PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book that includes a wedding


TW: Body hatred, infidelity, graphic sex, loss of child, classism, homophobia



The People We Hate at the Wedding? More like, the people I hate in this novel. And that was really everybody. God, the characters in this story were all absolutely horrid and it made getting through this book an absolute struggle. It was marketed a bit as being similar to Crazy Rich Asians, but while I loved each book in that series, this was a far cry from being anything like those fantastic novels.


Paul and Alice have been invited to a big, fancy, expensive wedding in London - the wedding of their half-sister Eloise. Instead of being thrilled, they're horribly angry about this wedding and basically everything Eloise stands for. Paul's relationship has taken a dramatic turn, and Alice's relationship isn't quite what you'd call traditional. Their mother, Donna, is miserable and hates herself feeling like she peaked in life around the time Eloise was her only child. As they all begin to gather for the wedding, drama ensues.


LORD. I hated everyone in this book. It's not that it isn't written well. It was actually incredibly easy to read and I finished it in a day. But I'm pretty sure I was cringing the entire time. The story starts with Alice and Paul Googling Eloise's wedding invitations so they can bitch about how much she spent. Okay, okay - maybe not so bad. Maybe it's something we all do, especially if we're not financially privileged. But it's truly all downhill from there.

The characters are a bit horrendous. They hate each other. They hate themselves. There's a scene with Donna in a fitting room that was such a horrible bit of self hatred, I could hardly stand it. And just when you think you can connect with a character, they act so ridiculously, you'd hate to connect with them.

The fact of the matter is, the characters were so dreadful I couldn't enjoy the story at all. I'll say this book is absolutely character-driven, and may actually be an alright, if you can stand the characters. If not, it's going to be a tough story to get through.





I struggled with this book so terribly. The writing was good and easy to get through, but the character-driven story was a difficult one to read when I absolutely hated the characters. It wasn't for me.




Goodreads rating: ★★★☆☆














*I received this novel free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.