Hi party people (very apropos for this post), welcome to another Book of the Month! This month's book is such a delight, I'm eager to get into it directly. I went into this clueless about what the book was about and it turned into such a complex, unexpected, and beautiful story. When we meet Phoebe, she's walking into the Cornwall Inn, wearing a green dress and some fancy shoes but no luggage in sight. As she joins the line to check in, she is immediately mistaken for one of the guests at a wedding happening at the hotel. Meanwhile, she's literally the only one at the hotel (this was just coming out of the pandemic) who isn't there for the wedding. The bride thinks she's accounted for every possible mishap and disaster, except there is no planning for Phoebe, who has reached rock bottom and is at that hotel for completely different reasons from the wedding people. And yet somehow, as if always destined, the two women are exactly where they need to be and just when each needs the other. The book takes us through what happens over the course of the week in what is a funny, tender, complex, and very human story arc.
The standout themes of this book are love, marriage, mental health, friendship, death, and life (literally). Here is the thing, there are so many winding paths life will carry us through, most of which we have no way of ever predicting. Here is the other thing, almost always, almost always there is a way out. And where there isn't, we are equipped to deal with it. This is not some pollyanna woowoo BS, this is a fact. When Phoebe comes out on the other side, so to speak, there is a clear-eyedness, a brutal honesty, a transparency so enviable you wish we all lived so boldly. But of course, there is also borrowing from the previous iteration because after all, there is a type of sharpness you just can't permanently live without just becoming a mean person. This book stays with you. It's such an original and completely unexpected plot. Talk about a real page turner.
The writing is sharp, astute, and every character is so decisively created, you wish they could each get their own TV show. They are also all so complex, with no one being a caricature for you to hate or dislike. It is not nearly easy to tackle a subject so heavy and to do it with such grace and tastefulness and Alison Epsach does it elegantly. There is a way she's able to catch very visceral, very raw moments of life and do so without it seeming like she is trying to. There are some mental health issues this book settles very heavily on and yet no two characters experience it similarly. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
What did I not like? I thought the ending was maybe a little too simplistic. So many people swore they saw it coming but I honestly did not. At least as at halfway through the book, I didn't. For me, I wasn't sure how it would work in real life considering the beautiful friendship Phoebe and Lila had formed. But I suppose these things do happen. Besides the actual way the plot ended, towards the end of the story, it felt like the plot tapered off. But even that ending is not enough for me to stop raving about this brilliantly written book, and for that it's the Book of this Month.
Will you be reading it? You should!
I've read some truly fantastic books so as promised perhaps the next Book of the Month will be in the style of this.
See you next time!
Love,
I
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