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funny
reflective
slow-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Wedding People I got from Book of the Month last year and finally got to listen to. It was good but I’m not sure it was the best book of the year like I saw floating around. Lots of trigger warnings: infertility, suicide, pandemic, divorce, cancer, death of a pet. I think it’s a dark comedy. It combats very real issues but also has a lot of satirical, funny moments in the ridiculousness of a woman who decides book herself a stay at a fancy hotel to end her life and instead becomes maid of honor in a random woman’s wedding that’s taking place at the hotel. It’s a full cast of characters that I did enjoy and I was happy with the ending. Definitely not what I expected when everyone was raving about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
Minor: Cancer, Pandemic/Epidemic
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt
Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This has definitely been my favourite book of the year so far.
The Wedding People follows Phoebe Stone, who finally makes her way to the grand Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, a place she had always dreamed of visiting with her husband before the pandemic threw everything off track. But now, Phoebe is here for a very different reason. Feeling like she’s hit rock bottom, she’s come to the inn for one last splurge on herself—before she ends her life.
Enter Lila, who’s at the Cornwall Inn for a much happier occasion: her wedding. She’s booked the entire inn for her friends and family, or so she thought—until she bumps into Phoebe in the elevator and learns of her plans. Lila, understandably, can’t let someone follow through with that on the most important day of her life, and she immediately sets out to stop her.
Luckily, Phoebe changes her mind, and she gets swept into the whirlwind world of the wedding people. As she spends time with Lila and the others, we see Phoebe begin to rediscover her love for life, for herself, and for the person she wants to become. The connections she makes along the way touch her—and in turn, touch everyone she meets.
This book does an amazing job of tackling heavy topics while keeping them accessible and even a bit lighter. It’s a journey of self-discovery and self-love, filled with wisdom I wasn’t expecting. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it left me with a full heart.
I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. It’s truly beautiful.
The Wedding People follows Phoebe Stone, who finally makes her way to the grand Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, a place she had always dreamed of visiting with her husband before the pandemic threw everything off track. But now, Phoebe is here for a very different reason. Feeling like she’s hit rock bottom, she’s come to the inn for one last splurge on herself—before she ends her life.
Enter Lila, who’s at the Cornwall Inn for a much happier occasion: her wedding. She’s booked the entire inn for her friends and family, or so she thought—until she bumps into Phoebe in the elevator and learns of her plans. Lila, understandably, can’t let someone follow through with that on the most important day of her life, and she immediately sets out to stop her.
Luckily, Phoebe changes her mind, and she gets swept into the whirlwind world of the wedding people. As she spends time with Lila and the others, we see Phoebe begin to rediscover her love for life, for herself, and for the person she wants to become. The connections she makes along the way touch her—and in turn, touch everyone she meets.
This book does an amazing job of tackling heavy topics while keeping them accessible and even a bit lighter. It’s a journey of self-discovery and self-love, filled with wisdom I wasn’t expecting. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it left me with a full heart.
I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. It’s truly beautiful.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pandemic/Epidemic
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Animal death, Vomit
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Wedding People had been on my TBR for quite some time. While I don’t fully understand the hype, I did enjoy the book.
The story follows the main character, who stays at a hotel where shh is the only guest not there for the big wedding. We experience all of her interactions with the hotel staff, the wedding party, and various guests.
Set just after the end of the 2020 pandemic, the book explores how even the smallest interactions with others can profoundly impact the direction of one’s life.
At times sad, at others funny, it turned out to be a very thought-provoking read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Infertility, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Blood, Alcohol
Minor: Medical content, Dementia, Pandemic/Epidemic
DNF @ 42% - this book has been extremely hyped up, but unfortunately I'm finding this a slog to get through. I knew going in that there would be darker subject matter, but the balance between the heavy topics like suicide and infertility with the humour is not working for me. As much as I can also identify with Phoebe at times, most of the characters feel very flat and unrealistic. After deciding to DNF, I also intentionally spoiled myself on the ending, and it's what I already guessed would happen. I'm not seeing a point in continuing, as I can't imagine this would be above a 3 star at most for me, even if it improved in the second half.
Also, a major issue for me is the fact that, while we spend a lot of time with Phoebe being understandably devastated over her ex-husband's affair, I already felt weird about the connection forming between her and the soon-to-be groom. From reading other reviews, it appears that they never cross a physical line, and the wedding doesn't end up happening (luckily) but to me, their scenes were already pointing towards an emotional affair, and it felt like a bizarre decision, considering that her life had just been shattered by her husband's affair.
There was another smaller (potentially nit-picky) thing that bothered me, and contributed to me putting this down. I listened to the audiobook, and there were several points where the narrator would abruptly change mid-chapter (and this isn't a multiple POV book where it would make sense to have portions read by a different narrator) These spliced-in sections also sounded very robotic compared to the main narrator, and I found it jarring every time.
There was another smaller (potentially nit-picky) thing that bothered me, and contributed to me putting this down. I listened to the audiobook, and there were several points where the narrator would abruptly change mid-chapter (and this isn't a multiple POV book where it would make sense to have portions read by a different narrator) These spliced-in sections also sounded very robotic compared to the main narrator, and I found it jarring every time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Pandemic/Epidemic