ellieroth
Written on Nov 13, 2016
"Funny, sweet, utterly heart-wrenching." —Entertainment Weekly
The New York Times bestseller from the critically acclaimed author of Mosquitoland
Victor Benucci and Madeline Falco have a story to tell.
It begins with the death of Vic’s father.
It ends with the murder of Mad’s uncle.
The Hackensack Police Department would very much like to hear it.
But in order to tell their story, Vic and Mad must focus on all the chapters in between.
This is a story about:
1. A coded mission to scatter ashes across New Jersey.
2. The momentous nature of the Palisades in winter.
3. One dormant submarine.
4. Two songs about flowers.
5. Being cool in the traditional sense.
6. Sunsets & ice cream & orchards & graveyards.
7. Simultaneous extreme opposites.
8. A narrow escape from a war-torn country.
9. A story collector.
10. How to listen to someone who does not talk.
11. Falling in love with a painting.
12. Falling in love with a song.
13. Falling in love.
- ISBN10 0147513669
- ISBN13 9780147513663
- Publish Date 5 September 2017 (first published 20 September 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Speak
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 368
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780147513663
Reviews
Sam@WLABB
Written on Sep 4, 2016
And when the kids needed someone most, someone to love and trust, they found one another, and they called themselves the Kids of Appetite, and they lived and they laughed and they saw that it was good.
This book was filled with so much love and caring and feels, that my heart exploded. This book gave me so much more than I expected, and I mean that in the best way possible.
We are all part of the same story, Baz, each of us different chapters. We may not have the power to choose setting or plot, but we can choose what kind of character we want to be.
Vic was still mourning his father two years after his death. His mother has been trying to move on and things were moving a little too fast with her boyfriend for Vic's liking. So, he grabbed his father's urn and fled. Fate brought Vic into contact with Baz, Nzuzi, Coco, and Mad. They took him into their fold in order to help him decipher the sites described in his father's "terminal letter". The sites where his father wished to have his ashes scattered.
Mom and Dad had gathered their love like kindling, burned it together. And now that love is scattered all over the place.
The search for these sites and what they meant in the reconstruction of his parents' love story was what really got me in the feels. I couldn't believe how lucky Vic was to be surrounded by people who loved so deeply.
My heart was so full, I thought it might explode into the ether, creating some bizarre new solar system whose inhabitants ate only love, drank only hope, and breathed only joy. What a substantial galaxy that would be.
But that is not the only kind of love in this story. It's everywhere in this book. The love between brothers, family, friends, and even a family one chose themselves. There wass first love and last love, new love and old love. I told you - my heart was exploding.
Walt Whitman was right. We do contain multitudes. Most are hard and heavy, and what a headache. But some multitudes are wondrous.
This book was so many adjectives: sweet, funny, tender, beautiful, sad, emotional, scary (just a little), quirky, interesting, thought provoking. I have not been this excited about a book in a while. Where, the book was so good, I could not justify it with simple words.
I loved the mystery, the who-done-it that was worked in there. I loved the epilogue/prologue at the end. I interpreted that the way I wanted to, and got the ending I wanted. Mostly, I just loved that Arnold went in this direction. It was such a fun way to give us that required closure.
This quote pretty much sums up my feelings:
You guys are the most beautiful run-on sentence I've ever heard