fromsarahsbooknook's review
5.0
Okay, it seems we've got some mixed reviews here, and from what I can tell, a lot of the poor reviews are because there are so many characters and they are hard to keep track of. I am here to tell you that those people are not wrong. There are a lot of characters. They are hard to keep track of. (My pro-tip is to focus your energy on the women). But if you can hang with it, what you have is a beautiful, moody, and quiet character-driven family drama that takes place at Christmas. I loved it.
I think it's also important to know what this book is not – the "Christmas" of it all might be misleading. This is not a Jenny Colgan novel or IN A HOLIDAZE. Lily King has the endorsement blurb on the front and let that tell you a lot. This is literary fiction. It can be a smidge dark, a little sparse, and you get those moments like you do in literary fiction in which a character has a really bizarre, seemingly out-of-nowhere, uncomfortable thought that you as the reader have to process – and if you're me, sometimes go, "What?! Why though?!" I am not particularly high-brow. Ha.
So, now that we understand what we have here, let's go. The story surrounds these adult children and their families all descending into one home for Christmas (I'm already 100% in). This is the first Christmas after their mother/MIL has passed away, leaving them alone to carry on traditions and stay connected to each other without her. This is understandably hard on them. They love each other, but also get so irritated with each other for various, normal reasons, and they don't really know how to be a family without Mom yet. They are each dealing with their own personal issues and problems as well as the collective problem of Christmas without their mother. A serious issue outside of their grief and family conflict arises, and we watch as that external problem helps shake some things loose for the family and their connections to one another. The book thinks a lot about grief and family, as you might expect, but also a lot about modern motherhood, which I found really interesting.
The ending to me was just perfect – warm, beautiful, and happy in the face of life always being at least a little imperfect and unresolved. It was this ending that pushed my rating to the full five stars and made me want to hug the book, buy my own copy, and read it every Christmas.
I think it's also important to know what this book is not – the "Christmas" of it all might be misleading. This is not a Jenny Colgan novel or IN A HOLIDAZE. Lily King has the endorsement blurb on the front and let that tell you a lot. This is literary fiction. It can be a smidge dark, a little sparse, and you get those moments like you do in literary fiction in which a character has a really bizarre, seemingly out-of-nowhere, uncomfortable thought that you as the reader have to process – and if you're me, sometimes go, "What?! Why though?!" I am not particularly high-brow. Ha.
So, now that we understand what we have here, let's go. The story surrounds these adult children and their families all descending into one home for Christmas (I'm already 100% in). This is the first Christmas after their mother/MIL has passed away, leaving them alone to carry on traditions and stay connected to each other without her. This is understandably hard on them. They love each other, but also get so irritated with each other for various, normal reasons, and they don't really know how to be a family without Mom yet. They are each dealing with their own personal issues and problems as well as the collective problem of Christmas without their mother. A serious issue outside of their grief and family conflict arises, and we watch as that external problem helps shake some things loose for the family and their connections to one another. The book thinks a lot about grief and family, as you might expect, but also a lot about modern motherhood, which I found really interesting.
The ending to me was just perfect – warm, beautiful, and happy in the face of life always being at least a little imperfect and unresolved. It was this ending that pushed my rating to the full five stars and made me want to hug the book, buy my own copy, and read it every Christmas.
caitlinww's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
blueashbobbie's review
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.25
beardedbarista's review
5.0
This was family drama at its finest! Pretty slow build up getting to know the characters. 3 siblings and their significant others and children. All meeting for Christmas holiday soon after their mother has passed away. Figuring out how to deal with the mother's estate and each other now that she is gone. About halfway through this book becomes absolutely impossible to put down. Like I literally read over 100 pages last night without moving from my seat. This book somehow givese nostalgia and I have not yet even experienced a situation like this. But I will remember this book. Definitely.
trve_zach's review
Three siblings meet to celebrate Christmas together for the first time after the death of their mother. What follows is a dissection of all the little dynamics of a family gathering. It immediately gave me flashbacks to those same gatherings from my childhood and all the little annoyances and pleasures therein. It’s stacked with details (all the siblings had moved away and weren’t able to be around when their mother died, how she didn’t leave a will so they have to decipher what she and they both think is best) that provide greater meaning, windows into bigger scenes, bigger feelings and experiences.
An outside element of a mother struggling to maintain custody of her daughter and how it impacts the family helps to ratchet up the tension/action/narrative…it’s a cool idea, using this other, outside story to create movement within the core family narrative as both worlds collide, the collision illustrating the privilege of the bigger family.
Dialogue starts off a little rough with the sitcom “let’s catch you up this week” approach but is soon rolling more confidently along. Overall, it’s good, tight writing that sets up and subsequently pulls everything together with a natural ease.
There are discussions on the meaning and value of art in a rapidly changing world, where the entire context of our existence will change as we destroy our environment beyond a healing pace. It’s also about family and the communal grieving and loss of a member of that family especially when it’s forced to the front during holidays when normally everyone would be together…how to move on/continue without a binding agent (“It’s a particular type of sad, she thinks, to miss the possibility that she might one day call this person who is gone now, that what she lost was a thing she never had the courage to go get.” 79)
It shows how delicate the balance of family is, how it’s a house of cards that easily falls apart when one part of it is removed but also how it (community) can be reconstructed after loss, different but not necessarily worse.
An outside element of a mother struggling to maintain custody of her daughter and how it impacts the family helps to ratchet up the tension/action/narrative…it’s a cool idea, using this other, outside story to create movement within the core family narrative as both worlds collide, the collision illustrating the privilege of the bigger family.
Dialogue starts off a little rough with the sitcom “let’s catch you up this week” approach but is soon rolling more confidently along. Overall, it’s good, tight writing that sets up and subsequently pulls everything together with a natural ease.
There are discussions on the meaning and value of art in a rapidly changing world, where the entire context of our existence will change as we destroy our environment beyond a healing pace. It’s also about family and the communal grieving and loss of a member of that family especially when it’s forced to the front during holidays when normally everyone would be together…how to move on/continue without a binding agent (“It’s a particular type of sad, she thinks, to miss the possibility that she might one day call this person who is gone now, that what she lost was a thing she never had the courage to go get.” 79)
It shows how delicate the balance of family is, how it’s a house of cards that easily falls apart when one part of it is removed but also how it (community) can be reconstructed after loss, different but not necessarily worse.
sunforsavannah's review
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
kittykornerlibrarian's review
3.0
This was a good book, but man, did I want all the characters to lighten up. I mean, all of them. The novel is about three adult siblings who are celebrating the first Christmas after their mother has passed away. A melancholy, introspective tone is appropriate, obviously, and that part worked for me. I especially appreciated how perceptive the narrator is in including moments where the siblings realize the things their mother used to do to bring the family together, but she's not there anymore. Still, all the characters are hard on themselves, they're hard on each other, and there's really not a lot of warmth or lightness of spirit in this. I ended up skimming through the last third of the book because I couldn't take any more of the we're-so-bogged-down-in-our-issues vibe and I just wanted to find out if Kate would get the house and if Quinn would find her daughter. I would probably not read another by this author.
emilyhope7's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lisagray68's review
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
3.5