Maybe I just have bad luck with “family drama” novels, because every one I seem to discover seems to center around the idea that every member of every family is insufferable. Are these novels only written by people who hate their families? Are all upper class people just awful? What is happening here that every time I read a “family drama” novel I hate every single character in it?
Okay, that’s an exaggeration, I liked one character: the grandfather-in-law is very nice, and is therefore shunted off into Mandyland in the last third of the novel, never to be heard from again. But otherwise we’ve got:
Iris – Sometimes amusing, but mostly just very snobby, judgmental, and seemingly incapable of basic human feeling in the way of all fictional mothers-in-law, except for in this book I believe we’re meant to see this as admirable and wise. Picture Emily Gilmore but no fun.
Julia – Not completely objectionable, of course, but such a wet blanket, and I think we’re also supposed to accept her “I’m almost 50 and have a child and therefore I am lucky to receive the love of a man at all, ever” self-esteem as an accurate assessment of the situation.
James – If his son was a Brock Turner type, he’d be the type to complain about Brock not being able to enjoy his steaks.
Nathan – Predatory, unbearably snobby and pretentious, completely lacking in basic empathy. Later in the book Julia hates him and we’re supposed to see this as a fatal flaw on her part because one should never hate one’s potential step-children, but he deserves hatred! He’s awful.
Gwen – Remarkably foolish even for a 16-year-old girl.
The basic plot is that Julia and James have found love as an older couple and decide to combine households, which means James and his son Nathan move in with Julia and her daughter Gwen. Then the two kids start sleeping with each other and everything goes to shit. I’ll admit I read it all in a day because hey, it’s ridiculous drama and I wanted to know what happened next. But like reality TV, I didn’t feel much reading it, because I disliked all the characters so much.