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memeraryfiction 's review for:
The Wedding People
by Alison Espach
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Wedding People surprised me in the best possible way. It sits at the intersection of several novel types about which I have mixed feelings. I don't personally love Victorian literature, especially marriage plots, and I've had pretty mixed reactions to works by authors who are heavily inspired by that era: I loved Intermezzo but was pretty neutral about Pachinko and Normal People. I've also found the current "40-something professional woman having a midlife crisis" trend in litfic to be a mixed bag: I loved Colored Television but couldn't stand All Fours. All of which is to say that I went into The Wedding People pretty skeptical but found it delightful.
The book is sweet without being saccharine and incredibly funny. The humour is also darker than the book's synopsis and general vibes would indicate, which balanced out the sweet and somewhat predictable nature of the plot. The characters were well rounded and so very flawed, but those flaws were what endeared me to them. The novel went quite a bit more meta than I was expecting, but I thought it worked well and, again, kept it from feeling too sweet clichéd.
My one (ultimately quite minor) complaint is that because the plot was somewhat predictable (due to the meta approach mentioned above) there were times in the final third or so of the book where the stakes felt lower than they probably should have. I say this is minor because the low stakes for the reader are specifically telegraphed in the plot, and they are an intentional part of what the narrative is doing. Despite this, I found the entire book incredibly readable and compelling, and I finished it in a day.
The book is sweet without being saccharine and incredibly funny. The humour is also darker than the book's synopsis and general vibes would indicate, which balanced out the sweet and somewhat predictable nature of the plot. The characters were well rounded and so very flawed, but those flaws were what endeared me to them. The novel went quite a bit more meta than I was expecting, but I thought it worked well and, again, kept it from feeling too sweet clichéd.
My one (ultimately quite minor) complaint is that because the plot was somewhat predictable (due to the meta approach mentioned above) there were times in the final third or so of the book where the stakes felt lower than they probably should have. I say this is minor because the low stakes for the reader are specifically telegraphed in the plot, and they are an intentional part of what the narrative is doing. Despite this, I found the entire book incredibly readable and compelling, and I finished it in a day.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Grief, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, Blood, Dementia, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Classism
Academic precarity