Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Latecomer

Took a while for me to get into this book, but I’m glad I did. A perspective on family life I have not ever seen or read before, with an entire cast of complex, problematic, and at times fully unlikeable/hateable characters. Despite occasionally despising the characters, I still found myself rooting for them and their success as a family. It was a really funny read, and had some deeply satisfying twists and reveals. It’s an interesting glimpse into the lives of the upper-echelon, and a really intriguing character study. I would definitely recommend, especially if you come from a more “complicated” family - as some of the truths revealed by this book about how we navigate life with the family we were born into are seriously poignant. I am giving 3.75 merely out of personal preference- I tend to like books with more lovable characters. This book is undeniably wonderfully written and reflective.

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tara_valeria's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

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franklola's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

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tara3117's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

I was excited for this book because I loved The Plot last year and then I found out that Julia Whalen narrated the audiobook. She said in an interview that a certain plot point made her stand up in shock. That's all my favorite words!

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.

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onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

My goodness, this book was a commitment. I adore literary fiction, especially deep family stories, and I choose character over plot any day. That said, this book was dense and hard to get through, and the characters were challenging to form a bond with.

In this book we meet the Oppenheimer family, a wealthy Jewish American family living in New York City. We see the parents’ relationship as well as their lives outside their relationship, and we follow their children through childhood into adulthood. There’s not a strong familial bond in any direction for majority of the book and it’s essentially a collection of individual experiences.

The development is intentionally slow and if I am looking neutrally at the writing, it’s effective. My challenge as a reader was that each character in the first 80% of the book was going out of their way to be unlikeable. They’re cruel at times and it’s clear they know there will be no serious consequences. By the end, as more characters are given the floor and the initial characters evolve, I was too lost on everyone to feel a redemption arc.

The last 15-20% of the book was offbeat. The pace accelerated, attempts at personal growth were too packaged, the “twists” were sad and out of place, and it was disarming compared to the extremely slow pace in the beginning.

The topics that the book tried to tackle were all big – grief, infidelity, infertility, generational trauma, racism, privilege, religion, LGBTQ+ identity. I love and intentionally seek out books that illuminate these experiences, but ultimately it was not great to see them through the lives of the Oppenheimers.

For me, this wasn’t it. I didn’t have an issue with the slow pace or book length, and it wasn’t just that the characters were unlikeable and unapologetic. The Paper Palace had both of those elements and I really enjoyed that book. Ultimately, it was the combination of topics this book addresses being told through these characters.

Content warnings: Infertility, Death of parent, LGBTQ+ Outing, Racism, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Abandonment

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carolibrary's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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kaylasbookgram's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

3.0

Thank you Celadon Books for the advanced copy for my honest review.

This book touched so many topics from mental health to racism to religion. I thoroughly enjoyed the story but the slow build is not for me especially in bigger books. Which is why I’m giving it a 3⭐️ for I liked it. The genres on Goodreads says this is a mystery/thriller but I didn’t get that vibe at all so I wouldn’t suggest it for someone looking for that specific genre.

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