Emma Straub

Haven't we all sometimes wished to go back and change events from our past?

Time travel, yes. But so much more. I usually don't go looking for time travel books. I've read a few that I enjoyed, but it's not my first go-to for genre fiction.

Set in NYC in two time periods, Emma Straub’s novel is an exploration of grief and letting go with a nod to coming of age dynamics as well. She shows us the importance of engaging with those we love in the moment. The relationship between Alice and her show more father is touching and a bit atypical, making the journey more inviting. The further I got into the story the more I appreciated the use of the temporal literary device to explore the depth of their rapport. .

Straub's writing is remarkably concise while still digging deeply into the setting. The city neighborhoods themselves are characters with her atmospheric descriptions. Her characters left me wanting more of their story even though it ends conclusively. show less

Y'all. I love Emma Straub as a person and author. She is adorable in her online presence, and visiting her bookstore is on my bucket list. Plus, her writing style is perfection. She truly gets people and captures the most intricate nuances in her characters and settings. All Adults Here is another great example of her ability to create stories that are as real as anything you will come across in your everyday life.

The thing is, while I can appreciate just how well Ms. Straub writes and how show more amazing her stories are, including her newest book, I realized once and for all that I don't like to read family dramas. They do nothing for me. In fact, they make me feel uncomfortable as if I am a total creeper voyeur spying on someone else's life. Plus, they don't help me escape my own life when I read. Parental drama makes me think about my own parents. Sibling drama makes me think about my brother. It is the exact opposite of why I read.

I am someone who reads to escape, so I want worlds that are unfamiliar, lives so not like mine as to be foreign. Ms. Straub in All Adults Here does not provide me with that. Her setting of a fictional town in New York feels universal and could be any small town in America. Similarly, the Strick family is normal, filled with the same doubts, bad choices, trauma, secrets, and flaws that make up any family. It isn't escapism so much as it is a confirmation and potential comfort that you are not alone in your family's weirdness or issues.

I get why such novels are popular, and I truly believe that All Adults Here is a gorgeous story. Unfortunately, it did nothing for me, and I was really happy when I finished it so that I could move onto something weird and fantastical. But this is me. Fans of such dramas are going to go ga-ga over this novel, and rightly so. show less

"The Posts were masters of self-delusion, all of them." When this family of 4 (Franny, Jim, Sylvia and Bobby) head to Majorca to vacation at a time of major transition in their lives, humorous things happen and the reader is in on the joke. Franny and Jim are at a crisis point in their marriage -- Jim has recently cheated on Franny with an intern at work and was forced into early retirement at age 60. Sylvia is starting college at Brown in a month and longs to leave high school social show more dynamics behind. Bobby, at age 30 is in debt and has been working at a gym with his cougar gym-rat girlfriend Carmen, rather than the real estate business in Miami that his parents think he does. To round out the crew, Franny's best friend, Charles and his husband Lawrence join them. They are on the short list to adopt a baby. All this tension and intrigue and humor swirls around during the 2 week stay and finally hits the fan on Day 10. The author has a very detached tone toward the Posts, often making them the butt of an inside joke with the reader. But there is some sympathy and poignancy too as love in its various forms works its magic. "Families were nothing more than hope cast out in a wide net." and the Posts all seem to be hoping for the best outcome. The audio narrator had a snarky voice which grated sometimes, but overall, this was a funny, light vacation read. More like 3.5 stars show less

The book begins on the eve of Alice’s 40th birthday. Her life is basically good: she has a good enough job, she has a faithful best friend she’s known for years, an apartment in New York City, her independence, and a relationship that isn’t great, but not unbearable. The only negative piece of her life is that her father, who raised her by himself and with whom she is very close, is hospitalized and very ill. However, the night after her birthday, she awakes and it is 1996 and she is show more 16 years old. More importantly, her father is healthy and thriving. Though this book could possibly be classified as science-fiction/speculative fiction, I think it’s more about the evolution of relationships over time, specifically about Alice and her father. Also, it poses the question we’ve all asked ourselves: if you could go back in time, where would you go? Would you decide to change your past?

While reading, I was thinking, in the back of my mind, about how many stars I would give this book after I finished it. I was on the fence, thinking of giving it 4.5 stars, and either rounding up or down, depending on how I felt about it overall. What pushed it from 4.5 to 5 was the ending. It was poignant and satisfying and just done so very well. This book also made me think about what makes a book “perfect”. I think a perfect book is a rare bird. Almost all books have their faults. However, I think a book succeeds when you finish it and you just have to sit there for a while and process what you just read, and feel that satisfaction and gratitude that this book exists, that it’s a well told story, and the feeling that you have when you know you will re-read this book sometime in the future. Quietly remarkable.

One more thing: how old was that cat?! show less