Welcome to Litsy!

Totally insane, with a perfectly unsatisfying ending

SUCH an annoying bunch of people who keep ignoring their telephones and keep making stupid, hysterical decisions. All because of the kidnapping of their father decades earlier? I don‘t even want to know. I feel as irritated as I did when reading Fleishman. Although I managed to finish that one.
Note to self: ignore future works by this author!!

#ToB25Longlist

#weeklyforecast 02/25

After the fabulous Intermezzo I like to stay in Ireland a bit longer and am starting the third John Boyne in his Elements series. It‘s supposed to be very dark but I‘m sure I‘ll love it. It‘s short so I‘ll soon start the tagged book too, which is another from the #ToB25Longlist.
I kind of hated Fleishman so my hopes are not too high!

Tfw you finish a book that you wish you hadn‘t… The first third was pretty good but then it just got annoying. I kept thinking the author might be able to bring the magic back but it never got there for me and the ending was kind of like a slow fart. I wouldn‘t recommend it.

Another #ToBlonglist book ticked off, although I‘ve been meaning to read this for some time.

If you like dysfunctional family stories where all of the characters are pretty awful, then this one‘s for you! Like many ‘family sagas‘, it worked well for me on audio as I think it may have been a touch too long / wordy in print and I would have been tempted to start skim-reading.

Whilst I liked Fleishman as well, this was better.

Taffy is so good at teasing apart family relationships and finding what makes characters tick. I wish the ending hadn‘t wrapped so quickly, though.

A wealthy father is kidnapped and tortured for a week. He comes back a broken man to his wife and young children. It affects each of the three kids differently into adulthood. When the family money dries up, they have a reckoning with what their lives have become.

Where‘s my dysfunctional family fans?? This is our type of read!
In this messy, wealthy Jewish family in Queens, three siblings and their parents live under the shadow cast by the defining event of their lives: matriarch, Carl was kidnapped when the children were young (one not yet born). Explores how religion and wealth create family dynamics but most of all how trauma presents itself in many different ways. I loved it! #ToB25 longlist

Okay. Unnecessarily long. I went back and forth between ebook and audio. The reveal of the kidnapper was too subtle for me, in that it would‘ve been more interesting had there been more breadcrumbs leading up to it or response after it.

5-21 Sep 25
The jumping off point for this novel is ostensibly the kidnapping of Carl Fletcher and the impact it continues to have on his family decades later. But it may well be the continued impact of the holocaust and the actions people can justify taking to keep their family ‘safe‘ or, in the case of the Fletchers, incredibly wealthy.
Interesting look at generational trauma, privilege and entitlement. The ending kind of deflated me. But true.

It‘s only right then that you ever truly understand how big and unsearchable the world actually is—how it is far too big to find something in it that is really lost 🏭💵🪦

Three generations of a Jewish-American family battle the traumas passed down from each generation prior.

Inheritance ✨ Trauma ✨ Wealth

Sure did love this one!

I don‘t know what to think about this one. Despite good writing, the long chapters of anxiety for both Beamer and Nathan were neither enjoyable nor captivating for me to read. Getting past the brothers I was interested in the impact of generational trauma ignored and did like the rest of the book. I‘m giving it a so-so but I might upgrade later if time leaves me with stronger thoughts about the latter part of the book.

I debated bailing on this book for a couple of days and tried to push through, but I‘m just so bored with it.

Also, the chapters are way too long and it was hard to find a good stopping point when I wanted to take a break.

Bailed at 62% 😐🥱

Slowly plowing through this one. Can relate so much to this part!

Not even done with chapter 1 and this is already messy…and I‘m here for it! 😅