The Celebrants

3.5/5 stars

3.5 - This book had a bit of a slow start and lost me in some of the flashbacks, but overall I fell in love with this friendship group who bonded through the trauma of losing their college friend. They made a pact to throw each other funerals while they were still living and not leave anything unsaid about how much they've meant to each other. Through flashbacks of each of these character's funerals you get to know their stories and relationships with each other. I thought it was beautifully written and the last few chapters made me ugly cry more than a few times. It was funny, charming, existential and deeply heartfelt.

“It's all going to kill you, you might as well do something fun.”

With some authors, you just know what to expect. Right? A Fredrick Backman novel is going to be, well, like a Backman novel. Having read two of Steven Rowley's previous books (Lily and the Octopus and The Guncle), I thought I knew what to expect. But really, I found The Celebrants to be a departure from those two!

For the first quarter of this book, I was getting into it, thinking okay, this is going to be really good. However, at that point it seemed to just keep going without much really happening. This is really a character-driven story...there's not a ton of storyline. At first, that really threw me off and I was pretty unsure about the whole thing. Where was this thing going??

In reality, it's just a succession of the friends' “funerals” that are had during personal crises. If you're looking for a really riveting story, you're not going to find it here.

HOWEVER. starting at about 55%, the whole thing started to affect me more deeply, and I started really loving a couple of the characters. It just took a while for me to get there! I almost felt like giving up on it, but man, the payoff in the second half is so worth getting a little bored in the first half.

My full review is here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2023/06/review-the-celebrants-by-steven-rowley/

3.5 stars. The constant POV head-hopping drove me crazy, but YMMV if that isn't one of your pet peeves. Might make a good book club selection; people could discuss how and if they would honor “the pact” made by the five friends. CW: One of the MCs has terminal cancer (revealed to the reader in the first chapter), so bring your handkerchiefs.

Very well written, with good flow, pace, and structure - feels very authentic/real and relatable. Good jumping off point and the right balance of backstory and current journey with some good layers to each of the events. The characters are mostly flushed out, but could also be a little cookie-cutter when compared to ‘those friends' that a lot of people might have. Yet, there also seems to be a great grasp on the feelings and emotions beneath the surface level that most deep relationships live in.