Some books need a bit of time before they can be reviewed. This book falls into that category and even after giving it some time, I’m still not sure how many stars it really deserves.
Let me explain.
I almost put this book down more than once. It was a solid contender for DNF. I was bored and I didn’t care about any of the characters. There were two reasons I pushed on:
- The bookstore owner who recommended it to me said it was her favorite book so far in 2023 (this was April 2023 and I was at the cutest bookshop in Houston).
- I was not invested in any one character, but I was invested in the bond of the sisters. Their relationships with each other was special and I wanted to know how these bonds developed throughout the book.
Keep Going or Give Up?
I was seriously struggling to see how anyone could have this as one of their favorite books because it was slow, it was boring, and individually, most of the characters weren’t people I was attached to at the moment.
But, Fredrik Backman taught me that sometimes it’s worth it to persevere, so I sucked it up and kept reading. The only reason I did keep going is because of the relationship between the sisters. I was invested in how it developed, and it’s what I held on to to keep going.
I am glad I did. I feel that I was rewarded with a beautiful story about family ties, love, and bonds that hold us together. It was a family saga that was told over a generation, the ups and the downs, and the decisions made out of love and the repercussions of those choices.
Is It Worth Reading?
Would I recommend it? That’s the crux. I don’t know. You have to like a slow pace and you have to like stories of families/siblings and their struggles with each other. This takes us from their messy teen years through even messier adulthood decisions. Life isn’t always clear about right and wrong, and this book doesn’t shy away from that, which I appreciate.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but I recommend with great caution and my four-star rating is based on the entire journey of the story. If I was looking only at pacing, it would be a two-star review at best as the first third of the book is pretty slow.