The After Party

by Anton Disclafani

[Kait ✨]

i’ve been seeing this book everywhere as it is, apparently, one of this summer’s biggest books. so of course i can’t resist giving my two cents. i feel like everyone and their mother—except for me that is—read and loved [b:The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls|16158508|The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls|Anton DiSclafani|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364772121s/16158508.jpg|21995426] (it’s on my giant TBR stack, i swear). so i can’t comment on how this stacks up as a sophomore novel, but overall i loved it.

it was a very fun novel, which surprised me a bit considering there is some pretty heavy stuff here at times. it kind of gave me [b:The Help|4667024|The Help|Kathryn Stockett|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346100365s/4667024.jpg|4717423] vibes? deep south in the 1950s and 60s, etc. it takes place in river oaks, a hoighty-toighty place that is a little bubble unto itself, and is about the friendship of joan and cece as they grow up in this place. joan finds river oaks completely claustrophobic, whereas cece is content to be her “lady-in-waiting” and conform to the societal expectations of wifehood and motherhood, mostly because of her fairly transient and traumatic childhood.

this was a quick read for me because i was dying to find out the BIG SECRET joan has been keeping from cece for years. ultimately that secret was a bit of a letdown, but the anticipation carried me all the way through the novel. the most interesting character by far is joan, but i think that’s because the novel is told from cece’s perspective and it turns out joan has always held herself at a bit of a distance from cece, has always been a bit mysterious. thus, for me at least, cece’s obsessive desire to uncover joan’s secrets mirrored my own in a way.

on that note, i thought cece was a bit craycrazy…she literally has everything she’s ever wanted (husband, baby, security, etc.), except for joan. her feelings toward joan are so mixed up. they’re friends—but also seem kind of more than friends at times? (although i think it’s more one-sided, and cece totally denies it.) i just wish this had been explored more, it seems like a missed opportunity. female relationships can be so complex and interesting, and while that’s true of these two, i feel like we didn’t really get enough to go on to understand them.

i did really enjoy this, aside from those few quibbles. but i feel like they would make this a great book club book. there’s so much to discuss here and i am curious how other people would read the relationship between joan and cece.