dysfunctional family – Cannonball Read 17

Strong Succession vibes in Maclean’s new contemporary

These Summer Storms by Sarah Maclean

July 8, 2025 by Malin 3 Comments

4.5 stars CBR17 Book Bingo: Family Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. Alice Storm hasn’t had any contact with her family for five years, since she went public with some unsavoury company secrets and her father disowned her. Now her larger-than-life father, Franklin Storm, is dead, and she has to return to the family’s private island off Rhode Island to pay her respects. She isn’t planning on staying past the funeral, but it seems even in death, […]

this novel, much like a duck’s uterus, is a tangle of paths and twists

Family of Origin by C. J. Hauser

November 15, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

Nope- not just referencing duck biology on a whim; ducks and their inner workings are integral to this story! Labyrinthine reproductive parts, family secrets, climate change, and possible reverse evolution are wound together into a tight knot by C.J. Hauser, and it is up to you to untangle, smooth, and rearrange the beautiful mess within. If you are totally in the dark re: duck workings, please go and watch Isabella Rosellini’s Green Porno entry “Seduce Me”. Obviously NSFW, definitely educational AND fun! Half-siblings Elsa and […]

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad…House

It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

November 11, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

A knock at the door. A series of frantic knocks at the door. Yes, It Will Just Be Us nearly starts with “it was a dark and stormy night”. Our narrator, Sam, is a down-and-out adjunct professor of archeology barely hanging onto her sanity. After a series of upsetting events, we find her moving back to her crumbling, ancestral mansion in on the edge of a foreboding Virginia swamp. The mansion is, for all intents and purposes, haunted. It’s haunted by the living specter of her […]

Love and other strangenesses

February 20, 2017 by Mim Leave a Comment

Meet Shannon Mc Farland: in one night, she goes from atop the world to underneath it. Now, as anyone who’s read a Palahniuk novel knows, the problem is not giving away the twist, and dancing around this one is going to be difficult. This novel is about the bonds of love and friendship and the illusion of outward appearances. It touches on desperation, toxic families, and hatred: it does a bit more than flirt with suicide. For those of us with triggers related to drug […]

Dysfunction Junction

May 24, 2016 by maydays 1 Comment

My book club’s current choice is The Nest, an engrossing read about the very dysfunctional Plumb family. I read that the author expanded this to a novel after starting in her MFA course with a short story about 4 siblings having a drink at 4 different bars in NYC before joining for a family meeting. Leo, the selfish and manipulative brother of Beatrice, Melody, and Jack has found himself financially and personally ruined after an accident involving a young waitress. In order to keep the […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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