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amandasbookreview 's review for:
Ask Again, Yes
by Mary Beth Keane
Summer reading lists and the bookstagram buzz have been all about Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. It is a family drama that begins in the 1970s with two police officers who become neighbors. Their children grow up together, particularly Peter and Kate. They become inseparable. However, Peter’s mom begins to show signs of struggle. One night, a tragedy occurs that will change the course of these two families forever.
*Sigh* I wanted to love this book. This will be a very unpopular opinion but this book did not live up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is beautiful. There is so much emotion to take in. I actually took a few days to read this because I needed time to process everything that was happening. The problem that I had is the pacing. For me, it is slow. It takes over 100 pages for anything to happen and then after the tragic incident, the rest just seemed predictable. The book is written like a timeline. The book goes through over 30 years of history of this family.
This novel does go into mental health and addiction and how it is viewed over time. Even though there is still a lot of stigmas attached to mental health and addiction, there is at least a conversation now. We have more options. This novel shows how at one point, no one talked about it and how it dramatically affected families. I did enjoy the characters. It is heartbreaking that they felt that they couldn’t reach out for help.
Overall, it is worth the read. It just didn’t reel me in as I hoped it would. For this, I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Thank you, NetGalley for a copy of this book!
*Sigh* I wanted to love this book. This will be a very unpopular opinion but this book did not live up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is beautiful. There is so much emotion to take in. I actually took a few days to read this because I needed time to process everything that was happening. The problem that I had is the pacing. For me, it is slow. It takes over 100 pages for anything to happen and then after the tragic incident, the rest just seemed predictable. The book is written like a timeline. The book goes through over 30 years of history of this family.
This novel does go into mental health and addiction and how it is viewed over time. Even though there is still a lot of stigmas attached to mental health and addiction, there is at least a conversation now. We have more options. This novel shows how at one point, no one talked about it and how it dramatically affected families. I did enjoy the characters. It is heartbreaking that they felt that they couldn’t reach out for help.
Overall, it is worth the read. It just didn’t reel me in as I hoped it would. For this, I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Thank you, NetGalley for a copy of this book!