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cats33's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-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
3.0
A perfectly hatable family filled with perfectly hatable people. Even the characters who weren’t awful weren’t that great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
kdailyreads's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
So many of the characters made so many choices that then made it hard to like them. Also, some of the plot points were truly wild - like, made me feel both uncomfortable and annoyed because it seemed too far, yet also a little intrigued despite that. This novel definitely mentioned Covid a lot but it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it might going in - probably because there was no discussion of any of the characters themselves falling ill or personally losing someone to it. For example, one character is a nurse and zero percent of the book addressed what her experience during Covid would have been like as a nurse. There were two parts of the book that made me cry because they were truly sad (heartbreaking, really), but actually had zero connection to Covid. Jennifer Weiner’s ability to write in an an engaging way is very strong and her style of writing draws me in. Plus, I did enjoy all the descriptions of Cape Cod summers. Ultimately, I wanted to keep reading to see what happened. I got to the epilogue and was mad at first because it seemed like there was no way the book was going to wrap everything up in a way that I would feel satisfied with, but then it mostly did. The final moments of the book were particularly well crafted.
The performance of Sutton Foster on the audiobook narration, I would give 4-5 stars! Definitely increased my enjoyment of this novel.
The performance of Sutton Foster on the audiobook narration, I would give 4-5 stars! Definitely increased my enjoyment of this novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Moderate: Antisemitism, Abortion, and Alcohol