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A review by leonidskies
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I didn't really plan to read this book (for my work book club), but it happened and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected!
The core of this book being sisterhood and the complex relationships of family worked really well. I felt like I understood and had a good picture of most of the cast, which was pretty impressive for the number of characters.
I'm a little more lukewarm on a couple of the characters - I found the main 'child'/third generation daughter difficult to understand, as I didn't really see the point that the novel was very clearly trying to hammer home. Something just felt a little off about it. I also had a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth over the sole black character, whose race was only ever alluded to vaguely (and one of the characters was almost blatantly racist towards but this was never mentioned in any capacity) and whose character was unmistakeably less well-rounded compared to all the other characters in the otherwise all-white cast.
I had really complicated feelings about Julia. I'm unsure how I was meant to interpret her - I quite liked how clear and legible most of what the book was trying to say was, but she continually evaded the same kind of incisive commentary over what I felt were her most glaring flaws. Her 'girlboss' moments were abjectly lacking in empathy, but I was left with the impression I wasn't MEANT to be horrified by what she did. I'm still not sure what the intention was at all.
That said, I did really enjoy reading this book. I liked the different perspectives and the scope, the spectrum of feeling was good, and again the family relationships and mostly well written complicated and interconnected characters and contexts were really good.
The core of this book being sisterhood and the complex relationships of family worked really well. I felt like I understood and had a good picture of most of the cast, which was pretty impressive for the number of characters.
I'm a little more lukewarm on a couple of the characters - I found the main 'child'/third generation daughter difficult to understand, as I didn't really see the point that the novel was very clearly trying to hammer home. Something just felt a little off about it. I also had a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth over the sole black character, whose race was only ever alluded to vaguely (and one of the characters was almost blatantly racist towards but this was never mentioned in any capacity) and whose character was unmistakeably less well-rounded compared to all the other characters in the otherwise all-white cast.
I had really complicated feelings about Julia. I'm unsure how I was meant to interpret her - I quite liked how clear and legible most of what the book was trying to say was, but she continually evaded the same kind of incisive commentary over what I felt were her most glaring flaws. Her 'girlboss' moments were abjectly lacking in empathy, but I was left with the impression I wasn't MEANT to be horrified by what she did. I'm still not sure what the intention was at all.
That said, I did really enjoy reading this book. I liked the different perspectives and the scope, the spectrum of feeling was good, and again the family relationships and mostly well written complicated and interconnected characters and contexts were really good.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Suicide attempt