When We Grow Up

Six longtime friends, who first met at an elite Los Angeles high school, vacation together in Hawai‘i to celebrate their 30th birthdays. When they are erroneously alerted that a missile is headed for the island, the friends are forced to face the expiration date of the bonds of their youth. In this 2018-set story, Baker (Our Little Racket) weaves in some of the social issues that characterized the proceeding years, as the United States faced the fallout from the 2016 election. Over the course of six interminable days, the friends drink, eat, bicker, drink, go on a boat, hike, and reminisce about their relationship. The book is narrated from the perspective of novelist Clare, who has an affair on the vacation with her high school crush. Clare is something of an unreliable narrator, highlighting the importance of knowing who is telling the story. A lack of character development occasionally makes it difficult to track which person is speaking.