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endemictoearth's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I’m really torn about how to rate this book. It’s well-written, for the most part, but it kept frustrating me. First, with the descriptions of fat characters, which ranged from the bizarre to the offensive. (Like, making the fire and brimstone homophobic preacher super fat and sweaty? Come on, dude!) And the author kept throwing in random chapters from the perspective of secondary characters. It started with the sister of one of the protags, then went through a couple of the kids, the weird old church lady whose cat eats extension cords, a best friend, the VILLAIN . . . man I was expecting to get a POV chapter from the dogs (who also feature heavily). Like I said, this book frustrated me a lot, and I’m not sure it was worth it in the end. I think it was fairly realistic about how a small Missouri town would react to a gay couple, but also was quite over the top about emotions and reactions. My husband’s first wife passed away suddenly, and his grieving journey hasn’t been linear, and I can’t imagine how it would have gone if they’d had kids, but there was something about HOW we got all the information and declarations . . . it just didn’t seem wholly believable for some reason.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
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