Scan barcode
A review by finesilkflower
Kristy's Big News by Nola Thacker, Ann M. Martin
3.0
Kristy’s deadbeat dad, Patrick, calls suddenly from California to announce he is getting married in a week to a woman named Zoey. He invites Kristy, Sam, and Charlie to participate in the wedding.
The kids feel weird visiting their father’s home, and realize they know very little about him. He’s given up sports writing for cooking; he and Zoey are opening up an organic restaurant. Kristy’s observations of her father aren’t particularly flattering; she’s annoyed by his attention-whoring, and compares him to a bratty kid. Charlie is angry, yelling at Patrick for years of neglect and for completely forgetting about David Michael’s existence. (It seems like the author is on board with the fanon “David Michael is not Patrick’s son” explanation for the age difference and timing of Patrick’s departure.) Sam tries desparately to make peace.
If there’s one thing BSC books love, it’s WEDDING PREPARATIONS! Patrick and Zoey are throwing together a fairly spontaneous, small wedding. Zoey takes Kristy shopping for a dress, and Kristy likes her; she’s friendly, mature, and understanding, and appreciates Kristy’s sporty, practical style. Kristy is unsettled, worrying that Zoey is too nice for Patrick and doesn’t know what she is getting into.
After a big fight with Patrick, Charlie refuses to attend the rehearsal dinner, and Sam and Kristy decide to stay home with him in awkward solidarity. Alone, the kids discuss Patrick, noting that although Zoey has a bunch of family coming in for the wedding, they’re the only ones there for Patrick. He’s not enough of a stand-up guy to have anyone else standing up for him. The kids agree that he is a big disappointment, so they should lower their expectations.
The kids arrive at the rehearsal dinner just in time; Zoey assures Kristy she’s entering the marriage with eyes wide open; Charlie makes a toast at the wedding. Everyone is happy to get back home to Stoneybrook, their mother, and Watson.
Setting a startlingly adult tone for the Friends Forever series, this book deals with nontraditional emotional territory: the strange, ambivalent feelings that come with trying to connect with an estranged family member. There’s no clear right or wrong; Patrick is neither angelic nor demonized; Zoey is neither his savior nor his victim. Goodness and purity doesn’t triumph, and despite everyone being insanely frank and self-aware about complex emotional states, there’s no big breakthrough or reformation. It’s all just a lot of confusion. Given that, it’s also a strangely low-key and non-melodramatic. No plates are thrown. No hair is torn. The characters’ emotional distance and formality contribute to the sense that Patrick is a stranger. It’s also kind of boring.
I do like the character insights that this episode provides, particularly into the usually-underdeveloped Charlie and Sam. Their strategies for dealing with Patrick are opposites--Charlie gets mad, Sam gets conciliatory--but both can be clearly seen in Patrick’s behavior as well: he’s a quick-tempered jokester. Sam’s attempts to defuse situations with humor is a nice use of/explanation for his previously established character trait. (The one.)
Timing: August
Revised Timeline: Summer after the second academic year postgrad. This book does feel a lot like an estranged father getting to know his children as adults after missing their childhoods. Super-mature and thoughtful Kristy is much more like 24 than 13, and it’s totally believable to me that, at 27, Charlie could just be realizing that his father is a flawed and sad sort of person and starting to let go of his lifelong anger.
The kids feel weird visiting their father’s home, and realize they know very little about him. He’s given up sports writing for cooking; he and Zoey are opening up an organic restaurant. Kristy’s observations of her father aren’t particularly flattering; she’s annoyed by his attention-whoring, and compares him to a bratty kid. Charlie is angry, yelling at Patrick for years of neglect and for completely forgetting about David Michael’s existence. (It seems like the author is on board with the fanon “David Michael is not Patrick’s son” explanation for the age difference and timing of Patrick’s departure.) Sam tries desparately to make peace.
If there’s one thing BSC books love, it’s WEDDING PREPARATIONS! Patrick and Zoey are throwing together a fairly spontaneous, small wedding. Zoey takes Kristy shopping for a dress, and Kristy likes her; she’s friendly, mature, and understanding, and appreciates Kristy’s sporty, practical style. Kristy is unsettled, worrying that Zoey is too nice for Patrick and doesn’t know what she is getting into.
After a big fight with Patrick, Charlie refuses to attend the rehearsal dinner, and Sam and Kristy decide to stay home with him in awkward solidarity. Alone, the kids discuss Patrick, noting that although Zoey has a bunch of family coming in for the wedding, they’re the only ones there for Patrick. He’s not enough of a stand-up guy to have anyone else standing up for him. The kids agree that he is a big disappointment, so they should lower their expectations.
The kids arrive at the rehearsal dinner just in time; Zoey assures Kristy she’s entering the marriage with eyes wide open; Charlie makes a toast at the wedding. Everyone is happy to get back home to Stoneybrook, their mother, and Watson.
Setting a startlingly adult tone for the Friends Forever series, this book deals with nontraditional emotional territory: the strange, ambivalent feelings that come with trying to connect with an estranged family member. There’s no clear right or wrong; Patrick is neither angelic nor demonized; Zoey is neither his savior nor his victim. Goodness and purity doesn’t triumph, and despite everyone being insanely frank and self-aware about complex emotional states, there’s no big breakthrough or reformation. It’s all just a lot of confusion. Given that, it’s also a strangely low-key and non-melodramatic. No plates are thrown. No hair is torn. The characters’ emotional distance and formality contribute to the sense that Patrick is a stranger. It’s also kind of boring.
I do like the character insights that this episode provides, particularly into the usually-underdeveloped Charlie and Sam. Their strategies for dealing with Patrick are opposites--Charlie gets mad, Sam gets conciliatory--but both can be clearly seen in Patrick’s behavior as well: he’s a quick-tempered jokester. Sam’s attempts to defuse situations with humor is a nice use of/explanation for his previously established character trait. (The one.)
Timing: August
Revised Timeline: Summer after the second academic year postgrad. This book does feel a lot like an estranged father getting to know his children as adults after missing their childhoods. Super-mature and thoughtful Kristy is much more like 24 than 13, and it’s totally believable to me that, at 27, Charlie could just be realizing that his father is a flawed and sad sort of person and starting to let go of his lifelong anger.