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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
Another good summer read. These people are a hot mess, which matches the temperature outside. Very enjoyable.
I love you dearly, Delia Ephron. But I’m re-naming your novel “White People Problems.”
I’ll be honest. Initially, I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be like. I’ve just finished two books where all the characters are objectively horrible people. I know this is more realistic and very hip and in right now, but aye-yai-yai, can we get a little more sunshine, please? Because really that’s the main draw to this book – everyone is more and more awful as the book progresses. But much like the proverbial train-wreck, you can’t look away. So while this is sometimes problematic for me (see: I can’t stand Game of Thrones because everyone is far worse than the last, and I need one person – just one individual – to be decent for fuck’s sake)giphy
I loved hating these characters. Much like an over-the-top reality show, the privileged people’s antics and seeing them learn their lessons is one of the most satisfying things I can think of. Think of your favorite reality show or TV drama, and this is it: sexy, scandalous, and ominous.
Siracusa is a story of a couples’ vacation – Lizzie & Michael are writers from New York, Lizzie is a journalist who is trying to find her writing voice again, and Michael, her husband, is a Pulitzer winning playwright who is trying and failing to write a novel. Lizzie invites her old boyfriend, now married and living in Maine, Finn, his high-maintenance wife Taylor, and their creepy ten-year-old daughter Snow. Lizzie suggests Rome, then Siracusa. Siracusa, as you might expect, is much less of a tourist destination than Rome is – a bit off the beaten path. For some, that’s part of its charm. For others… 😬 Not So Much. (It’s worth noting that I’d never want to spend any amount of time with any of these people, except for Lizzie who seems ‘ight.) Well… the thing about couples vacations – as my Mom always said, you can only stay with someone who isn’t your family for up to 3 days. Any longer and the charm wears thin.
Each chapter is narrated by a different adult, Round-Robin style, and… let’s just say everyone’s wrapped up tight in their own shit and call it a day, shall we? The kinda interesting thing about this story is that, because we have everyone’s mixed point of view, we get the perspective and the justifications for their behavior. Even if they are jerks, creeps, narcissists, and entitled control freaks, you may not like them, but you can at least understand where they’re coming from.
Lizzie is not only struggling to reignite her writing voice again, she’s trying to reignite her husband’s interest in her. Michael, similarly, is trying to finish (start?) his much-anticipated novel, but he’s distracted by a secret he’s hedging on telling his wife – trapped like a rat over it. Finn is a restauranteur and is using this trip to Italy as an excuse to imbibe in some of his vices, namely wine and smoking and ignoring his wife and daughter. Finn is, honestly, a shmuck – relatively harmless, but as I like to say “I’m so glad I’m not the one married to him.” His wife, Taylor, is equally as harmless but somehow a much worse person: entitled, controlling, and despicably shallow – she’s exactly the type of woman who does end up married to men like Finn in real life. She hates Lizzie; is probably jealous of the relationship she & Finn once had decades before. Taylor is devoted to her daughter Snow – Snow is her twin, except that she’s “painfully shy”… or manipulative? Snow is creepy. SHE’S obsessed with Michael – Taylor, who thinks Snow can do nothing wrong, is just charmed by Michael because he’s so great with her.
Honestly, this novel is a thrill – it starts off innocent enough, but goes from like a kiddie ride to a 20-storey cardiac arrest roller coaster. Y’all, I was not prepared. You grow up with Delia Ephron’s movies: You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, fucking Micheal – you think you understand her. You only think she’s a sweet lady who makes these quaint stories come to life, and you’ll rent them from Blockbuster to watch at a sleepover party with your friends from your softball team. You think she’s incapable of going dark. You guessed wrong. Delia, who are you? Who are you really? I understand artistic license, and that a good writer thrills at putting their characters through the wringer – but Delia? MY Delia?
So this book was way more soapy than my usual taste. Still really excellent, but not my usual preference. It wasn’t what I expected, and it’s a quick read with a lot happening. If you’re looking for something to read on vacation or while at the pool this summer, you might pick this one up. Just… don’t go on any couple vacations. You don’t know what will turn up.
review originally posted on my book blog found here
I’ll be honest. Initially, I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be like. I’ve just finished two books where all the characters are objectively horrible people. I know this is more realistic and very hip and in right now, but aye-yai-yai, can we get a little more sunshine, please? Because really that’s the main draw to this book – everyone is more and more awful as the book progresses. But much like the proverbial train-wreck, you can’t look away. So while this is sometimes problematic for me (see: I can’t stand Game of Thrones because everyone is far worse than the last, and I need one person – just one individual – to be decent for fuck’s sake)giphy
I loved hating these characters. Much like an over-the-top reality show, the privileged people’s antics and seeing them learn their lessons is one of the most satisfying things I can think of. Think of your favorite reality show or TV drama, and this is it: sexy, scandalous, and ominous.
Siracusa is a story of a couples’ vacation – Lizzie & Michael are writers from New York, Lizzie is a journalist who is trying to find her writing voice again, and Michael, her husband, is a Pulitzer winning playwright who is trying and failing to write a novel. Lizzie invites her old boyfriend, now married and living in Maine, Finn, his high-maintenance wife Taylor, and their creepy ten-year-old daughter Snow. Lizzie suggests Rome, then Siracusa. Siracusa, as you might expect, is much less of a tourist destination than Rome is – a bit off the beaten path. For some, that’s part of its charm. For others… 😬 Not So Much. (It’s worth noting that I’d never want to spend any amount of time with any of these people, except for Lizzie who seems ‘ight.) Well… the thing about couples vacations – as my Mom always said, you can only stay with someone who isn’t your family for up to 3 days. Any longer and the charm wears thin.
Each chapter is narrated by a different adult, Round-Robin style, and… let’s just say everyone’s wrapped up tight in their own shit and call it a day, shall we? The kinda interesting thing about this story is that, because we have everyone’s mixed point of view, we get the perspective and the justifications for their behavior. Even if they are jerks, creeps, narcissists, and entitled control freaks, you may not like them, but you can at least understand where they’re coming from.
Lizzie is not only struggling to reignite her writing voice again, she’s trying to reignite her husband’s interest in her. Michael, similarly, is trying to finish (start?) his much-anticipated novel, but he’s distracted by a secret he’s hedging on telling his wife – trapped like a rat over it. Finn is a restauranteur and is using this trip to Italy as an excuse to imbibe in some of his vices, namely wine and smoking and ignoring his wife and daughter. Finn is, honestly, a shmuck – relatively harmless, but as I like to say “I’m so glad I’m not the one married to him.” His wife, Taylor, is equally as harmless but somehow a much worse person: entitled, controlling, and despicably shallow – she’s exactly the type of woman who does end up married to men like Finn in real life. She hates Lizzie; is probably jealous of the relationship she & Finn once had decades before. Taylor is devoted to her daughter Snow – Snow is her twin, except that she’s “painfully shy”… or manipulative? Snow is creepy. SHE’S obsessed with Michael – Taylor, who thinks Snow can do nothing wrong, is just charmed by Michael because he’s so great with her.
Honestly, this novel is a thrill – it starts off innocent enough, but goes from like a kiddie ride to a 20-storey cardiac arrest roller coaster. Y’all, I was not prepared. You grow up with Delia Ephron’s movies: You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, fucking Micheal – you think you understand her. You only think she’s a sweet lady who makes these quaint stories come to life, and you’ll rent them from Blockbuster to watch at a sleepover party with your friends from your softball team. You think she’s incapable of going dark. You guessed wrong. Delia, who are you? Who are you really? I understand artistic license, and that a good writer thrills at putting their characters through the wringer – but Delia? MY Delia?
So this book was way more soapy than my usual taste. Still really excellent, but not my usual preference. It wasn’t what I expected, and it’s a quick read with a lot happening. If you’re looking for something to read on vacation or while at the pool this summer, you might pick this one up. Just… don’t go on any couple vacations. You don’t know what will turn up.
review originally posted on my book blog found here
Depressing book about a miserable group of people who choose to travel together for who-knows-what reason.
The book was very underwhelming. The story was ok but nothing great. There was no redeeming characters to speak of.
Siracusa is one of the best books I've read this year. Ephron creates fascinating, complicated, and unreliable characters that kept me turning the pages. I especially enjoyed the novel's exploration of the blurred lines between fact and fiction, truth and lies. The novel is about family, marriage, and betrayal. I definitely recommend this for fans of The Nest, Fates and Furies, and Even Gone Girl.
Although the ending was pretty predictable, Ephron does a great job of creating suspense through character development. Each character is flawed in her or his own unique way. None of them are likable, and some are downright despicable, but all are interesting, and it's our interest In the characters that drives the plot. At times, the shift between narrators is a bit jarring, and her oddly punctuated sentences sometimes created confusion, but all in all, this is a good weekend read.
3.5 stars
This was an interesting ...mystery/thriller? I'm not sure what the genre would be. It's about a vacation to Italy that involves 2 couples and the daughter of one of the couples. It kind of reminded me of the book The Kind Worth Killing in that all of the characters were so unlikeable that it was kind of unrealistic to me that all 5 (well 4 of the 5, Finn wasn't so bad) of these people would be connected. I generally like most people. The mother of the little girl was the worst. She was ridiculous. She wanted to curate every second of her daughter's life. However, I liked this quie a bit more than The Kind Worth Killing. The story was interesting. I kind of want to read it again because of the slightly ambigious ending. When I first finished it, I thought the ending was obvious, but the more I thought about it, I don't think it's so obvious. I want to see if I see anything that I perhaps missed the first time. I liked the Italian backdrop. I'm going to Italy on vacation soon, which is what prompted me to read this. Overall, I enjoyed it and I'd recommend it for a nice easy vacation read.
This was an interesting ...mystery/thriller? I'm not sure what the genre would be. It's about a vacation to Italy that involves 2 couples and the daughter of one of the couples. It kind of reminded me of the book The Kind Worth Killing in that all of the characters were so unlikeable that it was kind of unrealistic to me that all 5 (well 4 of the 5, Finn wasn't so bad) of these people would be connected. I generally like most people. The mother of the little girl was the worst. She was ridiculous. She wanted to curate every second of her daughter's life. However, I liked this quie a bit more than The Kind Worth Killing. The story was interesting. I kind of want to read it again because of the slightly ambigious ending. When I first finished it, I thought the ending was obvious, but the more I thought about it, I don't think it's so obvious. I want to see if I see anything that I perhaps missed the first time. I liked the Italian backdrop. I'm going to Italy on vacation soon, which is what prompted me to read this. Overall, I enjoyed it and I'd recommend it for a nice easy vacation read.
Not sure I would have stuck with this in print, but really enjoyed the audio with multiple narrators.
I totally enjoyed this more than I expected. I loved all the crazy family drama. And I'd give anything for a version of this story from Snow's POV.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought this book was just okay. The style of writing for me was off at times and found myself having to re-read parts to make sense of the timeline. There is a bit of mystery which is what kept me reading. But even when that was revealed, it was pretty anticlimactic.