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fanchera's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, and Infertility
Moderate: Car accident, Abandonment, and Religious bigotry
mysterymom40's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Bullying, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Murder, Outing, Mental illness, Racism, Death of parent, Infidelity, Classism, Infertility, Antisemitism, Violence, and Pregnancy
tara_valeria's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Infidelity, Outing, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent
franklola's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Car accident, Death, Infidelity, and Infertility
Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Outing
tara3117's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
But...
This book didn't have any of those effects on me. I get that the language used was a whole mood unto itself and I'm fine with that. But it was very formal and at times off-putting, especially when you find out that the narrator is 17 . If she was an aspiring journalist or something, that would be one thing, but she isn't and I can't figure out why this read like an essay when it wasn't.
The book is too long. None of the characters are likable, at least through the first 2/3. You can kind of feel for Johanna because she got the raw deal time and time again, but I feel like there's more she could have done. She spends most of the book in denial. I didn't like the implication that the 3 triplets didn't have a bond because they were conceived through IVF. I'm pretty sure most IVF multiples would say differently. I didn't need to hear all the recounting of how awful they were to each other in high school and college. A few stories would have been fine, but this was too much and too long. For as long as it was, it had one of the least satisfying endings. Rachelle left the island the night after her wedding? The only thing they all did together was drop Pheobe off for her weirdo college? She even wanted to go to the same school as Harrison? I call BS on the whole thing.
Here's the big part that is really bothering me. School was in session on September 11th. I get that the triplet's birthday is September 10th (which I don't think we knew until the end?) but in reality, they would have had to celebrate their birthday early because they definitely would have had class on their birthday. Maybe not Harrison, but Cornell was definitely back. You're set up to think that maybe this is Labor Day weekend and then you don't know it isn't until Salo dies. It just really bothered me that we're supposed to suspend belief about something that we all lived through. Those of us who are the triplets' age lived through it in our dorms like Sally and Lewin would have. I'm not mad that she killed him off in 9/11, just that the whole set up of it is completely wrong.
Graphic: Death, Infertility, Death of parent, and Infidelity
Moderate: Car accident, Miscarriage, and Outing
readandsip's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Graphic: Infidelity, Outing, Car accident, and Infertility
onemorepagecrew's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Racism, Religious bigotry, Infertility, and Outing
Moderate: Death of parent, Abandonment, and Infidelity
savvyrosereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
The Latecomer is the sweeping tale of the evolution of an unusual, and extremely complicated, family—Johanna and Salo Oppenheimer and their triplets and, later, fourth child— that doesn’t always consider itself a family at all.
In many ways, this book chronicles a slow evolution of many characters, which perhaps makes it apt that my reading experience was something of an evolution as well. In the beginning, I was entertained but felt the book was an undeniably slow build. By the middle, I was charmed by the Wes Anderson/Royal Tenenbaums vibes and cheerfully reading along to see where things went. In the turn to the final section I was thoroughly gut punched, to the point where I sat up straight and just stared at the page for several seconds, blinking wildly. By the end, I was thoroughly obsessed with this book.
It’s hard for me to say too much about why I loved The Latecomer without giving things away, and I firmly feel that everyone should go in blind. But what I can say is this book is brilliantly written, sharp, smart, funny, and layered, and I will not soon forget the story it tells or the journey it took me on. It’s rare for me to be so thoroughly pulled in by a character-driven novel, but the characters are so perfectly rendered (even Harrison, who I regularly wanted to punch), and all the small threads that pulled the story together were so beautifully and intricately woven that once I started to spot them I was completely and entirely captivated. I’m entirely sure that I will be marveling at this book and my experience of it for years to come.
Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: literary fiction that packs major twists; family drama with deep character sketches; intricately evolving stories.
CW: Infertility; infidelity; racism; anti-Semitism; some discussions of mental illness.
Moderate: Outing, Infidelity, Infertility, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Car accident
Minor: Abandonment