A review by bethreadsandnaps
One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day

3.0

 

As one who wasn't fond of Jamie Day's debut THE BLOCK PARTY, I started this one with some trepidation. I instantly liked the voice of the main character Charley, albeit I'm a sucker for first person narration. She's trying to support her grandmother in an assisted living facility by working as a maid in a small luxury hotel named Precipice. A bit morally gray, Charley's fine with pocketing some cash she finds in guest rooms. 

Charley's informed that her grandmother's care will be going up $100 per month at the same time Hurricane Larry is looming. Under some not-very-well-explained circumstances, she meets Bree in line at a coffee shop, and Bree needs a place to live for a while to recover from a domestic abuse relationship. They concoct a plot that Bree will pay Charley $1,200 to stay in vacant rooms. 

At the same time the storm is looming to create a perfect locked room setting, the hotel owner's will is going to be read with his three daughters Vicki, Faith, and Iris; Vicki's husband Todd and son Quinn; Faith's wife Hope and son Oliver who speaks in rhyme. None of the family is particularly likeable. A murder occurs. The book started to lose momentum for me soon after. I think part of that was due to the second part of the book changing narration to being backstory on the three sisters. 

PROs:

- Great coastal Maine locked room setting during a storm

- If you like a thriller with no one that's likeable, it can be fun. 

CONs:

- It doesn't make a lot of sense to get in a scheme with someone you've known 5 minutes. Charley doesn't seem that trusting with others, so a bit out of character. 

- I'm wondering if the Part 2 (the backstories on the three sisters) reveal happened too early. It seemed to take some of the propulsion out of the novel for me.

- You could see where one of the early plot lines was going if you've ever read a thriller. 

- This novel felt SO LONG! It only has 4,500 Kindle locations (per my Kindle app), but it felt like it really has twice as many. 

Unfortunately, this is the second Jamie Day novel that hasn't worked for me, so I will be taking this author off my list.