Maybe I've been unfairly biased by all the negative reviews I've read for this, but 7% in and I can't take anymore of these annoying cliqued characters. I want to bash their heads together! Anyway, I'm going to swap this for Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

It's not a thriller.

Imagine that line as spoken by Arnold Schwarzenegger to his class in Kindergarten Cop. I start here because I saw a review saying what a disappointing thriller it was, and it would be disappointing if that was what Moriarty were shooting for. It's also not a romance, or a mystery, or a literary novel, although it does share some elements with those.

What it is is a book about regular middle class suburban couples who experience a trauma together, and how it affects their lives thereafter. It's not a big trauma, it's not newsworthy, but it affects them all, and their little kids, too. And because the author takes her work seriously, there is much more to it than just that, humor, and backstory, and a way through, and a future.

I love books like this about living in after some bad thing. Fairy tales are important because they teach us that the witch or the monster can be killed, these books (and I hope someone has a short, catchy name for the genre that isn't sexist, because I sure don't) these books demonstrate how to live through the bad things and still have a good life. I don't believe stories about people living through horrible events and being stoic and saintly and a good example. Pain doesn't make people stronger or better, it makes us angry, and short-tempered, and hell to get along with. And of course, we all have pain and most of it is garden-variety common and of no interest to others. And the older we get the more time we spend attending funerals, the more people we have to lose. These books remind us that we can still laugh at the wake, that there are many ways to comfort one another in our loss.

I'm on my way to a funeral soon 

I don't usually read contemporary fiction because I have found too many times that the hype is way more than it should be. The books often fall flat. But this book, while not stomach-churning, is wonderful and I can't put it down for long. It's a peaceful read, and it is just what I needed.

So far I am very pleased with this writing style.

 I was supposed the read The Queen of the Night next but I got this in the mail this week. I won it on Instagram/Bookstagram. It's a signed copy too! So I'm putting the others on hold so I can see if this is as good as promised. I need a good book. I'm so sick. My back is out, as usual, and I have to wait 3 more weeks for an injection. And I have an ear ache, swollen lymph node and sore throat. Plus my tragus randomly got infected. I'm falling apart. I swear. Even my teeth hurt. I'm so damn sleepy. God, grant me the strength. I'm a single mom until probably next Friday.