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A review by whatcheyennesreading
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
4.0
I enjoyed this for a fun summer read, and would rate it right around 4 stars if just below!
A lot of people seem to have gone into this assuming it would be a romance, or a romcom. It’s not either of those. I wasn’t looking for either of those so I was not left disappointed — I was looking for magical realism that left me thinking about life and that’s what I got.
Lauren has a magical attic and can always send one husband back for another if she wants. That sounds fantastical, but it is more of an exaggeration of how dating apps/mindless swiping work in modern dating culture.
This book is largely about Lauren’s constant quest for the next best thing, and how empty that can make life seem. Her friends, family and neighbors go widely ignored while she tries to figure out her “perfect” life via partners, which again, feels like symbolism of our current society (if an exaggeration). She can’t stick with one version of life, with one complicated and flawed partner, with one version of her own self (because that’s what each of these partners really represents), so she keeps cycling through.
In the end, we’re left with the moral of the story that was pretty obvious from the start: life is about the journey, with yourself and someone else, not the destination. Stick with good things when you have them, change your life (not just your magical partner) when you don’t. Pretty simple but a great reminder, and this book made it fun to remember.
I knocked it down a star or so just because you go through SO many husbands, and I wished there’d been more character development through that process and less losing time and space. But still, loved this read and will definitely read more from this author.
A lot of people seem to have gone into this assuming it would be a romance, or a romcom. It’s not either of those. I wasn’t looking for either of those so I was not left disappointed — I was looking for magical realism that left me thinking about life and that’s what I got.
Lauren has a magical attic and can always send one husband back for another if she wants. That sounds fantastical, but it is more of an exaggeration of how dating apps/mindless swiping work in modern dating culture.
This book is largely about Lauren’s constant quest for the next best thing, and how empty that can make life seem. Her friends, family and neighbors go widely ignored while she tries to figure out her “perfect” life via partners, which again, feels like symbolism of our current society (if an exaggeration). She can’t stick with one version of life, with one complicated and flawed partner, with one version of her own self (because that’s what each of these partners really represents), so she keeps cycling through.
In the end, we’re left with the moral of the story that was pretty obvious from the start: life is about the journey, with yourself and someone else, not the destination. Stick with good things when you have them, change your life (not just your magical partner) when you don’t. Pretty simple but a great reminder, and this book made it fun to remember.
I knocked it down a star or so just because you go through SO many husbands, and I wished there’d been more character development through that process and less losing time and space. But still, loved this read and will definitely read more from this author.