Summer Reading Challenge: The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek (Chrissy’s review)

The Grown Ups
written by Robin Antalek
published by William Morrow Paperbacks, 2015

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review. And this is how my book arrived:

Did I enjoy this book: I did enjoy The Grown Ups. And I did something I rarely do anymore–I took my time reading it.

This is the first coming-of-age book that centers around characters who are my age . . . maybe a few years younger. But I could relate to them. I understood the time they grew up. I got the parents. I got the circumstances. The story is told from multiple characters’ points of view. Each chapter tells you which character we are focusing on and what year it is. This helps tremendously. Sometimes mixed POVs can be confusing, but this book works. And I like reading what everyone is going through at different stages of the same time period. It was done well. I liked all of the characters, and I disliked them at a few points. It was just a good read to make you think about your own life and memories.

The Grown Ups was a great read full of ups and downs, loves, life, everything.

 

Would I recommend it: Yes, I would recommend The Grown Ups.

About the book – from Goodreads: From the author of The Summer We Fell Apart, an evocative and emotionally resonant coming-of-age novel involving three friends that explores what it means to be happy, what it means to grow up, and how difficult it is to do both together

The summer he’s fifteen, Sam enjoys, for a few secret months, the unexpected attention of Suzie Epstein. For reasons Sam doesn’t entirely understand, he and Suzie keep their budding relationship hidden from their close knit group of friends. But as the summer ends, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters twice: Suzie’s parents are moving to a new city to save their marriage, and his own mother has suddenly left the house, leaving Sam’s father alone to raise two sons.

Watching as her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college and independence. Though she thinks of Sam, she deeply misses her closest friend Bella, but makes no attempt to reconnect, embarrassed by the destructive wake of her parents as they left the only place Suzie called home. Years later, a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother will reunite her with both Sam and Bella – and force her to confront her past and her friends.

After losing Suzie, Bella finds her first real love in Sam. But Sam’s inability to commit to her or even his own future eventually drives them apart. In contrast, Bella’s old friend Suzie—and Sam’s older brother, Michael—seem to have worked it all out, leaving Bella to wonder where she went wrong.

Spanning over a decade, told in alternating voices, The Grown Ups explores the indelible bonds between friends and family and the challenges that threaten to divide them.