I really appreciate how this book breaks a linear timeline, as it is unclear when exactly “then” and “now” is actually referring. Cleo and Layla were best friends, but after their friendship “implodes”, Cleo wants to create a new life without Layla, and more importantly, she wants new memories that don’t include Layla. In alternating narratives of present and past, or “then” and “now”, Woodfolk charts the friendship, the demise, and the aftermath of Cleo and Layla. When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk is not a story about falling in love, but about something important, and perhaps something not seen as much in young adult literature: the loss of friendship.
In young adult novels, readers often see the total opposite: people becoming friends, falling in love, or just people coming together in general. They’re all hard, but they hit differently. It’s an ache that is so different from any other loss - even a breakup or a death. I think we have all lost a friendship in our lives.
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