I think I picked this when I first saw previews for the Hulu show but never got around to reading it (or watching the show). However, since her other book is the March selection for my book club, I thought I might as well check this out first.
After Eleanor Bennett dies, her two adult children meet with her lawyer and find out that she has left them one last black cake in the freezer and a recording that they must listen to together. Benny, the daughter and younger sibling, has been estranged from her family for several years, and her older brother Byron still holds resentment towards her for walking out in the family, and missing their father’s funeral a few years later.
As they listen to the recordings, they discover their mom’s true story. In ways they feel betrayed to learn of the lies that their life was based on. The struggle in any dual time line story like this is balancing the two stories and their mom’s story is just so much more engaging. There is definitely some interesting stuff in there about expectations of excellence and how Byron and Benny reacted in very opposing ways, but the heart of the story was with Covey/Eleanor.
If it had been purely Eleanor’s story, I would have given this 4 stars but Byron and Benny just weren’t quite as appealing to me as characters. I think I ultimately was also frustrated with how the rift in the relationship between Benny and her parents played out, relying too heavily on miscommunication, stubbornness and pride (I’m sure that’s true to life but it felt rather unsatisfying within this novel).
The other part that reduced the enjoyment for me was that I felt the end went maybe a bit longer than needed – there were just a few characters that I didn’t really think we needed to check back in with, and I would have been fine with characters just sharing a verbal update on what had happened to them.
Worth a read, though, but for me, it fizzled out a bit towards the end. Eleanor’s story is definitely worth it, though.