Save the Date

by Morgan Matson

[girlinthepages]

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.For me, books about weddings are right up there with books about royalty or food- they're indulgent, fun, and never get old no matter how many times I read about them. After recently reading and loving Matson's The Unexpected Everything, I found that I fell back in love with her writing again and couldn't wait to dive into Save the Date not just because of the wedding aspect, but because of the emphasis on family. Literally, the family is so large and so important that there's a list of all of the family members' names, ages, and role they play in the wedding at the beginning of the book, which was SO helpful and which I LOVED because it's like instead of a map of a world, it's a map of relationships, setting the stage for the important role of family in the novel.


The story's protagonist is Charlie, a high school senior who's thrilled to have all of her older siblings under one roof for a rare weekend as her sister is getting married at their family home. As the cover implies, what follows are a comedy of errors when basically everything that you think could go wrong at a wedding does (to the point where Matson was writing such chaotic scenes that I was getting stressed just reading them!) In addition to the seven family members, there is the groom's family, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, and a disgruntled beagle all staying under one room in the Grant's charmingly eccentric house. Matson's ability as a writer to make each character, especially all of the siblings, have their own distinct personalities amidst the chaos of the plot, was truly impressive, as is her ability to write fleshed out characters in memorable stories that readers will care about in a stand alone novel format.



Yet what really made this story of family stand out was the extremely creative element of Grant Central station, the comic strip that Charlie's mother writes that heavily borrows on her family's real life happenings. The strip has grown up alongside the characters, and it's made them semi-celebrities, with the wedding also culminating in the comic's last strip. Panels from the strip are incorporated here and there throughout the novel (and were super fun to read!) and Matson cleverly weaves together the drama and memories of the actual Grants into those that belong to the fictional, comic Grants, until it's hard for Charlie to discern between the two. The novel touched on a lot of deeper, more profound issues about privacy, the elevated view we can have of our older siblings, how much we let ourselves be defined by those we're related to, etc. The story had touches of depth among a LOT of humor and witty dialogue, and I caught myself laughing out loud more than once (especially when JJ was involved- seriously, can I please have a spinoff novel about his crazy antics? Or about any/all of the Grant siblings? OR a book full of Grant Central station comic strips?) However, given that there were SO many characters in this book, I do wish we had received more closure regarding some of them (especially Brooke).



There were also a lot of fun cameos by characters from The Unexpected Everything, including Andie, Clark, and Andie's dad. It all felt very natural and Save the Date is clearly set a few years in the future, but it was really fun seeing some of Matson's previous characters make appearances, especially in ways that were sort of related to the plot and not just casual run ins. It made me feel like Matson's creating a contemporary universe without trying too hard and the two books just seem to flow together really well...fingers crossed that we'll get cameos from some of the Grants in her next book!



A few bonus favorite things I have to mention:

+ The alarm was one of the funniest running bits I've read in a contemporary in a long time

+ WAFFLES

+ Billiam is apparently a real name

+ CAPTURE THE FLAG aka the BEST MIDDLE SCHOOL ERA OUTDOORS GAME EVER

+ Walla-BYE (and giant blown up pictures of the Hemsworth brothers)

+Never trust anyone named after a fruit

+ "scoff"

+ Hilarious alternative chapter titles

+Feuds with neighbors over gardening competitions



Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I adored this book and getting to know the Grant family. My ONLY complaints are that I could have done completely without the romance element- like 110% could have done without it, since it was such a minor part of the story. Also, Charlie could be very stubborn and border on annoying, but I'm glad her BFF called her out on her behavior.



Overall: Save the Date is one of the best family-centered YA novels I've ever read. It's hilarious with characters so realistic that you'll feel like you just spent a weekend in the Grant household by the time you finish reading. This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages