Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - The Happy Couple

The perfect read for a rainy day. I breezed through it in about two. The characters jump of the page in all their complicated glory. By turns funny and sentimental, all together a good time.

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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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funny reflective 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? Yes

4.5

+3 stars for references to Taylor Swift and Mitski
+2 stars for an enjoyable, genuinely funny cohesive collection of character studies that each serve an overarching plot. (Phoebe is my favorite, she's just like me for real—which is exactly what i said about the narrator of Dolan's first novel, Exciting Times.)
-1 star for the awkward length, about halfway between a novel and a novella. there was very little plot progression compared to character development, which isn't inherently bad, but it felt like the story stood in place while we re-litigated every character's past. if it's between being longer with more plot or shorter with less character development, and as someone storygraph brands as "Typically choos[ing] fast-paced books that are <300 pages long", you can imagine i would advocate for the latter. the obvious one to go is Vivian—i don't really know why she got her own part in the first place, except i suppose that what plot it did have couldn't have been told through Luke's because his took the format of groom speech drafts.* i appreciated her outlook on life but it felt only tangentially connected to the rest of the book. i do recognize, though, that her character is the only woman explicitly said to be a person of color, leaving a hole in her absence. it's a difficult predicament then, for which i don't have a good solution that doesn't completely deviate from the author's intent. obviously none of this matters or will ever happen, i just like thinking about how to create the (probably nonexistent) "perfect story".
*+0.5 stars for the very fun format at times. the tables? yes please! tabularly-formatted data is so pleasing to me.
and if you haven't been keeping track, that's 3+2-1+0.5, which comes out to 4.5 stars.

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marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective 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

Naoise Dolan’s sophomore novel has a fun structure that gives it almost a reality TV tell-all feel. Leading up to the day of the wedding, we hear from the bride; her sister, the bridesmaid; the best man; the groom; and one of the guests. Chock-full of queers, this book has the complicated characters and relationships you might expect from the inimitable Sally Rooney, but it’s funnier and much less depressing (no shade!). In essence, it’s the perfect book candy—a beach read with substance; genuinely interesting lit fic with plenty to laugh about. It’s a clever book, and the ending made me smile. Plus, as a musician, I enjoyed reading Celine’s thoughts about music.

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znvisser's review against another edition

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funny reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This blurb promised a mess and I was here for it. After I started reading I spotted some Sally Rooney comparisons in other reviews, but I found Dolans characters more interesting and the writing more fun (it's been a while since I tried Rooney tho). I enjoyed the awkwardly human dialogue, observations and reflections from the characters. And even though I couldn't relate to the 'romantic' relationships portrayed, the non-romantic ones and the roles all characters fulfilled in each others lives felt very real.

Wasn't fond of how the distracted enabler and the very troubled cause schemed against their mutual interest towards the end - as if their situations weren't a result of all three of them making mistakes again and again - but I guess realistically it is how such situations would unfold. And luckily, I did feel the last chapter cleared it up and made up for it.

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