Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Big Gay Wedding

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Chrissy Durang loves her son but has struggled to accept him for who he is, and her struggles come to a head when he arrives on her small Louisiana ranch—soon to be joined by his fiancé Ezra and Ezra’s family—for a big gay wedding the town will never forget.

For some reason the cover, title, and blurb of this one all conspired to make me expect a silly, lighthearted romp. But while this one definitely had its silly and lighthearted moments, it was so much more than that. What I got instead was a touching, thought-provoking, emotional read about a mother and her son, a grandfather and his family, and a Louisiana heritage sheep that had me absolutely sobbing (listen, you’re just gonna have to read if you want to know more).

I also love the direct and unflinching way this book explores a myriad of important and/or difficult topics, including homophobia and bigotry, organized religion, alcoholism, and death. It is a novel that mixes profound and often subtle prose with a kind of dramatic exuberance and over-the-top delivery in an absolutely perfect and decidedly memorable way. And finally, whoever thought to market this one as “Schitt’s Creek meets Father of the Bride”? You could not have been more spot on, in the best way.

Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: Schitt’s Creek; family drama but make it funny; misfit animals

CW: animal death; homophobia; mentions of terminal illness

Content Warnings

patelyne's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Far outside New Orleans, Miss Chrissy runs the Polite Society Ranch. Before her husband passed on it was a functioning farm, but since it’s gotten a facelift and turned into a sanctuary for misfit animals and regular field trip venue.

Her son is coming for a visit, says they need to talk, and when he adds that he doesn’t have a return flight yet, she jumps to assume he’s moving back from LA to stay and run the farm for her. Instead he’s there to announce his engagement to Ezra.

While her reaction to Barrett’s (objectively awful) outing had not been as volatile as her late husband’s, it was not any more supportive and she’s made it clear she “doesn’t accept the gay thing” and hoped it would all go away

So you can imagine how this reveal went down (and how strained their relationship has been)

Still, she wants her son to stick around longer, so she agrees to have Ezra come down and meet him. Soon Ezra’s force of nature mother, silent father and frankly terrifying sister join them and before you know it there’s going to be a wedding in the farm in less than two weeks.

Going in I had expected this was going to be a book about a fun wedding in an unexpected place, and for the first half the book I kept thinking this was Not It. Homophobia and bigotry are a big theme - even more so at the start - BUT as the story continued, the wedding was more in focus. And what a wedding it was.

Overall though, this story is just as much about the broken complicated relationship between a mother and her son. Throughout the book I had many unkind thoughts about Chrissy. It wasn’t until she had some eye opening revelations about herself and the people she surrounded herself with that any of that changed. And things didn’t get magically all better, but there was So Much Growth.

(And yes, I totally cried by the end)

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt Books for the ARC

Content Warnings

rachbake's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

readingbetweenthevines's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I’ll admit, I didn’t have Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane on radar until Booksparks sent me a copy as a part of their #SRC2023 #BooksAndRec list - and that’s a shame.

This book was everything, I genuinely snort laughed every time I saw the “Countdown to Damnation” at the beginning of every chapter. I laughed, I cried, I was angry - I literally felt all the feels. This had such an eccentric cast of character, most of whom are so loveable, even Miss Chrissy managed to win me over in the end!

Big Gay Wedding is mostly lighthearted, but also hits on some heavy topics, all in all this is one I highly recommend!

Content Warnings

jareadforfilth's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective tense 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

4.25

Firstly I have to say a huge thank you to the author and publisher for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

If I’m honest, I was a little bit nervous about starting this book even though it is ironically one of the books I was the most excited to read 😂 a large theme is overcoming homophobia, mainly stemming from religiously indoctrinated bigotry, and whether or not family love is enough to overcome that. As a Florida resident, I feel constantly bombarded by homophobic rhetoric, so I was torn choosing to read about it in my leisure as well. I gotta say though, in the end I’m really glad I cast my fears aside and read it anyway 😊

While there are clearly difficult and potentially triggering topics at play here, they are handled as gently as bigotry can be and told in a satirical way where you get to see the marginalized and their allies shine and prevail. There is so much heart and so much humor in here too like I’m not even joking, I legitimately laughed out loud several times, it’s THAT funny! Also the Schitt’s Creek vibes here are immaculate and I think we NEED a spin-off about Nichole jsjs 😂👏🏻

As much as this book is about a Big Gay Wedding, I found it’s really centered around a mother fighting to navigate her homophobia and avoid losing her queer son. Her son—or rather, the idealized version of him she’s created in her head—is her whole world, but does she actually have the capacity for unconditional love? While she is not my favorite character, she is very well-written and has a ton of humanity and some really bada** and hilarious moments that redeem her enough for me. Also I’m obsessed with basically everyone else and am convinced I am Ezra js 😂 FETCH ME MY VICTORIAN GOWN 💃🏻

Content Warnings

kaitsteak's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I went into this expecting hijinks and hilarity. There were many moments like that, but this book was heavy in a way I wasn’t expecting. I loved the characters, even if some of them did seem far-fetched. Byron Lane does the quiet, mundane moments of this book really, really well, with equal parts wry humor and heart. There are lines and scenes in this book that made me laugh out loud, but there are also scenes which left me weeping.

My only real criticism is that the transition from the very funny to the very sad was sometimes too fast. As a reader, I sometimes felt like I had emotional whiplash.

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