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A review by mbenzz
Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman
3.0
This may be a case of "It's not you, it's me.", but I did not love this book. This is the first time I've read an Abbi Waxman book, and I can't say I'm super excited about picking up another one. Many of my reading buddies love her and swear by her though, so I'll probably give it one more shot.
This story was ok. Not a whole lot happens, and the ending doesn't really clear anything up. There's a bunch of characters that are only mentioned sporadically a handful of times, so whenever they popped up (along with their children...looooots of children to keep straight in this book), it was difficult to remember who they were and what their relation was to Frances (since she's the main character here and did most of the talking/thinking)
I thought the cheating storyline would be much more prominent, but it's kind of a side-story and not a very good one. Anne is a selfish bitch who has no REAL reason for completely uprooting her family's lives other than 'I was just so bored' and 'I have a mental problem'.
THAT pissed me off.
No, you do NOT have a mental problem, you're just another bored selfish housewife who was looking for some entertainment with a hot young piece, then had the audacity to turn into a sniveling mess when your husband felt betrayed and kicked you out. And Richard? The boyfriend? When he wasn't sleeping with Anne, he was crying. So. Much. CRYING.
The two other families (lesbians Iris and Sarah and married couple Bill and Judith) served hardly any purpose at all. Especially Bill and Judith (I think that's her name...she was mention so infrequently). You could remove them completely from the book, and absolutely nothing would change (aside from Charlie getting punched).
Overall, this was a ridiculously bland and forgettable read. I finished it about an hour ago and I'm already struggling to remember character names. By the end of the month, the only way I'll know that I have read this book is because it's marked in my Goodreads shelves as 'Read'.
This story was ok. Not a whole lot happens, and the ending doesn't really clear anything up. There's a bunch of characters that are only mentioned sporadically a handful of times, so whenever they popped up (along with their children...looooots of children to keep straight in this book), it was difficult to remember who they were and what their relation was to Frances (since she's the main character here and did most of the talking/thinking)
I thought the cheating storyline would be much more prominent, but it's kind of a side-story and not a very good one. Anne is a selfish bitch who has no REAL reason for completely uprooting her family's lives other than 'I was just so bored' and 'I have a mental problem'.
THAT pissed me off.
No, you do NOT have a mental problem, you're just another bored selfish housewife who was looking for some entertainment with a hot young piece, then had the audacity to turn into a sniveling mess when your husband felt betrayed and kicked you out. And Richard? The boyfriend? When he wasn't sleeping with Anne, he was crying. So. Much. CRYING.
The two other families (lesbians Iris and Sarah and married couple Bill and Judith) served hardly any purpose at all. Especially Bill and Judith (I think that's her name...she was mention so infrequently). You could remove them completely from the book, and absolutely nothing would change (aside from Charlie getting punched).
Overall, this was a ridiculously bland and forgettable read. I finished it about an hour ago and I'm already struggling to remember character names. By the end of the month, the only way I'll know that I have read this book is because it's marked in my Goodreads shelves as 'Read'.