The People We Keep

Finished this a few days ago, completely forgot to review, whoops! First of all, marking a book set in the mid-90's as “historical fiction” hurts my soul in a very old-millennial way, but I think the rule of thumb for that is twenty years before the publication year, so it definitely fits, I'm just a crone. I really enjoyed this story, but I thought the pacing was just a little off - there was so much time spent on Ithaca that it seemed like the latter parts of the story didn't get as much focus/attention/development as I would've liked. This is one of my Book of the Month choices, and I hesitated on getting it because they described it as “inspirational,” which is usually code for religious, specifically Christian (sometimes specifically evangelical). Luckily, none of that here, just hurt people finding their way to each other and to making the best life they can together.

This book was a trip. Wasn't sure what to expect with it really but I'm so glad I decided to choose this as my BOTM pick (only sorry it took so long to read it). I had all the feels throughout the entirety of the book. Those feels didn't stop even as the book ended.

*4.5 stars - I enjoyed The People We Keep. Coming-of-age is a personal favorite, as well as ark stories, and this novel had those aspects in spades. Larkin channels a little Daisy Jones and the Six vibe, with the music and the transient lifestyle of our protagonist, but April is her own character and is dominated by her essential goodness, despite being dealt a bad hand. I was intrigued by the triggering aspects and how readers would react, but I found that the sweetness and the authenticity of the characters and their engagements overcame any possible cries of intentional sensationalism and I was disappointed when the story ended because I just wanted to spend a little more time in Ithaca.