3.6 out of 4 stars.

A much more serious, mature, and depressing spin on the television show, “Friends”.

In this novel, “Why We Came to the City” Jansma introduces us to four friends that have been together since college ended 5 years ago. There is Irene who is the scattered artist, George the lovable drunk, Sara the OCD prep, and Jacob the intelligent wise ass. The story starts off with them at a crowded fabulous party toasting the big year ahead and making plans of how to celebrate. Unfortunately, everything comes to a crashing hault when Irene is diagnosed with cancer.

This is a coming of age story that takes a look into how the illness of their friend rocks the earth for the other three in the group and let’s just say that not one of them takes it very well.

I would recommend to anyone that is interested in a contemporary fiction that is very realistic. With that said, there is not a lot of action but just a lot of true confusion that comes at the age of 28. The only lesson I really took away is that no one at this point in their life has anything figured out but are just bumbling through everything trying to figure out the right path.

The characters all seem approachable and multi-tiered so it made the book comforting but still interesting.

Overall a nice story that was emotional but somewhat uplifting that no matter how bad things get we can still find our way out.