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

Would you still take the trip you planned with your ex just so he and his new girlfriend couldn’t have it? That's what Ellery did. Ellery recently divorced, travels alone to a luxurious resort in Big Sur for what was once meant to be her 20th wedding anniversary trip. When the groom of a wedding party is found dead in the resort’s infinity pool, a fierce storm traps all the guests inside with no escape. As tensions rise and another guest dies, Ellery teams up with two fellow guests to uncover the truth, realizing that everyone has secrets, including herself. I love love love that Ellery still went on this trip, just so her ex and his new girlfriend wouldn't. That’s the kind of petty energy we all need in our lives. Also, I really ended up loving the name Ellery! The Unwedding captured my attention at B&N bc well, "unwedding" isn't even a word but it has now become the newest addition to my vocab. The plot was thrilly and eerie and I love the "stuck on an island and one of us is the killer" trope. Is that a trope? (I still don't really know what a trope is. 😬) One theme I was really drawn to in this book was transformation. Ellery arrives in Big Sur heartbroken and unsure of herself, yet she’s still determined to solve the crime and in doing so, she begins to find her own strength again. That's a plot I'll never get tired of reading about, especially after living a similar experience! Anyone who likes a mix of petty revenge, seaside eeriness, and a protagonist’s personal growth will be hooked. This is the first book I've read by Ally Condie and it was SUCH a great read. 10/10 would read again. Trigger Warnings: death, drowning, grief, divorce, infidelity, alcohol use, isolation, panic attacks, discussions of suicide

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.

The setting was great, the premise had all the makings of a juicy “whodunit,” and there were plenty of suspects to keep you guessing. But for me, it dragged. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and I found it hard to stay fully engaged. The mystery itself was solid, but it never quite reached that can’t-put-it-down, page-turner level I was hoping for. Not a bad book, just not one that gripped me.

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