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norwayellesea's review against another edition
4.0
They say “Don't judge a book by its cover,” this is one time when I'm glad I dived in without taking much notice of the front cover. When I began to read this book, I had absolutely know idea where the plot would lead. I admit I wasn't immediately struck with the story but somehow after a few pages it gripped me in a way I can only describe as spellbinding!
Sam, Bella and Suzie live in the same neighbourhood, attending the same school. It's 1997, they're fifteen years old and carefree. They're completely oblivious to the fact that all their lives are about to change forever. Until then, Sam spends an idyllic Summer, not quite understanding why he is the focus of Suzie's attention, but enjoys the awakening feelings that stir within him. Then suddenly, everything changes! Suzie leaves town with her younger brothers as their parents attempt to re-build their failing marriage in a new location. Already devastated, Sam sees his own mother walking out of their family home, leaving him and his brother Michael with their Father. Bella lost her best friend when Suzie moved away so she and Sam comfort one another. Over the course of the following decade we follow each one of them during their transition from being a free teenagers to mature adults.
Robin Antalek has written an intriguing ensemble. Each character eventually heads off in different direction, but somehow manage to make their way back to each other over a period of years. Things never go back to how they originally were, but they're all still very much connected. Gut-wrenching at times, us the readers go on a roller-coaster of a ride as we follow these three young people. With alternating points of view, we feel their emotions and live their challenges as new life events assault them from many directions. Our three protagonists deal with some hefty life issues including heartbreaking dementia and miscarriage, which the author deals with in a sensitive and realistic way.
The only reason I didn't award this 5 stars is because I felt overwhelmed at times trying to keep track of which person belonged to which thread of the plot. Other than that I am completely in awe of the author's ability to draw me into this enthralling novel.
4½ Stars
***arc received courtesy of publisher William Morris in exchange for an honest review***
Sam, Bella and Suzie live in the same neighbourhood, attending the same school. It's 1997, they're fifteen years old and carefree. They're completely oblivious to the fact that all their lives are about to change forever. Until then, Sam spends an idyllic Summer, not quite understanding why he is the focus of Suzie's attention, but enjoys the awakening feelings that stir within him. Then suddenly, everything changes! Suzie leaves town with her younger brothers as their parents attempt to re-build their failing marriage in a new location. Already devastated, Sam sees his own mother walking out of their family home, leaving him and his brother Michael with their Father. Bella lost her best friend when Suzie moved away so she and Sam comfort one another. Over the course of the following decade we follow each one of them during their transition from being a free teenagers to mature adults.
Robin Antalek has written an intriguing ensemble. Each character eventually heads off in different direction, but somehow manage to make their way back to each other over a period of years. Things never go back to how they originally were, but they're all still very much connected. Gut-wrenching at times, us the readers go on a roller-coaster of a ride as we follow these three young people. With alternating points of view, we feel their emotions and live their challenges as new life events assault them from many directions. Our three protagonists deal with some hefty life issues including heartbreaking dementia and miscarriage, which the author deals with in a sensitive and realistic way.
The only reason I didn't award this 5 stars is because I felt overwhelmed at times trying to keep track of which person belonged to which thread of the plot. Other than that I am completely in awe of the author's ability to draw me into this enthralling novel.
4½ Stars
***arc received courtesy of publisher William Morris in exchange for an honest review***
kdurham2's review against another edition
4.0
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Told through multiple points of views and with a story for almost every year, this story shows a group of kids watch their parents fall and apart and then as they mature they deal with almost the same "adult" issues. Sam is the character that takes most of the focus and the reader really gets to know him as he "dates" one friend in their younger years and then another in high school and on and off through college.
One of the things that really set this book apart for me was the lapse of time. With each chapter taking a different person's point of view and almost all of them a different year in time (presented chronologically) I felt like I really got invested in these characters and had the hardest time letting go. I loved how conveniently that after they all left the neighborhood for college and jobs and other pursuits there was an event or happening to bring them back into town - I didn't find it out of the ordinary, but it helped bring these characters back together to interact.
Told through multiple points of views and with a story for almost every year, this story shows a group of kids watch their parents fall and apart and then as they mature they deal with almost the same "adult" issues. Sam is the character that takes most of the focus and the reader really gets to know him as he "dates" one friend in their younger years and then another in high school and on and off through college.
One of the things that really set this book apart for me was the lapse of time. With each chapter taking a different person's point of view and almost all of them a different year in time (presented chronologically) I felt like I really got invested in these characters and had the hardest time letting go. I loved how conveniently that after they all left the neighborhood for college and jobs and other pursuits there was an event or happening to bring them back into town - I didn't find it out of the ordinary, but it helped bring these characters back together to interact.
jen286's review against another edition
3.0
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
The Grown Ups was not quite what I expected based on the synopsis. Sure everything in it happened, but it made it seem like some of the events were more than they were. Like the summer of Sam and Suzie. That felt like two pages and not really that big of a deal. Sam and Bella seemed much different than what I expected. It was interesting, just not what I thought it would be.
For me this book seems to be about Sam. He is an odd one, not really sure of his thoughts or feelings are. He fooled around with Suzie for a few days before she left. He got with Bella, but then didn't know what he wanted with his life and just kind of left. He just meanders through life with no real purpose for a long time. Finally, towards the end, he gets himself together and really figures things out and I loved seeing that. This story could have just been about him with everyone else as secondary characters and I would have really enjoyed it.
Suzie, on the other hand, I never really got a good feel for. She has chapters from her point of view, but I never really connected with her. Her and Michael? I didn't see it. I just kept waiting for that to be over as it didn't make a lot of sense to me. Just based on what Suzie thought and felt it didn't seem to be some great love or anything, but it just kept going. I never really understood her and her chapters didn't add a lot for me.
Bella is sweet, and while I liked her more than Suzie, understood her more, she felt like more of a secondary character than the rest. She felt like she was just there sometimes, but not really a focus. You do know of her relationships and what happens as she grows up, but I wish it would have been more. I wish I would have been able to get to know her better.
Through this story we watch these three people grow into grown ups. We watch them deal with things that could affect us all. Really their parents growing older and what happens to them is a big part of this book. I did enjoy it even though the writing kept it at a light level and I didn't really connect with all of the characters.
The Grown Ups was not quite what I expected based on the synopsis. Sure everything in it happened, but it made it seem like some of the events were more than they were. Like the summer of Sam and Suzie. That felt like two pages and not really that big of a deal. Sam and Bella seemed much different than what I expected. It was interesting, just not what I thought it would be.
For me this book seems to be about Sam. He is an odd one, not really sure of his thoughts or feelings are. He fooled around with Suzie for a few days before she left. He got with Bella, but then didn't know what he wanted with his life and just kind of left. He just meanders through life with no real purpose for a long time. Finally, towards the end, he gets himself together and really figures things out and I loved seeing that. This story could have just been about him with everyone else as secondary characters and I would have really enjoyed it.
Suzie, on the other hand, I never really got a good feel for. She has chapters from her point of view, but I never really connected with her. Her and Michael? I didn't see it. I just kept waiting for that to be over as it didn't make a lot of sense to me. Just based on what Suzie thought and felt it didn't seem to be some great love or anything, but it just kept going. I never really understood her and her chapters didn't add a lot for me.
Bella is sweet, and while I liked her more than Suzie, understood her more, she felt like more of a secondary character than the rest. She felt like she was just there sometimes, but not really a focus. You do know of her relationships and what happens as she grows up, but I wish it would have been more. I wish I would have been able to get to know her better.
Through this story we watch these three people grow into grown ups. We watch them deal with things that could affect us all. Really their parents growing older and what happens to them is a big part of this book. I did enjoy it even though the writing kept it at a light level and I didn't really connect with all of the characters.
shannon_cocktailsandbooks's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 Cocktails
The Grown Ups seemed a fairly familiar story to me. It may be that I am still in contact with many of the friends I had throughout childhood just like the characters in this book. Antalek accurately depicted the adolescent thoughts and dialogue of the characters just as thoroughly as when they grew up into adulthood.
The reader feels as though they know Michael, Sam, Suzie, Bella and the rest of the neighbors from the story from the beginning. It kind of reminded me of The Wonder Years, although a little more “raw”. As teens, they spend summers by the pool, go to dances, get drunk in the basement, etc. pretty typical stuff. Antalek also touches on the more difficult (and I guess still typical) life events like illness, divorce, adultery, and betrayal.
Antalek tells the story from the points’ of view of various characters—focusing mostly on Michael, Sam, Suzie and Bella. I found myself sympathizing mostly with Sam. He seemed the most lost of the group of “kids” and maybe the most sensitive. He also endured a lot of pain and loss and had to overcome it basically all on his own.
While this had my mostly-happy-ending going for it, the author told a realistic tale. There was a lot of heartache and loss, just like in real life so I thought there was a good balance to the book. Definitely worth a read.
Reviewed by Joelle for Cocktails and Books
The Grown Ups seemed a fairly familiar story to me. It may be that I am still in contact with many of the friends I had throughout childhood just like the characters in this book. Antalek accurately depicted the adolescent thoughts and dialogue of the characters just as thoroughly as when they grew up into adulthood.
The reader feels as though they know Michael, Sam, Suzie, Bella and the rest of the neighbors from the story from the beginning. It kind of reminded me of The Wonder Years, although a little more “raw”. As teens, they spend summers by the pool, go to dances, get drunk in the basement, etc. pretty typical stuff. Antalek also touches on the more difficult (and I guess still typical) life events like illness, divorce, adultery, and betrayal.
Antalek tells the story from the points’ of view of various characters—focusing mostly on Michael, Sam, Suzie and Bella. I found myself sympathizing mostly with Sam. He seemed the most lost of the group of “kids” and maybe the most sensitive. He also endured a lot of pain and loss and had to overcome it basically all on his own.
While this had my mostly-happy-ending going for it, the author told a realistic tale. There was a lot of heartache and loss, just like in real life so I thought there was a good balance to the book. Definitely worth a read.
Reviewed by Joelle for Cocktails and Books
cherryredsreads's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book!
From the moment I started reading this book, I got sucked into this story.
It has been awhile since I've read such a good story that has a great combination of love, sadness, friendships that grow and come apart.
All the characters where developed well and I got caught in their emotional journeys they went thru. I cried, laughed, fell in love with them. It felt good to get captured into the stories and read a book that I could relate to.
This book follows the Suzie, Bella & Sam from young teenagers to adults. The decisions and actions they make are realistic to what we go thru in our everyday lives. I liked reading a book that makes you feel like you are in the background, witnessing what the characters are going through.
If you are looking for a contemporary book to read that will give you a good emotional cry, laugh & fall in love with being in love for the 1st time, this is the book for you!
**ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review**
4 Cherries Popped
From the moment I started reading this book, I got sucked into this story.
It has been awhile since I've read such a good story that has a great combination of love, sadness, friendships that grow and come apart.
All the characters where developed well and I got caught in their emotional journeys they went thru. I cried, laughed, fell in love with them. It felt good to get captured into the stories and read a book that I could relate to.
This book follows the Suzie, Bella & Sam from young teenagers to adults. The decisions and actions they make are realistic to what we go thru in our everyday lives. I liked reading a book that makes you feel like you are in the background, witnessing what the characters are going through.
If you are looking for a contemporary book to read that will give you a good emotional cry, laugh & fall in love with being in love for the 1st time, this is the book for you!
**ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review**
4 Cherries Popped
dl2000's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyed the book and it kept my attention but I couldn't completely connect with the characters and the fact that I really disliked 2 of the main characters kept me from appreciating the ending the way I feel that I should have.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
Other readers may connect more to this tale of teenage love triangles crossed with coming-of-age angst, but I found myself largely underwhelmed. The multiple narrators and large jumps in time made it difficult to feel like I had any grasp on who these people were and how all the events were building up to something. That feeling was compounded by the fact that the teenage characters often had no idea what was going on with their parents and their peers and so a lot of actions went unexplained -- I completely understand why Antalek made this decision, but it made the bigger picture hard for me to follow. So this one didn't work for me, but I'm going to chalk that up to my own personal preferences as a reader than anything else.
amethystamber87's review against another edition
4.0
You follow the lives of three teens, getting engrossed in their break-ups, family dynamics, and struggles. You'll find yourself rooting for them with every page you turn. Infectious read.
nadoislandgirl's review against another edition
3.0
I was terribly afraid this was going to turn into a novel of cheating and wife-swapping. Glad to say it didn't. Well developed characters and intricate relationships. There were just SO many characters, I got confused for a while.
marceelf's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.anurseandabook.com/2015/05/the-grown-ups-by-robin-antalek.html
It took me a week to read this book. Not because of the book, but because I started a new job and was so overwhelmed and exhausted that I kept falling asleep at night with the book in hand.
But no matter how tired I was, I kept going back and trying to get a few pages in because I kept thinking about the characters
.
This was a coming of age book, which I always enjoy, and it was a good one. We follow the lives of Sam, Suzie, and Bella from the times they are teens up through middle age. Since I grew up in a small town, people staying in the lives of their friends and neighbors through their whole life didn't seem strange to me.
I really liked how the story was told in alternating voices. I'm definitely going to find the author's previous book, The Summer We Fell Apart.
I do have to say towards the end, I was holding my breath because I kept thinking that there was going to be a car accident or some type of horrible death, but thankfully, there wasn't. There's enough happiness and heartbreak in everyday life, and this book illustrated that perfectly.
Thank you to Booksparks for the review copy!
Current Goodreads rating 3.75
It took me a week to read this book. Not because of the book, but because I started a new job and was so overwhelmed and exhausted that I kept falling asleep at night with the book in hand.
But no matter how tired I was, I kept going back and trying to get a few pages in because I kept thinking about the characters
.
This was a coming of age book, which I always enjoy, and it was a good one. We follow the lives of Sam, Suzie, and Bella from the times they are teens up through middle age. Since I grew up in a small town, people staying in the lives of their friends and neighbors through their whole life didn't seem strange to me.
I really liked how the story was told in alternating voices. I'm definitely going to find the author's previous book, The Summer We Fell Apart.
I do have to say towards the end, I was holding my breath because I kept thinking that there was going to be a car accident or some type of horrible death, but thankfully, there wasn't. There's enough happiness and heartbreak in everyday life, and this book illustrated that perfectly.
Thank you to Booksparks for the review copy!
Current Goodreads rating 3.75