more coincidence that is credible, at this point Zoe reconnects with Becky. Some of it is good - she finally acknowledges Becky's contribution to her art - but ultimately it does not go well for Becky's sense of reality - she has a lot of unexpected truth to deal with.

[Kirsten McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent the first half of the book trying to decipher who the author might be talking about, and whether I knew them, given that I'm a very similar age! It was a definite trip back in time, to the days when I was first working, so had spare cash, and wouldn't even go to town until 11pm! The names of the Auckland clubs brought so many memories rushing back, some fabulous memories, and some that I'd be calling the police if they happened now!!! That's how time and perspective changes.
The story of the friendship between Zoe and Bec was chaotic and crazy and passionate, and everything you want in a new best friend, regardless of the perfectly good and sensible best friend Bec already had in Meg.
As the story progressed, I felt firmly in Bec's camp, and began hating Zoe with an unrealistic passion normally reserved for the worst sort of villains cooked up in series like Game of Thrones. And now? Now I feel a type of betrayal. A grief. Which is why this is four stars and not five. I'm sad, and upset, and did I mention sad? It's all well deserved, and with a bit of time, I think it was the right way to deal with things. But oh my heart! A perhaps a little too tidy at the end. A couple of ragged edges would have have been a balm I think.
A definite recommendation for readers who love stories set around best friends, and all the baggage that comes with that. Because there is always baggage, irrelevant of who they are. And Caroline Barron has managed to put it all into a beautiful book.

[Chelsea Docking · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely Author, inspires me to keep writing she truly is an amazing woman from what I've heard. Honest review below felt compelled to give feedback -

Lots of Auckland nostalgia and a good representation of friendships in your twenties.

I felt there was too much descriptive language - describing of outfits at length, brands, labels, bars, place names, beaches and looks just made the writing feel jolty to me and it didn't flow. I'm sure Kiwi's who lived in that era enjoyed reminiscing while reading but as someone reading for entertainment it became repetitive... descriptive language serves in the beginning but eventually you just want to get into the flow.

Teeny note too - I also felt too much of the book was a flashback. Would have been better written in present tense, but set in the past for some chapters rather than making it all a flashback/memory. Someone has mentioned to me afterward that it is somewhat of a memoir based on the Authors experiences which would make more sense and make my review null and void, so take that into consideration.

Certainly enough tension and twists to keep me reading to the end but the language style did lead me to have to be honest with 3*s.

[Philip Broderick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Big points for printing it in OpenDyslexic. That was appreciated and very commendable. It was the first title my librarian could find on the fiction shelf that was in a dyslexia friendly font, so I gave it a crack and got a quarter of the way in.

At its best points it flowed effortlessly, made the reader see and feel exactly what they needed to. I even started to tear up at one point, and it's very rare that a book makes me cry. So the style was effective and evocative.

But...I lost count of the number of times we had flashbacks and flash forwards and "to really explain this I'll have to bring you back to that fateful day." It started to happen nearly every page, becoming not just irritating but making things at times incomprehensible.

There was a lot of good substance there, and with some clear editing it could have been saved. Ultimately it wasn't worth my time.

[P.J. McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much to love about this novel. Top marks for dialogue and sense of place - I was definitely transported back to the nineties. The tension built in a satisfying way until it reached the “nose buried/couldn’t put book down” stage. Barron illuminates the many-faceted sides of friendship and the drama inherent in coming of age. My only teeny-tiny criticism would be that I found the ending slightly laboured/repetitive. Nothing to stop me recommending this novel. Bravo! And waiting for whatever comes next from this talented author.

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written and enjoyable saga set in New Zealand.

A character driven narrative that centres around the lives of Becky and Zoe. I liked that Zoe, as the beautiful bad girl, can completely swamp the earlier stronger friendship that Becky had with Meg, who becomes the long suffering best friend. Given what Becky did I think some friends would have dropped her like a stone.
Zoe's couldn't care less untrustworthiness is what lends her character strength.

I think I might have been more generous with another star if the ending had been a little less twee and tidy.

[Sophie Rattanong · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. "My impatience for something more - more than the banality of my suburban life - meant I was open, I guess, to being infiltrated when Zoe moved in next door." Another book about female friendships, beautifully written by Caroline Bannon. I'm susceptible to these types of stories, because I had my very own Zoe at the exact same age. I loved the descriptions of Auckland's mid-90s clubbing scene - the music, the fashion, the poor choices.

[Chantelle B Pearce · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A good coming-of-age drama with a set of deeply flawed characters who frustrated me to no end - but I liked the redemption ending. For the most part, an enjoyable read, just probably not one that will stick with me.

[Adrienne Flitcroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nostalgic & tender as a bruise" Jacqueline Bublitz

An accurate description of this story!
I loved this book & couldn't put it down, I managed to read it in 3 days even with work & a young child to deal with.

[Ineka]

3.5 stars

[Lauren Revie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel bad not finishing this but it was an audiobook andi need to stop those! Struggled to want to keep listening. Enjoyed a kiwi ascent and NZ book though.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

90s perfection

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story set in Ak and Piha. Not easy to read but tells of the teenage struggles in the 1990,s

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Lisa C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Lucy Ling · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Ruby McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every moment. Finished it in 24 hours and loved how the story and lessons unraveled throughout. I couldn't put it down.

[Susan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5🌟

[Ann Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tammy Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟