I love books about friendship, probably a consequence of growing up on a hefty dose of 80s and 90s shounen anime, lol. If you know The School of Good and Evil, the friendship between Agatha and Sophie was the main reason that book was my favorite as a tween.
Finding modern books where the main relationship is a genuine friendship without romantic tension is hard enough these days, unless it’s geared towards young teens like in Percy Jackson. But books with a male-female friendship at center stage apparently just don’t exist at all. I’m kind of pissed about it, tbh. I’m a girl with plenty of male friends whom I love and for whom I don’t have an ounce of romantic feelings. Do authors realize a guy and a girl can be in the same room without either banging or hating each other?
Anyway, that was my rant of day. What do you think is the reason for that? If I were to guess, probably just marketability and wanting to please readers – I imagine plenty of people would be unsatisfied with a male-female friendship that doesn’t become a romance by the end because “there was so much buildup!!!” (i.e. they talked and enjoyed each other’s company). Society in general also doesn’t hold adult friendships as important relationships, so there’s that too.
by Leticia_the_bookworm