A review by oceanwriter
The Farewell Tour by Stephanie Clifford

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

In the beginning, this was shaping up to be a five-star read for me. I procrastinated reading it because I didn’t want it to end. I started this on a trip to Memphis which felt fitting with the country music themes of the book and liked it so much that I didn’t want to read it while there were so many distractions. I maintained my captivation for the first third of the book, but that was it. 
 
Lillian Waters embarks on her final concert tour after a grim diagnosis when she begins having throat issues. She organizes the route so that her last stop is in her hometown in Washington — a place she hasn’t visited for decades. She hopes to make some kind of peace with her past and her sister Hen. The book jumps from her past and her present in the 1980s as she finally shares her story. 
 
As I said before, I was eating up every page in the beginning. I was so I tricked by Lillian’s childhood and how she dealt with living in an abusive household. As she got older, I didn’t like the turn the book took even though the situations presented were predictable given the circumstances of her character. From there, it continued to morph into something I never would have picked up in the first place. I could see the end coming but it still shocked me in a sense. I had been holding out for more because of the setup. 
 
There was a lot I enjoyed, such as the writing and the ebb and flow of past to present. The rest unfortunately comes down to preference. 
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