This was a bit difficult to get into with all of the family members and the lack of backstory and distinction. The matriarch of the family has died and this is the first Christmas without her. The tensions are well written and the side story of a single mother and her daughter under the eye of social services provides additional conflict, internal and external. A good story with a bumpy start.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

3.5 stars.
Flight is a short novel about a dysfunctional family over their first Christmas after the matriarch of the family has died. The look at each families daily lives and strife was very familiar. This quote in particular stood out as a New Yorker myself:

“We paid 1.2 million dollars for this damned apartment Tess said we had to own, to have an asset. Colin’s therapist doesn’t take insurance. Summer camp is twelve hundred dollars a week. There does not seem to be an end to the amount of money that we need each year.”

I found some of the stories interwoven more compelling than others. The young mother post addiction, the couple in a marriage on the edge, the siblings fighting over what to do with a family house.

But some of the book I felt didn’t quite hold my attention and maybe it’s because there were so many characters and family switches. That said, I really loved this authors previous book Want, and would absolutely check out what she does next.

Started as a slow burn, but by the end, it was such a page-turning thrill of a read! Strong really excels at writing complex, real characters - I wish she'd been given another 150 pages to bring us even further into these characters' worlds.

I loved this tight family drama filled with characters with complex motivations. I recommended it on my podcast Novel Pairings for a perfect holiday read that isn't too syrupy sweet, but will still leave you feeling hopeful.

I liked the first half of this book a lot! It is a complicated family drama with a charming end to the story.

I almost DNF'd this, but it was short enough for me to finish. There was absolutely not plot or character development. The writing was everywhere. There were waaaaaay too many characters to keep track of.

I don’t know how to really write a review on this book. I was close to not finishing it but decided to persevere. I found the characters confusing. Basically a story about a family with their significant others arguing over the inheritance of a house on the death of the mother figure and the dynamics between the siblings who all have a splintered relationship.

The premise for Flight sounds great- three siblings and their families gather for Christmas after their mother passed away. Unfortunately, nothing really happens in this book until the last 20%. I am not a fan of character-driven literary fiction, which this novel very much is. In order for me to really enjoy a book, I need either a strong plot or characters I love, and Flight has neither. At various points, I wanted to scream and them to stop whining and do something about their issues, which is probably not the best reaction.

What happens to a family when the mother (Helen) dies and she was the glue that held the adult children and their families together? The first Christmas without their mother is here and the families will be going to Henry and Alice's home, in the snow instead of spending the holidays in Florida with their mother. They reminisce about Helen and try to keep up traditions but when it is time to talk about the family home left behind by Helen and how it will be dispersed, tension between the families grows. This is a book about couples, siblings and family dynamics. It is a slow read but it will get the reader thinking about families, and perhaps even provide insight into their own lives. I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Mariner. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This book deserves 3 1/2 stars which I have rounded up to 4.

I really enjoyed this book. I feel that the author got the family drama right on point. The way the siblings felt about each other and the way they all felt about their matriarch mother. It took me a bit to keep track of who was a sibling and who was the significant other, but after that I really got into the story. The different ways of parenting and the different feelings for spouses. Bringing in the teenage mom with her daughter was also riveting. This would make for a good movie. I thought the characters were well defined and I actually liked most of them. If you are looking for a great story of family drama and love this is the book for you.
Thanks to #netgalley, #marinarbooks and @lynnstegerstrong for an ARC of this book.

This was a DNF for me. The story isn’t bad, just incredibly slow and simply not my thing. I’m sure others would enjoy it.

Lovely and lyrical. The storyline is slight, but it's a beautifully rendered portrait of a family recovering after the loss of a matriarch, finding themselves in each other. A tad too many characters - so many POVs made it hard to keep people straight until about halfway through the book - but the women in particular were rendered authentically.

In this intimate novel, Lynn Steger Strong uses a holiday gathering by a family that has just lost its matriarch as the foundation for an exploration of modern family life. What's amazing about Steger is how adept she is at capturing the little variances of humanity inherent in life and family, through blood or just extended ties. The actions of the children as they sit, dressed up at the family's holiday table are given as much description and focus as the story of a drug addict mother trying to keep her child. This novel does speak to large, "life" issues, but it focuses on the love, hope, anger, tragedy, and joy of everyday existence, too.

When the three siblings at the center of this novel gather with their families for the holidays, aggressions and micro-aggressions occur amidst a bigger issue with sibling Alice and her work as a social worker for Quinn, a recovering addict, and her daughter.

To be honest, not much really happens in this novel. I loved the nuances of everyday life and the heightened family dynamics involved when a family gets together, but it still wasn't enough to completely sustain my interest. It picked up near the end, and the narrative was better for it. I enjoyed Strong's amazing talent with language, description, and details, I just with the plot had a little more meat for her to sink her talented teeth into. This was still a great book, just not a five-star for me.

The premise of this novel intrigued me when I heard about it. The story centers around siblings gathering for Christmas after the death of their mother. A source of contention among the siblings is that one of them wants to move into the family home while the other siblings want to sell and split the proceeds.

The execution of the novel lacked depth. A lot of characters are introduced and it takes about a third of the novel before the reader can truly grasp who is a sibling and who is not. The “struggles” of the siblings seem minuscule, not worthy of a novel.

Flight by Lynn Seger Strong is a family drama at its finest. Three siblings convene in an old farmhouse to celebrate their first Christmas after losing the matriarch of their family. There are some decisions that need to be made and some tensions to ease. There's also a side family that is associated with one sibling that causes some drama and results in bringing the siblings closer together. A short read that packs a powerful punch. Read and enjoy!

OMG – so many characters introduced at the beginning! I could not keep track of them. And I didn’t find any of them particularly interesting. Too much going on. It kept taking me out of the story each time I had to flip back to remind myself of who they were. And as if that were not enough, there was a side story involving the deceased mother. I was left with a lot of questions.

Three siblings and their spouses and children come together for their first Christmas since their mother’s death. Lots of drama, lots of angst. The author does a good job of representing how each person grieves in their own way. But, in my opinion, a bit too depressing for a holiday read.

While there were just way too many characters, I suspect all readers will be able to find a character or two they can relate to. It was just an okay read for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Three siblings come together over the Christmas holiday. It is the first time they have been together since the death of their mother. All three are married, two have children, one cannot conceive.

One of them wants to move into their mother's home in Florida as a restart for her floundering family. The other two are concerned about selling the house and obtaining their inheritance. The discussion is taking place with the entire family in tow, with the backdrop of renegotiating their relationship absent their mother's guidance and tender care.

Multi-layered look at the complexity of siblings, marriage, grief, neurodivergence, foster care, economic hardship, and infertility. Fantastic, spare writing.

This one started out with so many characters my head was spinning. But quickly I got a hold of the characters and it turned out to be a great family drama. It is centered around a family Christmas gathering of older siblings who recently lost their matriarch.

If you love holidays with your in laws, this one will resonate with you. There’s also a bit of suspense tied into to the story.

Pick this up if you like character driven family dramas.

While FLIGHT isn't exactly a sequel to WANT, it certainly feels like a spiritual successor -- Strong's ability to suffuse every novel with the overwhelming ambient dread of climate disaster is remarkable. The various tensions in this novel are exquisite and painful, and the climactic third act is difficult to read.

Flight by Lynn Steger Strong is the story of a family gathering on the eve of Christmas, Henry, Kate and Martin's first Christmas without their mother. The siblings and their families have all gathered together to at Henry's house in upstate NY instead of at their mother's house in Florida for the first time and they and their families are having a difficult time adjusting to the changes in their surroundings and in the loss of the glue that held them together. This novel touches many dark places in their relationships with each other, their spouses and even their children at times, but threads of love bind them all together and they make decisions regarding their mother's property. The way the novel ends almost on an ethereal note left me wanting more time with this family, to see how they thrive as they support each other moving forward.

Thank you to the author, Mariner Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.