A review by chasctaylor_reads
The Best Man: Unfinished Business by Malcolm D. Lee

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

2.5 Stars ✨

This book leans heavily on nostalgia and familiarity with the movies to be enjoyable. I will say, the strongest aspect is how well the characters’ voices align with their on-screen counterparts — they felt true to form throughout.

The issues: The writing just isn’t very engaging. It’s repetitive to the point where you could easily cut 150 pages without losing anything of value. If you took a shot every time you read “Jordan Motherf**king Armstrong,” you’d probably end up six feet under. On top of that, the story relies way too much on miscommunication between characters, which got old fast. Honestly, if this hadn’t been a buddy read with my mom, I would’ve DNFed. That said, the last 20% ended up being the most interesting part of the story.

Also worth noting: the audiobook released two weeks after the physical copy. I read the first half physically and finished the rest on audio — and I highly recommend going the audio route if you’re going to tackle this. The heavy hitter narrators (Jakobi Diem, January LaVoy, and Zenzi Williams) really carried this book! Even so, it still took me EIGHTEEN days to finish… and my usual is three.

It ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, but honestly? I won’t be continuing with this series.