Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
This book is engaging enough to finish reading, but is about middle aged white suburbanites, their teenage kids, and the predictable problems people like that will have. Nothing groundbreaking.
Ugh. I kept wanting it to get better but it just never did. I didn't like the characters and it was just not for me.
Is it just me, or are the adults in these types of novels just insufferably whiney? I mean, I get it, I just turned 35 and I have my own issues. But the navel-gazing is just incredibly annoying. I can't be the only one who feels this way.
**This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley, release date 5/31/16.
This is my first book by Emma Straub, but I remember hearing a ton of buzz about her last book, so I was excited to get approved for this one on Netgalley. I've been working on reading it over the past few days and really enjoyed the story. Coming from someone who reads mostly YA, I have to be in a "mood" for Adult books. This one would actually be a pretty good crossover for YA, minus some content. I enjoyed this author's writing style and the stories of all the characters. Everything intertwined well and I didn't find one story more boring or more interesting than another. This is always a good quality, I hate nothing more than reading a book and just trying to get to a different part of the story. I want to enjoy it all. I would recommend this one to my friends and those who like contemporary novels/women's fiction. This is a good, not-too-serious summer read.
This is my first book by Emma Straub, but I remember hearing a ton of buzz about her last book, so I was excited to get approved for this one on Netgalley. I've been working on reading it over the past few days and really enjoyed the story. Coming from someone who reads mostly YA, I have to be in a "mood" for Adult books. This one would actually be a pretty good crossover for YA, minus some content. I enjoyed this author's writing style and the stories of all the characters. Everything intertwined well and I didn't find one story more boring or more interesting than another. This is always a good quality, I hate nothing more than reading a book and just trying to get to a different part of the story. I want to enjoy it all. I would recommend this one to my friends and those who like contemporary novels/women's fiction. This is a good, not-too-serious summer read.
I can't say I completely hated this book, but overall I didn't really like it. The story was somewhat compelling and I did finish it because I was curious about how each character's story would wrap up.
That being said, I really hated all the characters - they were all pathetic in their own way and seriously cringe-worthy in some parts. This was a mixture of New York's rich mid-life crisis that involve terrible marriages with a little teenage drama thrown in.
My suggestion is to pass, unless this review somehow made you like the story premise.
That being said, I really hated all the characters - they were all pathetic in their own way and seriously cringe-worthy in some parts. This was a mixture of New York's rich mid-life crisis that involve terrible marriages with a little teenage drama thrown in.
My suggestion is to pass, unless this review somehow made you like the story premise.
Every character was annoying and the plot was so painfully hipster (read: white), but the book was well written despite that. Andrew sucks so hard.
This is my third Emma Straub book. I keep coming back for more because of her life-like, multi-faceted characters and the way she creates pop culture references that I think about as if they exist.
Over the last month I've been reading through Emma Straub’s books in reverse chronological order and after absolutely loving the first couple, I am beginning to understand why her earlier books seem to get such mixed reviews. While I didn't hate this book, I definitely didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as her two most recent novels. I felt like this one really lacked the heart that her more recent work has, and there were more than a handful of times while reading this one that she would phrase things or have the characters do/say things that really gave me pause. In fairness though that probably has a lot to do with the fact that this book came out in 2016 and the world of publishing (and just the world as whole, tbh) has changed quite a bit since then lol. Anyway this wasn't bad, but it just didn't wow me. Which is fine! I'll take loving her more current writing style where she has the potential to publish more things that I'll love over preferring the old and having nothing left to look forward to any day of the week lol
CW: divorce, fire, cheating
CW: divorce, fire, cheating
It was well written and Straub did a great job of exploring the themes of marriage, love, and growing up. But I sometimes felt bored by what felt like rich people problems to me.
Meh. Hard to care about most of the characters, though u did enjoy the writing itself.