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A review by becki_bee
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
5.0
I read and enjoyed the delightful book "The Guncle", by Steven Rowley, and when I saw this book, "The Celebrants", by the same author, I grabbed it without a second thought! Though very different from "The Guncle", "The Celebrants" was also heartwarming and moving.
The backstory... In the 1990s, a group of six students at Berkley bonded as a friends group. They were shocked when one of their own died just 2 weeks before their graduation. After his death, they reminisced together and wondered if Alec had known how much they loved him, and when they realized the answer was no, they created a pact with each other that whenever any of the remaining five called on the group, the others would immediately gather for a "live" funeral, in which they would come together and celebrate and uplift the friend in crisis,
When the book begins, the celebrants have all reunited to support and celebrate Jordan, but he knows something that they don't know... His cancer has returned, and this is the last time the five of them will be together. From this point, the book jumps back and forth from the present moment- at Jordan's "funeral"- to earlier moments when the other friends reached out from their own crises. Despite the serious subject matter, "The Celebrants" still manages to end on a beautiful, hopeful note. A lovely read.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.
#TheCelebrants
The backstory... In the 1990s, a group of six students at Berkley bonded as a friends group. They were shocked when one of their own died just 2 weeks before their graduation. After his death, they reminisced together and wondered if Alec had known how much they loved him, and when they realized the answer was no, they created a pact with each other that whenever any of the remaining five called on the group, the others would immediately gather for a "live" funeral, in which they would come together and celebrate and uplift the friend in crisis,
When the book begins, the celebrants have all reunited to support and celebrate Jordan, but he knows something that they don't know... His cancer has returned, and this is the last time the five of them will be together. From this point, the book jumps back and forth from the present moment- at Jordan's "funeral"- to earlier moments when the other friends reached out from their own crises. Despite the serious subject matter, "The Celebrants" still manages to end on a beautiful, hopeful note. A lovely read.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.
#TheCelebrants