In Catherine Doyle’s ‘Vendetta’ and ‘Inferno’, you could be forgiven for becoming distracted by all the boys. Because there’s a lot of them. And they’re all pretty fly in their own individual ways. There is basically a Falcone brother to suit whoever you are.
But let’s forget about the boys (for now) because there is a relationship even more important in this series. And that’s between our leading lady, Sophie, and her BFF Millie.
It won’t surprise you that the ‘Blood for Blood’ series is often likened to ‘The Godfather’. It might surprise you, however, that ‘friendship’ is just as important in both stories.
“Friendship is everything,” says Don Corleone in ‘The Godfather’, “I am not the sort of person who thrusts his friendship on those who do not value it.”
And this is something that Sophie often seems to be wrestling with throughout the story. She feels like she is dragging her best mate into bad situation after bad situation, and Millie sticks by her through it all. Blood, bad decisions and bad boys. Millie is still there.
The word ‘friendship’ comes to mean something very different to Sophie compared to Don Corleone, but it is the emphasis that is important. Friendship can have the power to literally make or break a person.
Sophie describes having “this crazy appreciation for my best friend”, and after reading ‘Inferno’, we do too. Possibly the most beautiful thing Millie says, after everything that happens in book two (which enough to make anyone high-tail it out of there. Catch a bus, a train, a rocket ship out of that town), is this:
“I think the whole point of being a good friend is being in the darkness. I’ll be your light, until you can be it yourself again.“
We’re not all lucky enough to have, or to have had, a friend like Millie, and maybe not everyone needs one. But it’s a lovely thing when it happens. Someone who is just as important to Sophie’s story as the romances. Someone who keeps our main character grounded, and doesn’t hesitate to speak up when they’re making a wonky decision. Someone to stand side-by-side with through the best AND the worst of it.
In ‘Vendetta’, Sophie says “Millie was the best friend I’d ever have, and the only one I really needed.” And we couldn’t agree more. She’s the Godfather of best buds.
Do you have a favourite ‘Millie’ moment? Tell us @maximumpopbooks
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