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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In 1927, Samantha and JoAnn meet while pretending to be boys so they can play baseball, a sport where girls are not welcome, in Must Be Friends by Corey Johnson. After a violent incident leaves JoAnn’s guardian dead, the girls decide to remain together and keep their household arrangements hidden from the authorities. Their shared goal is simple but risky: to stay out of institutions and remain under their own control. Samantha brings street knowledge and a fierce survival instinct, while JoAnn provides money, planning, and structure. As they manage their money, school records, and adult scrutiny, their private arrangement attracts unwanted attention from criminals and well-meaning neighbors alike. The story follows their effort to protect one another while maintaining a life that officially should not exist.
Must Be Friends by Corey Johnson is a wonderful YA historical and social issues novel. Johnson convincingly sets up the space for Sam and Jo living as boys, from being taken onto a sandlot team without comment, to shopkeepers addressing them as 'son', and where haircuts and plain clothes become their daily armor. I love that Johnson gives the girls total agency, which is really important for females in literature. The standout to me is Sam’s self-taught reading, which she does by sounding out street signs during moonshine runs. The writing is very well done, and readers are immersed in the period entirely. As a musician, Mr. Fornoff’s Montagnana cello was a fist-pump moment. Johnson is on point with lived-in history; it is embedded to such a degree that a trained string musician is impressed! This is a story for the ages about two girls against a world fighting to tear them down, and every page is a testament to strength and drive curated by a skilled author.
