Book Review: Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

The Blurb:

They’re a glamorous family, the Caseys.

Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together – birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they’re a happy family. Johnny’s wife, Jessie – who has the most money – insists on it.

Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . .

Everything stays under control until Ed’s wife Cara, gets concussion and can’t keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny’s birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets.

In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?

My Rating: ★★★

My Review:

I’m not sure what I was expecting, this being my first Marian Keyes novel, but I think I expected more. Knowing that Keyes is a wildly popular author I think I expected to be wowed by her writing style, characters and narrative, but unfortunately there was no wowing.

A ‘just OK’ read, Grown Ups took such a very long time to get into.

In the beginning I struggled with the hoards of characters, finding it difficult to sort out who was who and how they all related to each other. I was confused for the first 150 or so pages (NEVER a good sign) and found it near impossible to connect to any of these characters.

As I read on, it got a little better. Having worked out the family dynamics I could settle into the story.

For me, it was the wives’ stories that held the most interest with the husbands feeling like secondary characters….and none of them very nice. I guess being a woman I related more easily to the women’s struggles. And if I’m honest I just wanted to smack the men. The three brothers, Liam, Ed and Johnny, really needed a a big wake up…..and happily they got it….even if in a predictable way.

Such a long book (656 pages), it still felt really hodge podge as it jumped from one person or idea to another, often cutting off the previous thought without finishing it and leaving me with a sense of missing something potentially important.

There were some good bits….I’m pretty sure…otherwise I wouldn’t have given this book 3 stars….but they are currently eluding me. If I remember I’ll add them to this review but for now I’m wondering if I should lower my star rating on this one.

In a sentence: If you are a Marian Keyes fan you may enjoy this, her latest novel, but it wasn’t really for me.

With thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for this advanced copy in return for an honest review.