A review by alicetragedy
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


This book made me so, so angry and incredibly disappointed. While I loved the premise of the book (gotta love a family saga!) and I also wanted to deeply love all the characters and engage with them,... I just couldn't, they just did nothing for me. They felt two-dimensional and flat, with no real development throughout the 20+ years the novel spans. 

One main problem I saw with the novel was that somehow, most of the challenges the characters overcome are dealt with over a couple of pages: challenge, quick problem solving, no harm done, let's move on. This was disappointing, because “Hello Beautiful” definitely tries to cover a lot of ground when it comes to certain important topics and themes: mental illness, parenthood, grief.
But: A large chunk of the story didn't feel real or credible, because it seemed to ignore a lot of societal stigma around the various topics it explored.
A lesbian couple encountering no pushback when opening a childcare and fostering children in the late 20th century? A divorced single mother being extremely successful in NYC in the 80s, no sign of sexism or misogyny anywhere to be seen? A man struggling with his mental health in the 80s, the people around him somewhat understanding of his struggles and wanting to help him?
Overall, the problem wasn't that Napolitano's characters overcame their challenges easily, it's that they didn't feel like challenges at all in the first place. 
The plot then just sort of scurries along and things fall into place.

In spite of all that the novel was still hard to put down and I still enjoyed the prose, with a lot of the general “vibe” and little plot bits reminding me of “The World According to Garp” and “Rabbit, Run”. I still hoped, to the last few chapters, that *something* would happen, something out of character or some sort of unexpected denouement. Maybe if it hadn't been on every single bestseller list accompanied by rave reviews, I would have been less disappointed and wouldn't have wanted to re-read “Little Women” instead. 

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