Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - People Person

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People Person by Candice Carty-Williams

20 reviews

jacquinotjackie's review against another edition

funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

a sweet, heartwarming story of estranged half siblings coming together in times of tragedy. it’s also laugh out loud funny! this was a fun, quick read, but I wish the characters experienced more growth.

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habibaa20's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and I wanted to read more of her work. My brother kindly gifted me this book for Christmas, and I went into this book blind and was not expecting it at all.

This book is based on Dimple Pennington, she knew of her half-siblings but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for the faint memories of being drive around Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep and some complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about. She's thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. Despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone. That all changes when a catastrophic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce crashing back into her life. When they’re all forced to reconnect with their absent father, Cyril Pennington, they never knew things get even more complicated.

This plot had you from the first chapter. I thought it was going to be like a black Brady bunch and then it was domestic abuse and attempted murder. Then it just got worst and worst. These children have got so much unresolved trauma. I wanted to hug every one of those children. Each sibling has their own personality and their own thing going on. It was like being in my household, all the ex-wives hating each other. I was getting deja-vu just from the exes being together and bickering at a funeral.

I would have loved for this to be multiple POV, just with all the siblings and everyone involved in the story. I felt like this story hooked you from the first chapter but then the middle bit was quite slow going and I had to fight to push through to finish it.

Overall, this book was gripping and dramatic and I still want to hug each of those kids.

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blackgirlslovespice's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Read People Person as a part of the book club I’m apart of and I feel conflicted. The protagonist “Dimple” left me feeling more annoyed than anything but during certain periods of the book, she grew on me and even made me laugh. I don’t really think she underwent any major character development throughout the bulk of the novel, but during the last few chapters she developed a keen sense of self awareness by proxy of her siblings forcing her to come to terms with her true self. The remainder of the Pennington are a dynamic and interesting set of “people”. Danny was very lovable, Prince was great for comedic relief during tense moments, Lizzie was just as annoying as Dimple but she was exceptionally logical, & Nykisha served as the unofficial matriarch. Although this event was what reunited these disjointed siblings, it wasn’t the major focus of the novel. Familial trauma & loyalty to self and community were themes that ran rampant throughout and manifested in the challenges each Pennington faced. To conclude, I did enjoy this read for the lost part but the ending was a little lackluster. I was hoping for a slightly more climactic end!

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lillypowell's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A great read; one of my favourites from 2023.

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larkken's review

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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creepycrawlybookworm's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I read Carty-Williams' debut novel, Queenie, a few years ago when it came out, and I really enjoyed the messy, genuine titular character. So this sophomore novel was on my Tbr longlist as soon as I heard about it. I was actually able to grab an ARC copy from my library's "up for grabs for staff" pile sometime last year and I've finally gotten to it.

Dimple is an adult, living with her mother, and trying to make a career as an influencer happen. She has five half-siblings that she mostly doesn't know at all. She met them once as a child and hasn't seen or spoken to them since. But, when a dramatic and terrifying interaction when her (ex) boyfriend leaves her in a tough spot, she calls her oldest half-sister, Nikisha, for help. Nikisha, in turn, calls the rest of the half-siblings (Danny, a plumber and single father, Lizzie, a medical student, and Prynce, Nikisha's full-brother who is still trying to figure things out) and together they converge on Dimple's flat in the middle of the night to help her sort things out. Because maybe they only have an absent father and abandonment issues in common, but at the end of their day, they share blood - and that's a thicker bond than anything else.

I was really not expecting the dark humor in the set-up of this novel to be so strong, but honestly, I found myself fully amused the entire time I was reading this. Carty-Williams manages to take a number of truly terrible themes, like murder, blackmail, mistreatment by the police, and a number of dysfunctional/dangerous family and relationship situations, and really make them...humorous. I feel like I've never actually read something that, literarily, so fully embodies both "dark" and "humor" as well as it was done here. Obviously, this is in large part down to Carty-Williams writing. But also, the plot set-up of five half siblings that have objective connections (blood), but no real subjective connections (inter-relational), yet are thrown into this high-drama situation together, absolutely lends itself to the humorous aspects of the story, with vibes of absurdity in the hilarity.

Also, once again, the author tackles the "messy new adult life" characters. Each one of the siblings was a bit of a mess, in their own way, and they are so genuine because of it. This was a fascinating comparison of how different people handle the same life circumstances, even when genetics are in common, because of the surroundings they've experienced. it really kept my attention both in interest and in entertainment. Plus, if you love sibling relationships, and I've mentioned before that I really have a soft spot for well-written sibling relationships, this book brings it hard with the “I’ll do anything for you but annoy the piss out of you while doing it” style interactions. And I could not get enough of that.

The ending was a bit transparent, as far as it paralleled back to the opening chapter, but it is also a satisfying literary circle-back as a finale. I don't really have too much else to say - this is a fairly succinct review for me - but don't take that to mean I didn't enjoy this. I was really into these characters, they were gorgeously human (flawed but full, and loveable in that), which seems to be a particular talent of Carty-Williams. And the story held some real depth and room for reflection and growth, while remaining a primarily fun and entertaining reading experience. This is definitely one I'll be recommending!

“But what if you felt like you didn't have a choice? [...] What if you did what you had to do because you were scared?”

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znvisser's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Really mixed feelings about this one… I did mostly love the writing and the sibling dynamics, so those made this read enjoyable. However, I had two bigger problems with it as well: first was the plot, which was really weirdly paced and yet somehow (or actually because of it) quite predictable. Adding the nine night to get the mothers together was not really necessary, it just confused me as to how thirty years later these women still get so emotional over a man who seemed to have not much more going for him than a bit of charm that fizzled out long ago. Second is the perspective: out of the five siblings, the main character was by far the least interesting one and she really got on my nerves after a while. The bad decisions, naïveté and her oversensitivity were so excessive they made me wish I was getting to know this family through ANY other character (it was overdone too, I mean she was already like this as a baby?? Come ON)

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gabriellejane's review against another edition

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reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I loved Queenie, so I was interested to see what Carty-Williams would do in her sophomore novel. Unfortunately, the story fell apart in the middle in my opinion. You have this big event that happened in the very beginning of the book and then from that point to the 70% mark nothing really happened. I feel like the story could have been told in less pages with more meaning than that middle section that did nothing for the characters or the plot. I did read lots of pages as it was a semi-quick dialogue despite my qualms with the plot. I wanted more from the other siblings, and maybe that was a summary issue that focused on all 5 of the siblings, but when in fact it was really told from one sibling really. I'll probably read Carty-Williams next book and chalk this one up to a sort of sophomore slump.

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