I’ve seen a couple of reviews describe American Pop as southern gothic, and I think that description is pretty accurate. It’s not the happiest of stories. In this book we follow the Forster family, the founders of a fictional soda-pop empire.

Wright hit it out of the park in the character development category. Each Forster is multi-layered and deeply flawed; it was very easy to quickly become invested in their stories. The family is no stranger to misfortune, and they experience some pretty dark moments - the story is definitely grittier than I had expected.

The world building is fantastic, and it pulled me right into the American south and Paris. I really loved that aspect. And the story itself was engrossing, and the ending was a surprise kick in the pants!

Basically, the individual parts of the book are great. But the actual structure of the book as a whole gave me problems. The timeline and point-of-view changed frequently and without warning. It pulled me out of the story as I tried to figure out who the chapter was focused on, and more importantly, when. I found myself frequently checking the family tree at the front of the book in an attempt to keep all of the people and time periods straight in my head.

I’m actually interested in reading a final finished copy of the book, to see if the structure was updated at all. Because other than that, the book is fantastic.

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for an advance copy of this book!