wanted to read this so badly after it appeared on the front cover of BookPage with glowing reviews. The premise sounded so fresh and new, like a wedding tradition of something old something new something borrowed something blue. It was all black and blue.
The premise quickly dissolved into just a family full of dysfunction and sickness that binds them together. The only thing that held steady was the death order. Sadly after #1 died I should have stopped reading then (he/she was the only sympathetic of the 4 siblings). Familial memories tie the sections together but it it so fragmented that no steam is built in the story. Ever single time that tension/drama/suspense is finally forthcoming it immediately is cut and another siblings story is told. Flashbacks are they only way to know what in the ... happened.
Absolutely not needed are the description of a preteen girls maturing body, graphic description of a young mans first sexual encounter as a gay man, and even IF it added to the story the fact that his romantic trysts are detailed over and over smacks of trying to make it salacious rather than an essential plot point.
Many, many details are so far fetched that they jostle the story so much that you realize the characters are not real and then the magic is gone. The most glaring is when baby brother Simon becomes an accomplished ballet performer/student after he bombs at the strip club as a dancer and is sent to a ballet academy for lessons?
Too many stereotypes played to the hilt. Overbearing Jewish mother is actually so overdone it is comedic.
I made it to the end, this is sadly a book that I closed saying "I'll never get these 12 hours back".
The premise quickly dissolved into just a family full of dysfunction and sickness that binds them together. The only thing that held steady was the death order. Sadly after #1 died I should have stopped reading then (he/she was the only sympathetic of the 4 siblings). Familial memories tie the sections together but it it so fragmented that no steam is built in the story. Ever single time that tension/drama/suspense is finally forthcoming it immediately is cut and another siblings story is told. Flashbacks are they only way to know what in the ... happened.
Absolutely not needed are the description of a preteen girls maturing body, graphic description of a young mans first sexual encounter as a gay man, and even IF it added to the story the fact that his romantic trysts are detailed over and over smacks of trying to make it salacious rather than an essential plot point.
Many, many details are so far fetched that they jostle the story so much that you realize the characters are not real and then the magic is gone. The most glaring is when baby brother Simon becomes an accomplished ballet performer/student after he bombs at the strip club as a dancer and is sent to a ballet academy for lessons?
Too many stereotypes played to the hilt. Overbearing Jewish mother is actually so overdone it is comedic.
I made it to the end, this is sadly a book that I closed saying "I'll never get these 12 hours back".