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3.5 stars. Somehow this book ended up being different than what I thought it was going to be. It was a lot longer than I thought it needed to be and it was serious with a lot of serious subject matter and yet a romance, sort of, maybe in between genres? I did like it but I somehow didn’t love it. I sort of knew where it was going and lost patience in the middle when it took way too long to get there.
I loved this book. It reminded me of “Plainsong” which was my favorite read from two years ago. I was quiet and sad and also beautiful. Even though it was a “mystery” there wasn’t much mystery to most of the story. It was character driven and each of the characters was textured and layered and i loved them each a little bit.
I decided I would marry Martin one day because I believed that someone who would spare you from having to watch the world take its course had to be the right person. It took me forever to read this book. I started it and then there were so many characters that I just couldn’t get into it. They were each interesting but none of them were interesting enough to keep my attention for some reason. Maybe because I was distracted and my attention kept wavering. “No, Selma, I mean as a couple,” my mother had insisted. “I mean have you thought of being a couple with the optician?” Selma had looked at my mother as if she were a cocker spaniel and said, “But I already had my couple.” But I wasn’t willing to give up on it. I put it down and then picked it back up many, many times. I grew frustrated with myself. I grew frustrated with the book. Why couldn’t i just read it and enjoy it? He loved Alaska. My father saw him only rarely, which made love much simpler, because those who are absent can’t misbehave. Each of the characters had their own story and then slowly they started intertwining. And slowly I found myself falling in love with each of the quirky characters. Enough that I didn’t want to let them go. “Hello, Luisa,” Frederik said, and because it was so obvious, he understood right away that I didn’t have an opening sentence. In the blink of an eye, he took over and simply pretended he had called me. And the story enveloped me into a lovely cocoon. I was transported into their town, into their lives. I cared about their stories, their pain, their joys. The author had slowly managed to make me fall in love with each of them. You can live for years with a gnawing question, you can let it hollow you out, and then have it disappear in a flash, in a single moment of waking with a start. My mother left my father; the fact that he had left her already some time before didn’t change a thing. My mother was in a different time zone and so, from her point of view, she had left him first. The characters in this story are real. They are quirky and they are real. They have real pain, dreams, joys, and they care about each other deeply. The writing is exquisite. This story has incredible heart. It’s the closest I’ve seen a writer get to Fredrick Backman. So I’m going to tell you now: When the time comes, when the question arises and you can’t find an answer right away, then remember that you made your grandmother and me very happy, you brought us enough happiness for an entire life from beginning to end. The older I get, the more I believe that the two of us were only invented for you. And if there ever was a good reason to be invented, then it’s you. In the end, I loved this book so much. I do wish there was a way for the beginning to be a little less slow but alas it takes time to fall in love with people, even in books. with gratitude to netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars I thought I wasn’t going to like this book. I live a few blocks from Stanford and too many of the parents in this book are slightly over the top versions of parents around me. It was a bit close to home but I still enjoyed my time with it and really liked some of the subplots.
3.5 stars. Read this one in one sitting. It was fun, uplifting, engaging and a joy to read. I will likely forget most of it but it doesn’t matter, it gave me joy while I read it and that’s really all I seek from books like this. Recommended.
I loved this book. It was a super-fast read for me and I really really liked the main character. It’s sort of a mystery and sort of about parenthood, family, choices we make and the consequences we have to live with and what sacrifices we’re willing to make. I really liked it.
Ok so this was neither like Daisy Jones nor like Almost Famous. I feel like blurbs like this just do a disservice to the book since it sets the readers mentality into a particular expectation. Why would you do that when it will annoy the reader and then get your book lower ratings? If you put those expectations aside, this was an interesting book. It’s about a 14 year old girl who takes a babysitting job with a family in her neighborhood. This family is very different than hers and opens her eyes and mind in a lot of ways. I think there are several scenes that border on neglect and abuse and I had to suspend disbelief quite a bit, but I still found the story interesting and engaging.
This was a perfectly acceptable fast-paced mystery with a slight twist which wasn’t a huge shocker (to me) but still interesting, especially exploring the multiple-personality disorder. It also covers topics around adoption, family dynamics, motherhood, etc.
I know many people loved Henry’s previous novel, which I liked too but I loved this one so much more. I loved all the little bits of vacations over the years, I loved the two characters. I loved going back and forth in time. I just really enjoyed my time with this story. Wonderfully delightful.
I did not love Weir’s second book but with this one, he won my heart back! What a fantastic story, great humor, super fun science. I enjoyed every single minute I spent with this story from beginning to its unpredictable end. Love love loved it!
This book absolutely blew my mind. I don’t even like reading nonfiction but I could not put this down. It was a completely insane story, told incredibly well, and I have been recommending it to everyone I know. Absolutely amazing. Mind-blowing. Sad. Surreal.
What an unusual story this was. It felt like it was about nothing, just a slice of life and relationships and interesting characters that I slowly fell in love with a little bit. I enjoyed the time I spent with this novel but I can’t say I loved it. It was comforting, sweet, and quirky. |
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