Reviews

The Pessimists by Bethany Ball

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alexisrt's review

3.0

I'm not against white upper middle class angst, but this felt too much like I had read it before. These people had problems. Very real problems. But I didn't feel any emotion towards them, really. It felt a little too buried under suburban mundanity.

I've spent enough time around Waldorf school people to get a real kick out of the culty school plotline, though.

hayleybeale's review

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2.0

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was a dreary novel filled with unlikeable characters. Apparently, and surprisingly, it’s meant to be a hilarious satire but the laughs passed me by. Other people seem to like/love it so maybe it’s just me missing the point. (I don’t think so).

Three couples in Connecticut are linked by past friendships and by a wackadoodle school that their children attend or their parents aspire for them to attend. We first meet the characters at Virginia and Tripp’s New Year’s Eve party. Virginia is apparently gorgeous but has been diagnosed with breast cancer though, bizarrely, she is ignoring her doctor’s suggestions for treatment. Tripp is failing financially but isn’t concerned because he’s become enthralled by the prepper community and knows that catastrophe is about to strike anyway.

The other two couples, Margot and Richard and Rachel and Gunther are also floundering both in their marriages and in their lives. The chapters alternate between the different couples and their different issues.

The rock round which they all circulate is the aptly named Petra School with Agnes, its charismatic, cult-leaderesque, and dedicated to “de-education” headmistress. The school is full of the ridiculous quirks one would expect from a hippy granola private school and our couples revere and despise it, though mostly revere it.

Perhaps it would have helped if I’d read the blurb in advance so I could have been looking out for the promised “deep wit and delicious incisiveness.” Instead I found myself grudgingly slogging through a dull novel where I didn’t particularly care about any of the adults though I did feel rather concerned for their children who were stuck in a dreadful school where they weren’t allowed to learn to read too early as it might upset the other children.

Thanks to Grove and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

atgerstner's review

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Maybe I wasn’t smart enough but ooof.

teranmbaker05's review

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I would say I’m more of a prose girl, and, while this is such an interesting plot, I think it lacks pretty prose… not that pretty prose makes a good writer.