Title: Other People's Houses
Author: Abbi Waxman
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Pages: 352 (Paperback)
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication date: April 3rd, 2018
Synopsis from Other People's Houses Goodreads page
And now the author of The Garden of Small Beginnings returns with a hilarious and poignant new novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything.
At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...
*record scratch*
As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...
After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that's a notion easier said than done when Anne's husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families--and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.
At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...
*record scratch*
As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...
After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that's a notion easier said than done when Anne's husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families--and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.
THOUGHTS
I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review -- Thank you Penguin Random House!
I have heard a lot of buzz around this book, especially from a lot of book bloggers and booktubers in the US, because it was featured on Book of the Month a few months ago. Ever since I heard of it, I was instantly interested in getting my hands on it!
Other People's Houses is about how one single decision can ruin more than one person's life, and ruin it to the point of no repair. It was so sad but also so funny, however this book is definitely for a more mature audience!
There were so many different characters in this book, so many crazy kids, so many out-there parents, that there was always something crazy going on throughout the entire story. That was an aspect of the book that I really enjoyed - that everyone got an equal amount of time in the story, and how every group of people had their own problems and how they were each just trying to live their lives and work through it. I really enjoyed the kind of "secret look" into each and every married couples' lives, and I thought that it was really interesting how they each had their own problems.
Also being said about the characters, is that they were all different and they were all unique in their own way. With a book this length with the amount of characters that there is, I was really expecting to struggle keeping up with all of the characters and how they were all connected. But each one of them had some either redeeming quality or some quality that drove me CRAZY, so it was easier to keep them straight than I thought it was going to be!
Another thing that I really liked about the book was how everyone had something either bad or just difficult happening in their lives. I don't want to say that I like bad things happening to characters that I like, but it makes them easier to connect with if they have something bad happening in their lives that impacts them in some way. Seeing characters struggling to deal with things, in my opinion, makes it easier to like them and easier to see parts of yourself in them as well. Having each character dealing with something made the story itself more realistic.
I did have a few issues with the story, however. Personally, I didn't like the ending, because to me it seemed a bit rushed and a bit unrealistic given what happens to the characters throughout the story. I found it to be a bit rushed and a bit forced, and that made the book not quite as good as it had been to me.
Overall I did enjoy this book! The characters were realistic, the plot was easily followed and the story line was quirky and interesting!
Overall - ★★★☆☆.5
Other People's Houses is about how one single decision can ruin more than one person's life, and ruin it to the point of no repair. It was so sad but also so funny, however this book is definitely for a more mature audience!
There were so many different characters in this book, so many crazy kids, so many out-there parents, that there was always something crazy going on throughout the entire story. That was an aspect of the book that I really enjoyed - that everyone got an equal amount of time in the story, and how every group of people had their own problems and how they were each just trying to live their lives and work through it. I really enjoyed the kind of "secret look" into each and every married couples' lives, and I thought that it was really interesting how they each had their own problems.
Also being said about the characters, is that they were all different and they were all unique in their own way. With a book this length with the amount of characters that there is, I was really expecting to struggle keeping up with all of the characters and how they were all connected. But each one of them had some either redeeming quality or some quality that drove me CRAZY, so it was easier to keep them straight than I thought it was going to be!
Another thing that I really liked about the book was how everyone had something either bad or just difficult happening in their lives. I don't want to say that I like bad things happening to characters that I like, but it makes them easier to connect with if they have something bad happening in their lives that impacts them in some way. Seeing characters struggling to deal with things, in my opinion, makes it easier to like them and easier to see parts of yourself in them as well. Having each character dealing with something made the story itself more realistic.
I did have a few issues with the story, however. Personally, I didn't like the ending, because to me it seemed a bit rushed and a bit unrealistic given what happens to the characters throughout the story. I found it to be a bit rushed and a bit forced, and that made the book not quite as good as it had been to me.
Overall I did enjoy this book! The characters were realistic, the plot was easily followed and the story line was quirky and interesting!
Overall - ★★★☆☆.5
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