I very rarely give up on a book. I can probably actually count on one hand how many times I haven’t finished a book I started. So I forced myself to finish book 32, with many complaints about it along the way.

Book Read: The Summer We Fell Apart
Author: Robin Antalek
Number of Books Read: 32

I picked this one up at the library book sale, and luckily only spent a single dollar on it. It sounded like it had promise. It did not.

The Haas siblings raised themselves, with a mother and father who spent more time apart than together, one locked away in a room most of the time the other locked away in other people’s rooms. Antalek follows the Haas family across 15 years, spanning from teenage years to adulthood. When their father passes away, each of the four siblings reminisces and tries to find their way.

Divided into five sections, Antalek writes about each sibling (with the epilogue being their mother). Starting with Amy, the youngest, the story begins with flashbacks. It tells the background story of why the family is as dysfunctional as it is, and doesn’t tell you much about who Amy becomes (she is in other stories). This section was long, and made for a slow start of the book.

Following Amy, each sibling’s story is told. George finds love with a student’s father and struggles with the line of teacher and father figure. He battles making what he thinks is the right decision and what makes him happy. He eventually learns, they might be the same thing. (Note: I liked George’s part of the book).

Kate,  the eldest, was always her father’s favorite and cared the most about what he thought. It led her to leaving her fiance and going into law. While she might not regret the law, she seems to regret the leaving. She decides to buy a rundown house in LA, and recruits her brother Finn to help. But Finn had a drinking problem and all might not end well. (Kate seems to whine a heck of a lot.)

Finally, Finn’s story is told. Finn manages to do something so dumb, he somehow brings most of the family back together. Then a wedding ensues.

With the exception of George’s story, I truthfully did not care for is book. I struggled through it for a week and a half, consciously refusing to pick it up after I got off the bus. The characters just annoyed me, and it seemed to never end. Thankfully, it did. My suggestion: skip this book and pick up almost any of the other 31 books I’ve read this year. You won’t refer it.

Here’s to my next reading being a hundred times better (spoiler I started it yesterday and it is).

Next Read: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman