The Unwedding: Reese’s Book Club Pick (A Novel)

Reese…. Blink twice if you’re ok. My review is going to be pretty spoilery bc this book sucked, and I would like to complain about it freely, but it was too dumb to waste time doing a recap, so this is going to be all over the place. ***** Despite the potentially interesting setup — a recently divorced lady goes alone to a fancy resort in Big Sur on what was supposed to be her 20th anniversary trip, there’s a wedding at the resort, the groom turns up dead, there’s a storm and they are stranded at the resort, then there’s another death — I have read a zillion better versions of this story. The MC (Ellery - though another reviewer called her “Celery” and it fits her perfectly, so I’m copying them) was a personality black hole. Celery is a high school teacher who doesn’t drink and survived a bus crash and was written up for it in People magazine even though she literally did nothing but not die? (spoiler: this crash has NOTHING — NOTH.ING— to do with ANYTHING else in the story other than providing some extremely tedious flashback scenes and I guess another thing for Celery to be sad about? She didn’t cause the bus crash, no one has targeted her for revenge, there’s no big secret to be revealed. I thought maybe her bff (Abby?) died in the crash and Celery was hallucinating that she was still around? Nope. She’s just a depressed, bland lady on a vacation where she meets all sorts of people (an influencer couple with an extremely boring and pointless secret from their pasts, two friends traveling together who inexplicably invite Celery to hang out with them and are maybe supposed to seem a little mysterious, but are decidedly NOT), a bunch of frat bros, a lady and her retired judge dad (who also is a sculptor?) and there’s some stolen art (maybe? that plot line felt very tacked on) and a LOT of unnecessary godparent talk (is that really such a major relationship? Like maybe just do some estate planning and set up a trust and guardianship for your kids instead of assuming a godparent will step in?), but despite being constantly with people, Sad Celery is so alone that she is the only one (The! Only! One!) who notices a bunch of dumb details that somehow solve the murders. I was listening on 2.5x speed for the last quarter of the book just to get it over with (only finished bc it was for book club otherwise this nonsense would have been ditched at like 10%), and it still went on FOR-EVER. Jesus H. What a boring mess.

I really liked the plot twist in this and I never expected it to be who it was

I had high hopes for this being a Reese’s book club book but it was just average. A who dunnit which isn’t my fav but honestly the twist just wasn’t great. 4/10

A great read for a grey and rainy afternoon! I picked this one up on a whim while shopping at Walmart recently, drawn in by the scenic landscape on the dust cover and the promise of mystery within its pages. What I didn’t realize at that point in time were the emotions this book would take me through as we meet the lead character and learn of her family struggles and uncover past experiences that shape the way she views the world and others. As a mother and a wife, there were moments that resonated with me deeply and hurt to read. The emotional pain was palpable through the writing and brought a beautiful depth to the character and her internal struggle throughout the book. There is so much to say about the plot itself, as we navigate the mystery of the dead groom as a lone traveler on vacation, no less an outsider to the wedding party. The author plays into this role wonderfully, demonstrating how willingly others will share pieces of themselves with someone far removed from their life, while harbouring secrets from those closest to them. The contrast is subtle, but very well executed within the writing. “Everyone has a shadow”.

Great read! Suspenseful and lots of twists till the end.