You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.94 AVERAGE
2.94 AVERAGE
I made myself finish it, but skimmed much of the last quarter. The first half was good...light and whimsical, an intriguing idea. Woman meets the literal "man of her dreams." And then after about the half way point, things just got dark and weird, and not in a good way.
(For some reason, this book keeps making me think of "The Peculiar Sadness of Lemon Cake," another book with a strange fantasy premise that I am happy to say I did not finish.)
(For some reason, this book keeps making me think of "The Peculiar Sadness of Lemon Cake," another book with a strange fantasy premise that I am happy to say I did not finish.)
A young mother hates her comfortable upper-class life, where all she does is what her children and husband tell her to do. She escapes where she has since childhood, to her dream world where she does what her friend Hugo tells her to do, but is very happy there. Suddenly, she runs into Hugo in real life and starts stalking him. At this point, I am thinking that this is not going to end well.
This book makes me profoundly uncomfortable - in the same way that Philip Roth's and Barbara Kingsolver's books make me uncomfortable. A character I dislike makes choices that make me cringe and has to deal with the fallout of their bad decisions. This book is set in the feminine yuppie world of the right preschools, youth soccer, and expensive birthday parties. It does well to show the daily quiet desperation of a woman stuck in that world.
The book is very well written and at times I could lose myself in the flow of the prose. Mostly, the book makes me happy that I don't have kids. I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
This book makes me profoundly uncomfortable - in the same way that Philip Roth's and Barbara Kingsolver's books make me uncomfortable. A character I dislike makes choices that make me cringe and has to deal with the fallout of their bad decisions. This book is set in the feminine yuppie world of the right preschools, youth soccer, and expensive birthday parties. It does well to show the daily quiet desperation of a woman stuck in that world.
The book is very well written and at times I could lose myself in the flow of the prose. Mostly, the book makes me happy that I don't have kids. I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
Hugo & Rose had a very intriguing premise – where the person you dreamt for the past thirty years suddenly showing up in your life. What would you do in that situation? What would you even do if you dreamt of the same person over and over again on an island and having a grand adventure for the past thirty years? I thought that the synopsis of the book was fascinating and was eager to grab a hold of the book.
While the story line itself was interesting, the characters, both Rose and Hugo fell short from my expectations. Rose was, honestly, a terrible person. A terrible wife, a terrible mother and an overall terrible human being. I got the impression that she hated her kids but tried to be a good mother at the same time. She was always complaining about something – either her husband never being there because he was a surgeon and was at work all the time or her children for being loud or being too rowdy. There was always something she complained about. And then she would complain about herself – being too fat, not being pretty enough, wanting to be more like the Rose in her dreams, etc. I mean, I understand midlife crisis (kind of but I’m not there yet so I don’t understand it first hand) or even being stressed out from basically single-handedly taking care of the household but at the same time, she is not the only one who is in that kind of situation yet she is so grouchy all.the.damn.time. She doesn’t even see the blessings that she have – a husband who loves her unconditionally even though he’s never home or the fact that she’s always moody or the fact that she gained a lot of weight since they met or even the fact that she dreamt about Hugo every single night. I honestly did not like her at all – if you couldn’t tell. I just couldn’t see what her problem was. And to be perfectly honest, I could care less.
Hugo, on the other hand, was just simply creepy. In the beginning, he was a normal guy while Rose semi-stalked him but once he found out that she existed, he started to go into creep mode. And it was really weird too because when he first saw Rose, he couldn’t believe it and was even like “you can pass as Rose but you’re like the older, fatter sister” so when he started to be attracted into her and telling her that they were meant to be together, it was so strange to me. Plus, when the dreams started to be mad creepy and scary and he tried to trap Rose in there with him, I was honestly disturbed.
Despite the lackluster characters, I still found the story to be quite entertaining and towards the end when Rose’s dream world and reality started to collide with each other, that was a refreshing breath of air compared to the beginning when you just read about Rose’s dissatisfaction with life. Overall, I’m not sure if I would recommend it per say since the characters were just so mediocre but if you’re interested in dreams and realities colliding, feel free to check out this book.
While the story line itself was interesting, the characters, both Rose and Hugo fell short from my expectations. Rose was, honestly, a terrible person. A terrible wife, a terrible mother and an overall terrible human being. I got the impression that she hated her kids but tried to be a good mother at the same time. She was always complaining about something – either her husband never being there because he was a surgeon and was at work all the time or her children for being loud or being too rowdy. There was always something she complained about. And then she would complain about herself – being too fat, not being pretty enough, wanting to be more like the Rose in her dreams, etc. I mean, I understand midlife crisis (kind of but I’m not there yet so I don’t understand it first hand) or even being stressed out from basically single-handedly taking care of the household but at the same time, she is not the only one who is in that kind of situation yet she is so grouchy all.the.damn.time. She doesn’t even see the blessings that she have – a husband who loves her unconditionally even though he’s never home or the fact that she’s always moody or the fact that she gained a lot of weight since they met or even the fact that she dreamt about Hugo every single night. I honestly did not like her at all – if you couldn’t tell. I just couldn’t see what her problem was. And to be perfectly honest, I could care less.
Hugo, on the other hand, was just simply creepy. In the beginning, he was a normal guy while Rose semi-stalked him but once he found out that she existed, he started to go into creep mode. And it was really weird too because when he first saw Rose, he couldn’t believe it and was even like “you can pass as Rose but you’re like the older, fatter sister” so when he started to be attracted into her and telling her that they were meant to be together, it was so strange to me. Plus, when the dreams started to be mad creepy and scary and he tried to trap Rose in there with him, I was honestly disturbed.
Despite the lackluster characters, I still found the story to be quite entertaining and towards the end when Rose’s dream world and reality started to collide with each other, that was a refreshing breath of air compared to the beginning when you just read about Rose’s dissatisfaction with life. Overall, I’m not sure if I would recommend it per say since the characters were just so mediocre but if you’re interested in dreams and realities colliding, feel free to check out this book.
To preface: I read this book after meeting the author, I'm planning to write an article on the process of recording an audiobook and she was nice enough to give me access to the recording.
Of course, meeting the author and liking her has little to do with liking the book. I was worried I wouldn't like it, worried I'd have to listen to the whole thing when I wasn't enjoying it. Happily, I liked it very much even though this book tends to fall into the categories of books I don't really go for. (Which explains why I didn't request a galley when I could have pre-release.)
Unhappy housewife books can rub me wrong. I've been that woman, so to some extent this is just not wanting to read about a territory I already know quite well, and in other cases it can be all about privileged women and stories with no real stakes. This book doesn't do that, instead it addresses in many ways that biggest dilemma of stay-at-home-motherhood: how to deal with the inevitable unhappiness of it.
Being a SAHM to young children and a spouse who works out of the home, is living 24/7 to serve the demands of others. It's frustrating and thankless in the best of circumstances. Rose is not quite in the best of circumstances. She has normal children with normal needs, she has enough money to get by, she has a husband who loves her deeply. These are all wonderful things. But her husband is a surgeon and gone all the time, her youngest child is still young enough to need nearly-constant care, and her life is just stuck in that rut where years go by with very little change in the day-to-day routine.
Rose's one escape is her dreams, which have always been the same since she was young, about her and a boy named Hugo roaming a fantastical island. The engine that moves the book forward is the moment Rose sees a man in her waking life who looks an awful lot like the boy she knows so well.
The biggest struggle with the book, for me, was the dream sequences. They are really well thought out, the worldbuilding there is nicely done, but the stakes there tend to disappear since it is, after all, just a dream. But I recognize the inevitability of them in the narrative, since this is how Rose really experiences her life and every dream puts off her reality and having to deal with it.
Foley is more than competent as a reader, I'd be surprised if audiobook listeners noticed the difference between her and a professional reader. (Foley has experience as an actress, FWIW.)
This is a solid book club pick, especially if your club is made up mostly of mothers. The reason I like this book so much is that it doesn't flinch or hold back from difficult truths or plot twists. This is not a book where you're just waiting for a happy ending. The stakes build significantly while never making you feel disconnected from Rose as a character. There is much to talk about.
Of course, meeting the author and liking her has little to do with liking the book. I was worried I wouldn't like it, worried I'd have to listen to the whole thing when I wasn't enjoying it. Happily, I liked it very much even though this book tends to fall into the categories of books I don't really go for. (Which explains why I didn't request a galley when I could have pre-release.)
Unhappy housewife books can rub me wrong. I've been that woman, so to some extent this is just not wanting to read about a territory I already know quite well, and in other cases it can be all about privileged women and stories with no real stakes. This book doesn't do that, instead it addresses in many ways that biggest dilemma of stay-at-home-motherhood: how to deal with the inevitable unhappiness of it.
Being a SAHM to young children and a spouse who works out of the home, is living 24/7 to serve the demands of others. It's frustrating and thankless in the best of circumstances. Rose is not quite in the best of circumstances. She has normal children with normal needs, she has enough money to get by, she has a husband who loves her deeply. These are all wonderful things. But her husband is a surgeon and gone all the time, her youngest child is still young enough to need nearly-constant care, and her life is just stuck in that rut where years go by with very little change in the day-to-day routine.
Rose's one escape is her dreams, which have always been the same since she was young, about her and a boy named Hugo roaming a fantastical island. The engine that moves the book forward is the moment Rose sees a man in her waking life who looks an awful lot like the boy she knows so well.
The biggest struggle with the book, for me, was the dream sequences. They are really well thought out, the worldbuilding there is nicely done, but the stakes there tend to disappear since it is, after all, just a dream. But I recognize the inevitability of them in the narrative, since this is how Rose really experiences her life and every dream puts off her reality and having to deal with it.
Foley is more than competent as a reader, I'd be surprised if audiobook listeners noticed the difference between her and a professional reader. (Foley has experience as an actress, FWIW.)
This is a solid book club pick, especially if your club is made up mostly of mothers. The reason I like this book so much is that it doesn't flinch or hold back from difficult truths or plot twists. This is not a book where you're just waiting for a happy ending. The stakes build significantly while never making you feel disconnected from Rose as a character. There is much to talk about.