Six Weeks to Toxic.

Tami Oliphant is a Ph.D. candidate in Library and Information Studies at the University of Western Ontario.

For the past 16 years, Bess and Maxi have been best friends. But in the wake of the new millennium, a series of events reveals the frailties in their relationship and strains their friendship to the breaking point. Six Weeks to Toxic tells the story of breaking up with your best friend.

The two principals are Maxi—self-centered, pampered, spoiled, selfish, and ambitious—and Bess, who grew up in a middle-class family from Burlington. While Maxi works as a freelance writer who lives the glamorous life, mostly due to generous parental supplementation, Bess is employed in Toronto as a foley artist.

Life is promising for Maxi at the beginning of the new year: she reignites a relationship with a former boyfriend, Tom, and her career gets a boost when she’s asked to write a cover story on a famous Canadian actress. Bess is genuinely pleased for her friend and offers to play “wing-woman” as Maxi attempts to re-woo Tom. Bess is surprised when she connects with Tom’s winsome friend, Marcus. As Maxi tries to refashion Tom into the kind of boyfriend she wants, Bess and Marcus slowly fall in love. Maxi’s jealousy over Bess’s relationship with Marcus is further inflamed as Bess’s career also begins to take off.

Maxi’s jealousy is evident in the increasingly bitter columns she writes in Bess and Maxi’s satirical and secret magazine, Modern Gash. As Maxi’s attacks become personal and pointed, Bess begins to question their friendship.

The writing is sharp and observant, and the book is replete with references to books, music, fine wines, interior decoration, designers, etc. McCormack has written the character of Maxi particularly well. Despite Maxi’s overly materialistic and disagreeable leanings, McCormack hints at the reasons why Bess would be friends with her in the first place. However, occasionally the bon mots are a bit much. Both Bess and Maxi are occasionally shallow and “too cool for school.” Overall, though, Six Weeks to Toxic is an entertaining read, aimed at an adult audience.