[A personal note: I just finished reading the completed version of this ebook on my Amazon Kindle, not the original ARC version that was offered by the Early Reviewers program and that I won back in 2017.]

This book was an interesting read. ( )

This book is a sarcastic and funny fictionalized memoir. Not sure if it was intended to read that way, but that is how I read it to be. This book may not for everyone if you don't like sarcastic humor. ( )

i struggled with this book, torn between begruding amusement and roll-my-eyes disdain. I thought the time setting of late70s, early 80s promising but some of the dialog was cringeworthy and the wacky family over the top without any charm or redeeming quality. The story veered about, taking some wild turns (born again girlfriend, the rescue of a cousin from a cult), but nothing made this story come together for me and the ending solidified my dislike of the main character. ( )

Although well written this is unfortunately not enough to make this an enjoyable read for me. While others may find this a very entertaining and funny read it is simply not for me, and yes the failing might be mine. The problem is that I just don’t find it funny, maybe it is not my kknid of humour, or perhaps I cannot read it in the right voice, but that fact is I find it an uncomfortable read, feeling somewhat embarrassed for the characters.

If you like your humour upfront, and don’t care too much for your characters, maybe this is for you, but it’s not for me. ( )

I received an advance reading copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

I gave up on reading this novel about 40% through. The novel set in 1980 is narrated by 17 y.o. Shawn Aldridge, the youngest member of an eccentric family that recently moved from the midwest to the New York City suburb. All of the children are expected to accomplish something great, but most of the family's hopes are pinned on Shawn's sister Nora becoming a concert violinist, leaving the other children to work out their resentment and inadequacy in other (supposedly comic) ways. Shawn, an irritating narcissist, sees himself as a sensitive poet and spends much of his time taking the train to New York where he dates an exotic dancer, while simultaneously dating a typical middle-class suburban girl in New Rochelle. The characters frequently stereotype others, and the author's voice seem to agree with them. The dialogue is stilted and unbelievable. Really everyone in this book is loathsome, and while it's possible to have a novel with no sympathetic characters, you have to be a better writer than this. I'm not surprised to look at Amazon and see this book compared to Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors, because I hated the movie adaptation of that book for many of the same reasons I hate this book.

Favorite Passages:

"Now, there were two sides to this family. One was playful, fun, drunken and the other was desolate and desperate. At any given moment I could not tell which side was going to win out. The dark or the light." - (Kindle Locations 134-135).

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