More than Friends is the sequel to Saving Grace.  In the first novel, teenaged Grace's older brother Matt was killed in a car accident and she started drinking and making other bad choices.  She was befriended by a mysterious girl Philomena, who helped her see that she needed to change. Now, in this next novel in an apparent series, Grace is starting to date Jackson, who was Matt's best friend, and whose parents are getting divorced.  It turns out that Jackson has got problems of his own, and Philomena helps Grace keep her perspective on him, not letting herself get carried away by passion or anger.  Philomena seems to have an unnatural knowledge of who needs help and what it takes to help them, which Grace attributes to God.  Grace comes to understand that she herself needs to start helping people without Philomena's prompting.  And she does help her friend Rebecca win the affection of a boy called Scott even when another girl, Lindsay, (a nasty piece of work) is also after Scott.  While not explicitly Christian, this novel is clearly in the category of Christian young adult literature, showing how Grace goes through turmoil and is able to get herself on the right road even if she has made some bad decisions in the past.  She assumes the value of doing her homework and being respectful towards her parents, even if she does not tell them everything.  The writing makes for easy reading, although the novel lacks emotional depth and complexity. 

© 2009 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York.

Keywords: mourning, fiction