A review by writersrelief
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

emotional 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

 
A decades-spanning family saga, Ann Napoliano’s heart-wrenching, lovely novel HELLO BEAUTIFUL takes more than a page from another American classic, Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN. 
 
HELLO BEAUTIFUL begins with William Waters, whose wealthy parents’ bereavement over the untimely loss of William’s older sister causes them to withdraw. Neglected and unloved, William finds solace on the basketball courts, but a knee injury makes a professional career unlikely. During college, he meets the bright and ambitious Julia Padavano—along with her three sisters Sylvia, Cecelia, and Emeline. Over the next few decades, the family confronts devastating loss, depression, and riffs that tear them apart. When one of the sisters fall ill, will the Padavano family finally be able to reunite? 
 
Like its inspiration, HELLO BEAUTIFUL is a tearjerker that wears its heart on its sleeve. While some readers may feel their emotional buttons being pushed a little too aggressively, it is still easy to emotionally invest in the characters, their individual journeys, and how their family dynamics change over a long period of time. This is because Napolitano draws her characters with carefully coordinated and nuanced strokes. These aren’t characters that readers will always like or agree with—Julia, specifically, makes several understandable mistakes in the aftermath of a traumatic event—but their motivations are always clear. Readers familiar with LITTLE WOMEN will have an especially fun time observing the parallels and reversals, but will probably feel impending dread when one of the characters states “I’m Beth” (if you know, you know). 
 
An emotionally compelling story of an ever-changing and evolving family, HELLO BEAUTIFUL is a lovely, luminous book for readers of character-driven fiction. 
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