Grown Ups by Marian Keyes Book Review

Marian's latest book Grown Ups is a big family affair, involving the 3 Casey brothers Johnny, Ed and Liam, their wives Jessie, Cara and Nell and an assortment of children and how their lives connect and the secrets they share. We start at a family get together for Johnny, a few hours after Cara has suffered from a concussion, which causes her to start blurting out a bunch of secrets and being very blunt. This has a disastrous effect and we go back in time several months and work through everything that leads to the get together. We see the characters and their sometimes complicated relationships, their interactions and how these secrets grow and build.

Marian is so skilled at writing characters and family dynamics. It's one of my favourite things about her writing. Cara's storyline made me uncomfortable to read at times but I think it's because Marian is just superb at highlighting women's issues and really making the character's voice seem so authentic (something I think really applied well in Rachel's Holiday and The Mystery of Mercy Close). There was something about the book that I didn't connect to as well as those other books I mentioned and I think it's possibly because there's so many characters and some many events. I didn't find it confusing to follow but I felt with all the events and interactions, it slowed the pace a bit. I think if one of the events or story lines was dropped it might have felt a bit tighter. The book is steeped in Marian's signature wit, I especially liked some of the interactions of the younger children. Overall I did enjoy it and the idea and structure of the plot but it wouldn't be one of my favourites by Marian