A review by chaosisafriend
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

4.0

I picked up The Latecomer because I loved Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel The Plot (review hopefully coming soon.) The Latecomer is not a thriller like The Plot but I liked it just as much. It asks the interesting question about how it feels to be born from the “leftover” embryos after your parents go through IVF, several years after your siblings have been born. What would your life look like if you had been one of the triplets instead of the much younger singleton? It’s also about sibling dynamics. The triplets do not get a long at all, dashing their mother’s hope that they would always be a close family. That’s one of the reasons she decided to have a fourth child, thinking it would bring everyone together.

I really enjoyed The Latecomer. I could relate to the mother wanting her children to stay close to each other and to her. I have four kids and I hope they stay close. And my youngest is nine years younger than his closest sibling so he’s kind of a latecomer as well!

Jean Hanff Korelitz is on her way to becoming one of my favorite authors. Highly recommended.