Book for Door 19 Festivus: Read any comedy, parody, or satire

A fun book that mixes humour, real people and the stresses of spending Christmas together.

"The Adults" is a story of two middle-class English couples spending Christmas together at a cabin in a forest in Yorkshire (this is England, so think very, very small forest). The twist is that the party is made up of two people who are divorced from each other, Scarlett, their seven-year-old-daughter, her imaginary friend ( a very tall stuffed rabbit called Posey) and their current partners. What could possibly go wrong?

This had me laughing even before I made it to the first chapter. The prologue  defined the word adults, then gave an extract from the "Happy Forest" holiday brochure, describing the forest as "a place where you make memories that will last a lifetime,"

Then we go straight to a phone call that goes something like.

"Hello? Is that emergency services? He's been shot. We're at the archery course, next to the Elves smoking shelter. Please come quickly. There's so much blood."

This juxtaposition of marketing and mayhem, delivered entirely straight, had me laughing into my morning coffee.

The book then winds back in time to when each of the new partners discovers who they're going to spending Christmas with. Bit by by bit, mostly through the eyes of the two new partners and the little girl, we build up a picture of the five people (six if you count Posie - which you should) who are going to be locked in a small cabin together over Christmas.

The book is structured into two narratives that don't converge until the final chapters: one telling the story of the Christmas in the cabin as it unfolds, including some reflections on how the new couples met, and a second one composed of present-day interviews that are part of the police investigation into the shooting.

The interviews are a clever way of increasing tension by referring to things that haven't happened yet, each one of which makes you cover your eyes and go "How could THAT have happened?" Who has been shot and by whom becomes a little clearer with each interview but remains a topic of speculation.

The characters, although not always likeable, are beautifully and empathically drawn. All of the adults have flaws, most of which they're perfectly aware of but which they can't overcome. The people seem real, even when their behaviour makes you cringe.

Claire and Matt, the divorced couple, have a strong shared history but have probably outgrown each other, Patrick, Claire's new partner is still stunned that he's able to be with someone as attractive as Claire and will make whatever changes are asked of him to make sure he keeps her. Alex, Matt's new girlfriend is fighting her urge to get drunk, her discomfort at being manipulated into this Christmas set up and her growing irritation with Matt. Matt is... well, happily oblivious most of the time, or at least pretending to be. Relationships between the four of them are... complicated.

Scarlett, the little girl at the centre of Matt and Claire's lives, is perhaps the most interesting character of all. There's no schmaltz or Disney-Princess slant here. Scarlett is a real girl trying to figure out life with the aid of her only friend, her imaginary rabbit, Posey. I thought Scarlett's relationship with Posey required less imagination and self-deception than that between some of the couples.

The tone of the book stays light but manages to deal with themes that many of us will recognise as real. The plot unfolds at a well-planned pace that adds tension while re-inforcing the humour.

It's a great setup for an audiobook. Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of the characters and each character has its own narrator, one of whom is one of my favourites, Peter Kenney.

You can hear an extract here:

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This is a terrible book that is making my brain leak. I used to watch this show growing up and was always Team Blair. That said, the source material is awful and I can't force my eyes to sit through this. My brain at one point I think tried to punch my skull to let me know that if I didn't' change to a different book I was not going to like the consequences.

I DNFed "Gossip Girl" at 25 percent. At this point if you haven't grabbed me, I am not going to subject myself to finishing this book.

So far it just reads like a bunch of spoiled people who are obsessed with Serena and what she did that had her come back to New York and their private school. We are clued in pretty quickly to the major players (Blair, Nate, Chuck Bass, Serena) and then some random characters that I didn't really worry about. I stopped right around when Jenny and Dan Humphrey got introduced.

So the characters, not very developed. The author jumps around too much from sentence to sentence. I think we are supposed to think of Gossip Girl of being an omnipotent narrator, but it doesn't make a lot of sense with the scenes that are set. I think that it's supposed to be third person point of view but with asides from Gossip Girl and then the Gossip Girl POV if that makes sense? It doesn't does it? You can see why I had to stop reading this mess. 

The writing is not good. The way that the author chose to frame things is making my eye twitch. You can just say that someone turned red, or smelled like candy, or had an emerald cuff link. Instead it's Nate turned as red as the Louis the 14th chaise that he stood near. Or Serena smelled like cotton candy, lily of the valley, and baby powder, but expensive. I mean what the hell. 

The flow is awful. 

The book takes place in New York but so far we have just been in people's fancy apartments. I honestly don't care if Blair finds out or anything. I am maybe shaking my head that they are trying to reboot Gossip Girl and am shuddering about how that is going to look.

Hal Adhil and Miri Rodgers are best friends. They spend their days working at a small observatory in the Starfall Mountains beyond the metropolis of Anduruna. Miri is the only person Hal trusts to understand a dangerous secret: Hal can see all wavelengths of light. Hal uses his superpower only when they are free from prying eyes that could report them to the authorities.

The lives of Hal and Miri quickly change one night, however, when a meteor crashes into the nearby mountains. When they set out to retrieve the fallen star, it quickly becomes apparent that things are not what they seem. What appeared to be an ordinary meteor is in fact a strange power source that Hal and Miri are not the only ones looking for. In order to rescue his closest companion, Hal must not only unravel a mystery that has eluded his people for ages, but also face unsavory characters from his own past. Can Hal, the Wayward Astronomer, harness his supernatural powers to rescue his friend before time runs out?