Review by lunep - Big Gay Wedding

lunep 's review for:

Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane

3.0

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Paw-Paw Durang is THE character of the book (special mentions to Nichole and Victoria who were also absolutely hilarious)
I enjoyed it but like...I wouldnt call it hilarious nor compare it to RWRB. It is not a romance book, it's a book about love...yes, but not a romance. It's more a book about a mother who learns to accept her son for who he is (and also a little bit about making peace with aging and dying), which was sweet, but I also was SO done with Chrissy the first half of the book ngl, the homophobia is RAMPANT and I even started (and finished) a whole other book bc I was getting tired of her homophobic me-me-me rants (but I pressed on and things got better a couple pages later, thankfully). I did like her character arc, and the ending made me BAWL MY EYES OUT

both Elaine's death and Paw-Paw's plot line

The whole town coming around to Barnett being gay also felt a little unrealistic ngl, compared to the rest of the book. I'm not complaining that we got a happy ending! It's just that the conservative-town-being-homophobic setting was very true to life, and then everyone kind of doing a 180 felt...weird, idk

Content Warnings