Told in parts—from the wild chaos of Maggie’s adolescence to the uncertain, nomadic lifestyle of her early twenties and their aftermath—Francesca Vespa’s SEVEN PERFECT DAYS is sweeping in its scope (despite its title). Often epistolary in format, the narrative bounces between Maggie, her best friends Alexandra and Adam Moon, and an assortment of childhood friends and internet bloggers. Through journal entries, letters written on Lexy’s cherished typewriter, blog posts, and other types of messages, the story spans across time and geography, highlighting the ways that both can take their toll on friendships. Messy friendships, relationships that ebb and flow like the tide on their unnamed island home, long-distance romances, friendships broken by tragedy. As Maggie’s friend group is forever changed by a hate crime during their rebellious high school years, she struggles in the present while another dear friend might meet the same fate.

Readers should be aware of and heed the myriad content warnings presented in the beginning of this novel, since the plot deals with a lot of heavy topics and its humor is of the dark variety. The offensive, abrasive nature of some characters is sometimes off-putting, but they’re interesting, layered, flawed people who must come to terms with the ways in which they’ve hurt each other. Maggie’s, Lexy’s, and Adam’s disparate voices and unique perspectives shine through in the writing; their different styles of humor, introspection, beliefs, and fears help to round out the storytelling of their friendship saga.

The casual tone—often quirky, witty, and cutting to the quick with a poignant thought— makes the book engaging: “The manic sensation of being alive defiant against the insanity-inducing chasm of fear and terror over the fact that death exists at all,” Lexy laments in one typewritten letter to Maggie. One of her other quips is less abstract: referring to a high school therapist, she says “I wanted to kick her up the ass so hard that she would taste the dirt under my toenails.” Maggie has some lovely passages of introspection: “A friend of mine says that the world is always in the process of becoming,” she narrates. Shortly after, she muses, “Leaving school seemed to pull many friendships apart, and I found myself floating amongst the wreckage, as it all drifted slowly away from me.”

Friendship is complicated, and SEVEN PERFECT DAYS highlights the raw, imperfect, and beautiful nature of it. The humor exists as both a coping mechanism and a lens through which the characters witness the most horrifying, distressing, painful experiences of their lives. There is a lot happening in this book, and the middle tends to be a bit meandering, though it eventually arrives where it needs to. Maggie deals with a wealthy classmate’s problems while jetting around Asia and falling into a long-distance romance; Adam comes to terms with his sexuality and gets pulled deeply and dangerously into the political upheaval rippling through his home country of the Maldives; and Lexy struggles with addiction, aimless and grief-stricken over their mutual friend’s murder.

The pacing feels a little uneven at times, where the book juggles its many subplots and locations and timelines. Time-jumps between characters and places can be jarring or confusing as well. The first part of the book, where Maggie is re-reading old journal entries from her high school years, is especially confusing and difficult to settle into at first. A lot of random information, anecdotes, and side characters are dumped into the story at the outset, and, while they’re important to the overall understanding of the plot, the format is sometimes hard to grasp. Though, in the context of the story itself—and the nature of teenage journals—it does serve its own purpose. This is a novel about friendship, yet it’s also a story of redemption, discovery, and growth. In the end, SEVEN PERFECT DAYS relates how, if you’re willing to confront your own faults, things can’t exactly go back to the way they were—but they can be mended.

Built on the premise that “sometimes your friends break your heart the most,” Francesca Vespa’s SEVEN PERFECT DAYS grapples with this ugly truth in several contexts. The quirky, witty, and poignant writing makes for an especially engaging read.

~Jessica Thomas for IndieReader