This is a book that I recommend reading over listening. I found myself so confused by characters throughout the first half of the book that I didn't care about any of them. I was confused by who was siblings and who was married in. I was confused by which siblings were "paired" or "best friends" amongst the group. The relationships are a crucial element to the story and the audio just didn't work. There were also a few points of the narrator speaking in children's voices that I could not take. Besides those parts I did enjoy the narration as a whole.

By the end I did have the relationships figured out and was able to finally start appreciating the story. I only wish I would have been able to connect to it sooner and fully appreciate the journey. I would recommend this one to fans of character driven, complex family novels.

3.5 stars

Trigger Warnings: Mental health, suicide, addiction, rape

The death of their mother and the early teenage pregnancy of one of the sisters affected each of the seven Shaw siblings in their own ways. Told in nonlinear format, <i>Chorus</i> follows the lives of each sibling during the early 20th century through the 1950s.

For me, it took a little while to get a grasp on who each sibling was in the book, especially since there was no discernable difference in the writing based on which sibling the chapter was following. As the novel went on, I enjoyed reading about their connections with each other, especially in their adult lives. Generally, I like books that skip around in time to give information as it becomes relevant to the story, but I didn’t feel that the time jumps added to the complexity of this story; it could just as easily have been told in linear fashion. The first half of the book felt like a collection of short stories that just happened to involve the same family before we finally started to see some strings come together at the end. Overall, it was a decent read but not one I will be telling others to check out.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Chorus is the story of the Shaw family, told in non-sequential chapters over several decades. Rebecca Kaufmann does an excellent job portraying each of the Shaw children’s point of view and experiences. Although all the children experienced their mother’s death and sister’s pregnancy, they all responded to the events in unique ways.

Rebecca Kauffman draws you into the story from the beginning. I was really fascinated by the story and read it very quickly because I wanted to continue to see what happened to each of the characters. The story was fascinating and made me really contemplate how differently each person experiences an event. It also made me think about how events from our childhood can affect us for the rest of our lives. I highly recommend this book!

Come for that gorgeous cover, stay for the intimate storytelling

This beautiful book revolves around the lives of the seven Shaw siblings, all bonded through the traumatic loss of their mother when they were kids. We watch each of the seven grow up into adulthood and see the profound ways that they have been shaped by their upbringing and their bonds with each other.

I definitely felt some Ann Patchet's Commonwealth vibes with a dash of The Nest with this book.Each chapter switches to a different sibling so as you read, it's like slowly piecing a puzzle together to get the full picture of their family. Sibling dynamics have always been fascinating to me.

Kauffman's book is a ripe character study, weaving together this resilient family. So basically if you're looking for plot, my friends, you've probably come to the wrong place. I mean, who even really needs plot when you've got such a rich cast?

This quote towards the end of the book demolished me in the best possible way:
“But the loss of a mother, that was so much, whether she was a good one or a bad one, a healthy or sick one, an easy or hard one. And whether her love for you was made known every day, or was as strange as a miracle; one that reached you and touched you, or didn’t. One that you believed in, in spite of everything, or you couldn’t.”

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this amazing book!

This story is told in alternating viewpoints- it tells the story of the Shaw family. A couple and their seven children. Not told chronologically, it spans from the early 20th century through 1959, stopping here and there along the way. There are several times where the same event pops up, but told by a different family member for a new perspective. The main catalyst is the mother's death- how it impacted the remaining eight family members.

I primarily listen to audiobooks these days, as I rarely have time to sit and read an actual book. Audiobooks allow me to multitask. This is one of the rare books where I really wish I had physically read the book instead of listening to it. The narrator is fine- that is not the issue at all. Being told over decades, in seemingly random order, and by nine different POVs, it can make it hard to follow. I'd forget what year it was. I'd forget who a secondary character was. These things are a lot easier to flip back and find when reading as opposed to when listening.

I enjoyed this book. I really liked being able to read about events from different POVs and how it shaped their lives. I just feel like I would have enjoyed it more had I read the print version.

So basically, I recommend this but skip the audio.

I received an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It captured my attention and I had to keep going, buying time so that I can continue.
It captured my attention like a tv drama series akin to brothers and sisters, where you just keep wanting to know what is going to happen next.
Thank you #netgalley for this review copy.

This is a beautifully written story about the complicated relationships within families. I loved the delicate way in which the author showed the different perspectives with which each family member perceived the same events. I felt this was an accurate reflection of reality.

Like all relationships, all families are complicated in their own way. This family has been through very challenging times touching on numerous "hot topics" relevant to readers of all ages. This book is a lovely depiction of finding your place and settling into your evolving identity.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #RBMedia for the opportunity to review this ARC of #Chorus in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The synopsis of this one really intrigued me : 7 siblings "entangled in a family knot, each sibling encounters divorce, drama, and death, while haunted by a mother who was never truly there. Through this lens, they all seek not only to understand how her death shaped their family, but also to illuminate the insoluble nature of the many familial experiences we all encounter—the concept of home, the tenacity that is a family’s love, and the unexpected ways through which healing can occur."

I love family dramas, especially big family dramas, but this one was not for me. Each chapter felt like a different story and it didn't flow for me. I was never engaged with any of the siblings and ultimately didn't care what happened to any of them.

I'm sure many people will still resonate with this one.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for an the Advanced Listen Copy of this book.

A sweeping family saga that follows the seven Shaw children from childhood through adulthood, Chorus is a lyrically written story that will draw readers in both with the writing and the memorable characters. This book had not been on my radar, but I am so glad to have read it and will recommend it to all my family and friends.

Thank you to the author, RB Media, and NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Beautifully written with a great story of family, endurance, loyalty and loss, chorus follows seven siblings trying to navigate their lives following a difficult childhood due to their mothers mental illness and subsequent death.

Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman is a novel that centers on a large family who lives in a farm between the 1920s and 1950s. The story is written in vignettes about each family member skipping throughout time. It takes a little bit to get into the story, but begins making sense and coming together. At first, it’s a little difficult to follow the character’s lives because there are so many of them, but the author gives enough background that you understand each person’s character and life. I really liked that we see how larger outside events like economic depression and war affects people. I found it fascinating to consider the scenes that make up a life and the struggles we may face, whether it be mental health, addiction, poverty, grief, etc. I would recommend this if you like Elizabeth Strout. It is a pretty short book without much extraneous detail. I listened to the audiobook which was well-narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers and kept me interested in the story.

Thank you Counterpoint + Recorded Books for providing this ebook + audiobook ARC.

What a wonderful story. Pity about the end though. I found it to be very abrupt with a lot of unresolved issues. I would read a sequel or even the individual stories of the siblings. And there's a lot more to the mother's story too, I'm sure. I was left wanting more and not in a good way. I'll round up from 3.5 stars.

Chorus is a quiet, character driven novel that follows the seven Shaw siblings: Wendy, Sam, Jack, Maeve, Lane, Henry, and Bette, and their parents, Jim and Marie. Told with a nonlinear timeline that weaves between time periods from 1903 to 1958, we follow the Shaws throughout their childhoods and adult lives.

Two significant events have shaped the family. Even decades later, the family is reeling from the untimely loss of their mother, Marie. Marie’s death follows a lengthy battle with her mental health that made her a ghost in her children's lives during her lifetime. Additionally, a teenage pregnancy further shapes and fragments the family.

In Chorus, Kauffman paints grief as a continuum. Some of the siblings look for the truth while others conceal it. Some try to numb the pain, others to intellectualize it. Some flee the Shaw’s rural Virginia homestead, others never leave.

Kauffman manages to weave a vivid tapestry of this family. For such a short novel (this one clocks in at 248 pages) with so many characters, I still felt like I got to know each and every one of them, and was able to see how their individual stories all impacted the others. The way that the storyline jumped between periods gave me the sense that I was slowly uncovering and piecing together the truth.I initially struggled to keep track of who was who and found myself frequently referring to a chart at the front of the book listing the siblings in birth order, and recommend reading this in print as a result.

Though this book is steeped in themes about mental health, addiction, trauma, and grief, the discussion about these topics rings true to the era in which the book is set, which some readers may find frustrating. Though Chorus is about the bonds of family and the family relationships presented here are ultimately hopeful, the tone of this book is somber. This book is quiet and meandering, but I still couldn’t put it down.

I loved the Gunners, and I loved how this book felt even more restrained and intentional. I realized that I’ve missed some of Kauffman’s backlist, and I’m looking forward to picking them up. This was a highly anticipated release for me, and it didn’t disappoint. Check CWs.

I initially attempted to read this via audio, but the quality of the copy on NetGalley shelf made it too difficult to listen all the way through. This is not indicative of the quality of the overall audiobook. In the portion that I listened to, I enjoyed Elisabeth Rodger’s narration, though the voice acting of child voices was a bit cloying. Because there were so many characters and I found referencing the chart at the beginning of the book so helpful, I would recommend picking this one up in print, if possible.

Thanks so much to Counterpoint for a finished copy and ARC and RB Media for an ALC to review. All opinions are my own.

Narrator 5 stars
Great job bringing all the characters to life

Story 3 stars
A very interesting story of a family navigating life over a period of time.

I'm going to be honest here, I have very mixed feelings about this book. It is a small but mighty story about seven siblings spanning the years from their childhood to adulthood. It's a heartbreaking tale that jumps back and in forth in time. At first I thought it was going to be hard to follow but it wasn't. While I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the Shaw siblings I did feel like it ended abruptly and unfinished. But I suspect that was the author's intention. These siblings and their stories will stay with me for quite some time.

I found the story of the Shaw family absolutely fascinating. In a way, it's a very complex exploration of nature versus nurture because we get to see how seven siblings lives play out after all having lived through having a mother with mental illness who couldn't even be present enough to raise them. I think that the fact that there were 7 children was very fascinating in that aspect, because that gave them different responsibilities and even allies in the family than might have happened if there was just, say 2 of them.

While I do feel like this book had a lot of depth and was very relatable, I'm sort of shocked that it's under 300 pages when it's supposed to be covering a family of 7 children in both the past in present. This was all so beautifully written and interesting, that another 80 pages would've fleshed out more emotion without dragging.

This took awhile to get into but then I really enjoyed it. Each chapter is a different year and time in the life of this sprawling family and told from a different family member's POV. Once you connect the dots, I found telling the story this way to be very enjoyable and also incredibly revealing. Definitely recommend this one!

Chorus comes out TOMORROW on March 1, 2022, and you can purchase HERE! I also enjoyed the narrator. You can read my review of The Gunners by this author HERE.

Henry Shaw, second youngest of the Shaw siblings, was enjoying coffee on the deck of a hotel room with his wife, Anne. The early morning sea breeze was pleasant on their faces, which were stiff with sunburn. They ordered room service for breakfast when their daughter, Mimi, woke. Mimi watched her mother closely as she ate. She said, "Your hair is better than usual."

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this book in return for an honest review.

Synopsis

For readers of Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and Claire Lombardo, Chorus shepherds seven siblings through two life-altering events—their mother's untimely death, and a shocking teenage pregnancy—that ultimately follow them through their lives as individuals and as a family.

The seven Shaw siblings have long been haunted by two early and profoundly consequential events. Told in turn back and forth over time, from the early twentieth century through the 1950s, each sibling relays their own version of the memories that surround both their mother's mysterious death and the circumstances leading up to and beyond one sister's scandalous teenage pregnancy. As they move into adulthood, the siblings assume various new roles: caretaker to their aging father, addict, enabler, academic, decorated veteran, widow, and mothers and fathers to the next generation.

Entangled in a family knot, each sibling encounters divorce, drama, and death, while haunted by a mother who was never truly there. Through this lens, they all seek not only to understand how her death shaped their family, but also to illuminate the insoluble nature of the many familial experiences we all encounter—the concept of home, the tenacity that is a family’s love, and the unexpected ways through which healing can occur.

Chorus is a hopeful story of family, of loss and recovery, of complicated relationships forged between brothers and sisters as they move through life together, and of the unlikely forces that first drive them away and then ultimately back home.

Chorus is a heartfelt novel about family, loss, and self identity. The lies and truths that bring us through life. The book spans the lives and perspectives of seven siblings and their father, their mother suffered from a mental illness and her death affects them all differently. As we read throughout. The chapters I felt could easily have been broken into their own individual short stories. It was really beautifully written, the narration was lovely too.

Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman follows the Shaw family in the span of 30 years. The seven Shaw children and their parents had a lifetime of hardships, more than any family should experience. This multiple POV novel is nonlinear and jumps back and forth between timelines.

The amount of characters and the jumping around of time make this novel difficult to follow. I had a hard time connecting to the characters because there were so many. Because the timeline jumps around I feel as if we did not grow with the characters which is always something that helps me connect with the story.

On top of this, the story is extremely sad. So many terrible things happen to the Shaw family. Just when you think things cannot get any worse they do. I do not think that this is the story to read if you are in need of a feel good book. Also, with everything going on in the world, this was not the best read for me to escape.

I do appreciate what the author was trying to do with this story and the character development is deep. I was able to finish the audio book which is why I gave this novel three stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

A generational drama follows the Shaw siblings through life’s greatest ups and downs. Kauffman did a stellar job with characterization. Rich with history and personal tribulations from depression era, to wars, death, metal illness, this story hits so many tender points of life. I loved it very much. Highly recommend.
**huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review