“Just be normal. Like all of this—creaky toilets, singing Christmas trees, invisible rabbits, five-day weekends, bald men in too short shorts walking round aggressively at 9 A.M.—is normal.”
The book starts out with a bang – literally – with the transcript of an emergency call saying that someone’s been shot with an arrow. The book is divided into sections for each day of the five day “weekend,” interspersed with ad copy for the holiday park and more of the police reports. I think this framing worked very well, as the pacing is a bit slower in the beginning, then takes on steam as the holiday shine starts to wear off. It’s told from the POVs of the new partners – Matt’s girlfriend, Alex, and Claire’s boyfriend, Patrick – as well as their seven-year-old daughter, Scarlett. I pretty much immediately disliked Matt and Patrick within the first chapter. While we don’t get his POV, it’s obvious that he’s a manchild, a 38-year-old who just bought a skateboard, who prefers to ignore problems rather than dealing with them, like springing the holiday trip on Alex one month beforehand. Patrick is desperately insecure, and well aware that Claire is “punching over his weight.” This comes out in displays of overcompetitveness and an obsession with participating in an Ironman competition. Claire, meanwhile, is a paragon of saintly perfection, meticulously planning the holiday down to the hour and happily cooking all the meals. Alex was, by far, the character I empathized with most. As a scientist, she’s very methodical and logical, down to lecturing about which properties are the best investments, mathematically, during a family game of Monopoly. She feels completely out of her element dealing with Scarlett, as she’s never been a parent and has never particularly wanted to be one. I also thought Scarlett’s POV was well done. While there were times I thought she (or Posey) were a bit too mature for a seven year old, for the most part I think Ms. Hulse had a deft touch for the emotions of a child struggling with her parents’ divorce.
“You sound proud. You know that’s the wrong way up, right?”
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Why everyone has to say they are busy all the time. I mean, what are they atoning for?”
And there it was: one of the things Alex most adored about Matt. A comment that made her wonder if he was the only person who had life in perspective, all along.
I found this book hilarious, but it’s the very British type of dry, understated humor. All these different personalities and histories together naturally lead to friction as everyone’s forced to live in each other’s pocket – for Scarlett’s sake, of course. As the holiday progresses, it leads to a re-examination of why Claire and Matt broke up, and shines a flashlight on the cracks in their current relationships, in alternately hilarious, cringeworthy, or insightful ways. Because, of course, there are lies, omissions, and misunderstandings right from the beginning, and each one that’s uncovered is one step closing to understanding how we get from the idyllic happy family Christmas vacation to an emergency call on Christmas Eve.
Overall, I had a wonderful time reading this book, and I’ve already recommended it to several friends. This looks like it’s the author’s debut novel, and I’ll definitely be looking out for her next book!
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.