Bethany Ball

From Center for Fiction First Novel Prize finalist Bethany Ball comes a biting and darkly funny new novel that follows a set of privileged, jaded Connecticut suburbanites whose cozy, seemingly picture-perfect, lives begin to unravel amid shocking turns of fate and revelations of long-held secrets

The Pessimists

Liyah 🤎

This book started off interesting. It seemed like there was maybe a mystery or deeper level of interconnectedness between the characters when actually it wasn't what you got from the onset of the book was pretty much what was going on by the end. I thought the petty suburban drama was a means to a greater end or greater point in the book but it wasn't it just was what the book was about. I was introduced to it as a "scathing review of suburbia" and it wasn't. To me, the book didn't say anything really at all, it just described sordid details of less than likable characters and their lives who happened to live in suburbia. All in all the book just didn't live up to my expectations. I may have been expecting something more or something entirely different than what the book intended to give but if I had expected it to be just a drab suburban soap opera, which is what it mostly was, I would've never read it anyway. A sour ending to my 2021 reads. Wouldn't recommend.

Linn 

In The Pessimists, we follow 3 white couples living in suburban USA and how their lives are affected by each other, by the secrets that they keep, and by the unconventional school which is at the center of the community and of the story. The book takes a satirical look at the everyday suburban life which coupled with the over descriptiveness took some time for me to really get into but by the end, I was really enjoying it. One thing that stood out to me was the way the Swedish character was depicted, as it sometimes felt as if the author couldn’t really decide what nationality to give to the character so said character ended up with some mix (or maybe that was the point, I couldn’t really tell). 

actual rating: 3.5 stars 

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for sending me an advanced copy.

The Pessimists

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