If We're Being Honest- A Novel by Cat Shook
Product Details
Web ID: 16778262Honestly a miss
I generally like a story of extended family coming together and messy secrets but this just didn't work for me. I found the characters annoying, repetitive, uninteresting, and ultimately, boring. I'm not sure if maybe the issue is I'm not the right age demographic for this story but none of the characters felt like real people to me. The dialogue was awkward and made me cringe - and not in a good way where it's intentional- they just don't talk like real people. The slang and expressions are all over the place and made many characters feel like caricatures.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
BookishFirst Review
Thank you BookishFirst for choosing me to read and review this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own. If We're Being Honest by Cat Shook is an okay read. It reminded me of a movie I watched years ago with Meryl Streep. It was a drama as well with a huge cast of different personalities and different situations people were going through during a difficult time. So If We're Being Honest didn't feel very original to me. But, besides originality, Cat Shook's writing is intriguing and kept my attention well enough. The characters are well-developed and flawed and it really showed during their time of grief. It took me a while to read this book. The pacing is slightly slow in some spots and quick in others. I did get bored at times and put the book down to read other stories. Do I recommend this book? I think others who read drama related stories will be entertaining but for me it was just okay.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
I really enjoyed!
This book had very good beginning with many characters to follow at first but once you catch on it’s easy to pick up on the storyline.. With just one sentence, this author has me as putty in her hands. The death of the family patriarch is unexpected and the big surprise in the eulogy starts this book out with a bang. The family dynamic was unique with layers of family and relationships with varying levels of dysfunction throughout. There are neighbors that have become like family through the years that are also thrown into the mix as well. The first thing I really notice about this book is that there is so much complexity in the depth of the characters and their relationships. Many of the issues have been going on for quite some time and have been unresolved, but will definitely receive attention and focus as the family deals with loss. The ending was strong and ended very well.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A warm and lovely family story
We all know we aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover but that’s precisely what made me pause while scrolling, with my finger hovering over this book. ‘If We’re Being Honest’ turned out to be just as warm and approachable as its cover. The novel begins with a funeral and ends with a wedding which felt very fitting for this story all about a family. We step into the Williams family home after the sudden death of the patriarch, a good and kind man who was very loved - and also, it turns out, kept some secrets. As the plot unfolds, we follow the members of the family as they grapple with that legacy, and slowly confront secrets and truths of their own. It’s title very much makes sense by the time you reach the final page. The characters are, for the most part, likable and real. The book is at its very best when it follows Ellen, the widow, but there are some misses with other characters. (The youngest sisters in both generations are painfully stereotyped.) I wondered if choosing fewer family members to follow would have been more fulfilling for the reader because we could have spent more time with them. The individual perspectives are the most informative and give a clearer sense of the family history. There’s just too much to keep track of with everyone in the family. This is not a brooding, dramatic family saga. It’s lighthearted and sincere, and there are neat endings. If you tend towards darker genres (which I do), this might be a good departure for your mind. It was a lovely audiobook listen that gave me good feels. Not the very best read of the summer but certainly worthy of 3 stars despite the need for some editing.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Solid family focused novel
Family driven books are so great for so many reasons. One, it makes you remember that your family is definitely not the only weird one out there (and are likely calm by comparison). But the other is that there are so many complex relationships that have to work together somehow in families, and that is just so interesting to me. This book was no exception. The whole family is pretty big, and admittedly, sometimes hard to keep track of, especially at first. And you know that when families have Big Secrets™, there is going to be lots of drama that follows. (This is, to me, also a really great reason to just, I don't know, NOT keep secrets from your families? But I also understand why sometimes people feel they need to, of course.) Anyway, I really liked that their was a focus on grief, and how different people can handle things differently, but that all of their feelings were valid. This seemed like a very "slice of life" type book, which I definitely appreciated.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Best Book I have Ever Read
This book couldn’t have been better. It’s been YEARS since I picked up a book that I wanted to read when I woke up, skipped tv time to read at night, and literally felt sad once it was over. I could’ve read 300 more pages following this family. I laughed, I cried. It’s so thoughtful and clever. I can’t believe this is the first book from this author. Can’t wait for what’s to come!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Perfect Beach Read
Synopsis: Gerry, the Williams family patriarch, dies suddenly bringing his children and grandchildren from all over the country, back to Georgia for his funeral. Over the next week while they care for their grandmother, the family leans on each other through infidelity, secret pregnancies, devastating breakups and even someone being eliminated on The Bachelor. Review: I loved this one! If you liked We Are the Brennans, Apples Never Fall or any other book based on a huge family with a million characters you’ll love it too. It does take a second to get a handle on the 10+ storylines and it’s a little predictable but it’s the easy feel-good read you need this summer! @mywanderlustlibrary
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
If I'm Being Honest- Amazing Book!
If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook is a new release from Celadon Books last month, one, after cracking the spine, I didn’t want to walk away from. Shook brings to the page a family, the William's, who are facing the loss of its patriarch (Gerry) who has just died. Like almost every family would (and should) they gather for mourning and burial in the hometown the children were born and raised in. While most of the children went elsewhere when grown, the Williams adult children (and now grown grandchildren) have stayed close, often returning home (to Gerry, the patriarch and Ellen, the matriarch) to nurture relationships with one another. Unfortunately, during the funeral service a huge secret is shared, one that shakes, shatters, the entire family. Most of all, it changes how the children, grandchildren and especially Gerry's wife, Ellen, see the life they lived with their husband, father and grandfather. Sadly, this secret can never be explained fully as one of the major participants in it, is the deceased. And now, the rest of the family feels the need to tiptoe around Ellen, Gerry’s wife, not knowing how she is taking the secret that was made known about her husband. Plus, a good friend (the other part of the secret and the sharer of it), has become a painful reminder of what was, that was not known about. The William's who are left, feel betrayed. Ellen, for the most part, remains silent about everything that is going on with the family, missing her husband, hating him for what he had done to her, to the whole family, that it never made known while he was alive, sad that her husband had to keep such a big part of him a secret, but, had he not, the family wouldn’t be what it was… The cognitive dichotomy of it all is too much for an old woman with three children, grandchildren who are almost middle age and now, with the knowledge shared that the Williams clan will have their first great grandchild…which may connect the William's family with another who were very close. However, there is a positive to emerge from Gerry’s secret. Because his grandson Red, a young man he was very close with, has a secret of his own. One very much like his grandfather’s. And, even though their physical bond is broken, that they were never able to openly share with one another, Red now has the chance to change his life in a way his grandfather never did, or could. But, will Red be able to share his secret with the family? And, if he does, will it help the family or only hurt all the Williams family members, more than they already are? Especially because of what happened at the funeral, the particulars of the secret shared. If We’re Being Honest is a wonderful book about grief and family, about what it means to keep a large secret and have it shed, not being able to explain it oneself, how it affects loved ones….And, it was a beautiful book about how life goes on, how death is handled, the toll it takes and then, the steps a family member or loved one takes, almost like coming out of a quicksand pit, moving back into a new normalcy, a hole that disappears a little more each day as we go on. It also deals with pain and acceptance, struggling against it and those who are able to find it. This is definitely an author who has made a smashing debut into the literary world with this first novel, If We’re Being Honest and, if I’m being honest, one to watch (and one I will watch), in the future. Happy Reading!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com