2020: This was a good palette cleanser for me post Infinite Jest, a reminder that fiction can be easy and informative, without requiring a dictionary and seven weeks of my life.

Maeve is the best, and Danny is the absolute worst. Glad he spent the whole book telling us Maeve's story though. May is a gem and Kevin got zero screen time. I would have loved a little more of a backstory to Andrea. I certainly understand the premise of an "evil stepmother" story, but why was she so evil? Just because she wanted to own the house?

I want to like Patchett more, and I've certainly read a lot of her books, but she always seems to slightly miss the mark. A solid 4 star rating across all of her books from me.

According to other reviews, I probably should have saved this one for an audiobook, as Tom Hanks is the narrator. Not sure I really want to spend more time in this world or that I need to revisit this story, but I would love to hear Hanks' narration.