Reunion by Elise Juska
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the story of three adults going back for their college reunion weekend. They used to be best friends in college but are not as close anymore. Each of them has their own struggles that they are not sharing with the others.
I thought the characters were interesting and well-drawn. They were three dimensional and their feelings around the reunion weekend were juxtaposed well with the struggles they are each experiencing in their lives at the same time. I loved the wide array of personal struggles they each had and I liked the depiction of the reunion weekend, albeit a little stereotypical.
There is an emergency that ends up taking them out of the reunion and inadvertently forces each of them to face what they’re not dealing with in their own lives. I loved this part, too.
I think, in the end, I didn’t give it a higher rating because I felt like I was watching these characters from afar instead of embodying their struggles and that gave the book a distance that is usually not what I prefer in stories like these. I still really enjoyed my time with this novel and it made me think.
with gratitude to netgalley and Harper for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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