“We Are the Brennans” - Tracey Lange

🍻 I gobbled this contemporary fic up in 2 days; it’s a perfect vacation read. Though I should warn you that drama radiates off of each character in waves so perhaps it’s not an ideal read if you’re looking for a reprieve from real world drama.

🍻 Part of what makes this novel so engaging is Lange’s style of each chapter shifting POV from a different character. A different character makes a statement at the end of each chapter, and the next chapter is taken up by his/her POV. It makes for slightly off-balanced reading since the Brennans are a large family. I like a challenge!

🍻 There’s lots of love here, but the theme of helping versus controlling comes in strong. And of course you’ve got your long-held secrets and withdrawal from loved ones. 

🚨 🚨 🚨 A few semi-spoiler musings ahead 🚨 🚨 🚨

🍻 Considering how deep her love for her entire family runs, Sunday’s rationale for her extreme isolation measures were tough to comprehend. And by the same token, having taken such measures, her return with little convincing seemed odd too. But without these, we wouldn’t have the book.

🍻 I honestly was disappointed by the resolution of the Kale-Vivienne-Sunday subplot; seemed more fitting for a group of high schoolers than adults with adult responsibilities. I could see the conclusion happening perhaps over years but within the 2-month span of this novel, it didn’t sit right with me. 

🍻 Viv was flat and 1-D. Just an awful person but then she’s also trying to have a better life for herself and Luke and you can’t fault her for that. And as wholly unlikeable as she is (read: her awkwardness with Shane), she is ultimately only fighting to keep her family intact from this sudden interloper.

🍻 I also didn’t think Grail got her reckoning for her abandonment of Sunday on the fateful night. If the novel is meting out reckonings….I thought this one ought to have been acknowledged somehow.