The Guncle is a decent dramedy. It follows Patrick O’Hara, a 40-something gay man living in Palm Springs. He’s an actor that hasn’t worked in a decade, but he was a star and his show was a hit. After the death of their mother, Sara, 9 year old Maisie and 6 year old Grant spend the summer with their “guncle” Patrick, aka GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick). Their father, Greg, can’t care for them because he checks into rehab after years of addiction to cope with his wife’s illness. Patrick is also dealing with grief as Sara was his best friend from university who ended up marrying his younger brother (Greg). But also, he lost his long-term boyfriend, Joe, 12 years prior. Together, Patrick and the kids work through their grief. 

At first I was a bit annoyed with Patrick, he seemed very blasé about Greg’s request to take the children for the summer. But eventually, I found him to be a very loving, sarcastic, and funny uncle. He talks to the kids as if they were adults but clearly in a joking manner. I think Maisie is great, and snarky. I love that she’s more comfortable in more masculine clothing and Patrick (who wears more feminine clothing) encourages her to wear what she’s most comfortable in. Patrick goes from a single, “kids aren’t my thing”, and not knowing anything about parenting, to this protective and loving uncle. I hate Patrick and Greg’s older sister, Clara, who believed she knew best simply because she’s a stepmother to her husband’s two teenagers. Never mind she didn’t come into their lives until they were teens and they spend most of their time with their mother. Clara accusing Patrick of being unfit and his home being borderline inappropriate for the children, which made me lose all sympathy for her. 

Patrick’s personality is huge and his energy is so high that though I love him on paper, I feel like in real life my social battery would be depleted within 5 minutes. This book had me laughing and crying. It was a heartwarming read. 

I’m not a huge fan of reading books with young children simply because the dialogue of school age characters are cringe, cliché, and/or unrealistic. The dialogue for Grant was pretty cringe. I didn’t see any chemist between Patrick and Emory, and they hardly spent any time together for me to really like Emory. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of age gaps and there’s like 15 years between them. Never mind Emory’s pursuing Patrick. Though I liked this book, it’s pretty barebones where there’s some things that weren’t developed enough and/or rushed through, and other things that too much time was spent on. 

Nice, quick beach read.