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jamiejanae_6's review
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Infertility, Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Toxic friendship
nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Eva, Lucien, Benedict, and Sylvie meet in college, bonding over drugs and alcohol and a general distaste for authority couching varying degrees of fear. A maze of attraction and sex pervades their friendship from the very beginning and spans decades, as we see snapshots of their lives, going on vacation, getting married, having babies, doing drugs, getting in trouble, grieving parents. I loved the honesty of the book's sections, sometimes jumping years at a time, acknowledging moments of growing apart and losing touch, loving and fighting and learning.
This book captured me while I was reading it. I was intrigued by the characters' stories and impressed by Adams' depictions of group dynamics and individual friendships. That said, it was neither particularly profound nor particularly memorable. I love a family (or found family) saga, and Adams structured her novel well, but the characters were somewhat superficial, despite the clear efforts to grant them depth, and the writing was somewhat unpolished. I would readily recommend this book, but Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings is a much better version.
A personal pet peeve, which should be far more niche than it seems to be (hence its annoying me so much) are books that end with an ambiguous scene of a woman walking into an ocean. Is she suicidal? Is she just swimming? Does anyone see her walk out or call her back in? This ending irritates me in general, but particularly in this book, I felt like Eva's sudden wandering into the water came out of nowhere. Her professional, personal, and romantic lives had come together, and she seemed so satisfied that this final scene felt like an entirely arbitrary conclusion and a ploy to remind readers that Eva was still complicated. Meh.
This book captured me while I was reading it. I was intrigued by the characters' stories and impressed by Adams' depictions of group dynamics and individual friendships. That said, it was neither particularly profound nor particularly memorable. I love a family (or found family) saga, and Adams structured her novel well, but the characters were somewhat superficial, despite the clear efforts to grant them depth, and the writing was somewhat unpolished. I would readily recommend this book, but Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings is a much better version.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Infertility
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