Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic, new book! I love Steven Rowley's writing! This book was sadder than I expected, given the title & cover. It was a of a slow start, and I didn't love it, but I enjoyed reading it.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I absolutely loved the Guncle by Steven Rowley but this one lacked the humor and lightheartedness that I loved. I gave it an honest shot but I did not want to force myself to read it. Thank you netgalley for the ARC. I loved the premise and the thought that we should honor our loved ones before they pass away, but I didn’t have a connection with any of the characters. DNF at 28%

This is a perfect follow up to The Guncle! Packed with the same heartfelt emotion, but plenty of humor, this one hit all the right notes. That said, I don’t think I was in the best headspace to read a book like this. While I absolutely love the message of telling your loved ones how you feel before it’s too late, it just hit a little too close to home for me at this point in my life. But I loved all the characters, and will definitely revisit this one when I’m in a better place to take it in!

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this heartwarming and humorous story!
The book focuses on a group of friends who met at Berkley in college. They've come together over the years to celebrate and support each other.
This particular reunion is filled with grief, stress, memories, and love. The book had a lot of thoughtfulness and dealt with chosen family.
I am a new huge fan of this author and can't wait to read more!

After the death of a friend, five college friends make a pact to throw each other a funeral during their darkest moments so that nothing is left unsaid. This book was so lovely. It had humor and heart. As soon as I knew what was happening, I didn't want to get to the end. A moving and inspiring novel that I will recommend to everyone!

THE CELEBRANTS by Steven Rowley

Read if you like:
-Found family
-Emotional stories
-Books with older characters

I overall enjoyed this book and the premise was heartwarming, however it felt like the characters hated each other the entire time. That is the one thing that kept me from enjoying this book more. It seemed like none of the characters cared about the lives of the others until something came up that made them feel like they needed a community, and called upon their old friends to throw them a living funeral. When the friend group was together, they were bickering constantly and were mean to each other.

I would still give this book a try if you enjoy found family or books that are emotional. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of The Celebrants in exchange for an honest review!

The Celebrants was a unique storyline full of life long friendship, strength and true love. I couldn’t get enough of these friends and the hurdles they overcame. Steven Rowley sprinkled lots of humor throughout this book even in the serious times. What a great book!

Steven Rowley has such a gift of mixing humor and sadness. He gets the ratio so perfect that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. I loved the guncle more, but this was excellent. Will read anything he writes

As someone who has a close-knit friend group, the premise of The Celebrants drew me in. I was intrigued by the idea of a group of decades old friends gathering together to throw living “funerals” for each other when they need it most. The Guncle was my favorite book of 2021 because of how emotional the story was and that same emotion is present in The Celebrants. Rowley has such a knack for writing characters who seem so real and for capturing universal human emotions. This story was heartfelt, warm, and celebrates friendship. The only thing I really didn’t enjoy was that the chapters were very long for my taste, but that’s a minor gripe on my end. Overall this story really moved me and I hope that my friend group will have the same love for each other decades into our lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Publishing as well as Mr. Rowley for this delightful and heart-warming ARC. I enjoyed it a lot.
#NetGalley #PenguinGroupPublishing #TheCelebrants #StevenRowley

The newest book by this talented author is here and he’s still on fire! “Lily and the Octopus”, which is his debut novel, is one of my favorite books. “The Guncle” was sweet and adorable. His newest novel, “The Celebrants”, is another wonderful and unique story. When their close friend dies suddenly, best friends from college, Jordy, Jordan, Marielle, Craig, and Neomi decide that they want to hear their eulogies before they’re dead. They make a pact that each of them can call for their own “living funeral” one time each. Whenever one of them calls, the other four have to come running, no questions asked. What follows is as tough and heart-rending as it is beautiful.
This concept is actually a really great idea for real life. The idea being that we don’t wait until our loved ones die before we tell them how much they have influenced our lives and how much they mean to us. As each of the friends invoked the pact, I felt that more and more. I even made a point of telling my husband how much I love him and how lucky I feel to have him and our children. Reading this book made me want to tell the author how grateful I am for this idea and for his gift of prose. I’m expressing that gratitude here and I hope he sees it. In addition to that, this story really demonstrates the power of friendships. This story takes place over a 28 year period. The friends go through long periods of time without speaking to each other but, when one of them calls for their funeral, each comes running and they’re easily able to pick up where they left off. They go through great times and hard times but they always have each other.
All in all, this is a feel-good read. It will bring about tears and laughter but I came out with a serious case of the warm fuzzies.

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley follows a group of college friends through different stages of life as they navigate the challenges of adulthood.

Steven Rowley is one of my favorite authors. I adore The Editor and The Guncle—highly recommend if you haven’t read those yet. So I was especially looking forward to his latest, The Celebrants. And in more exciting news, Jenna Bush Hager from the Today Show selected it for her June book club pick!

As you can tell I had high expectations. I did like it overall. But I didn’t love it. Some of the characters fell a little short for me.

There are elements truly standout and I thought the whole living funeral idea was very interesting. I read this one quick and was curious where it would go.

But the people and their friendship wasn’t where I expected it to be. I was left wanting more.

I do think if you’re a gen-xer, you’ll really enjoy this novel with all the references and such.

Overall, this book is fine (3 1/2 stars) and it would be a good read on a plane ride. But I do think his other novels are much more compelling and impactful.

I must say, I went in expecting more hearty laughs like I got with THE GUNCLE, and while that didn't happen, this one did get me in my feelings, just in a different way.

This book had a pretty unique concept: Jordan and his friends made a pact to host "living funerals" for all the friends in their circle so they would know the impact they made on each others lives while they were still alive to hear it. My senior English teacher had us write our obituary for a final writing assignment, and it was sobering to have to think about what you brought to the lives of others. At 17 my world was so small and self-centered. I vowed that I would start living my life differently, and I have.

I guess I was expecting that same feeling of nostalgia for that grand epiphany I had at 17. I found it really difficult to connect with these characters, and overall, it just lacked the emotional punch I was looking for,

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this early read. THE CELEBRANTS is out now.

THE GUNCLE was my favorite book of 2021! 💛 His newest, THE CELEBRANTS, was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023 and I was thrilled to see it chosen as @readwithjenna’s June pick!

THE CELEBRANTS follows the decades-long friendship between Jordan, Jordy, Marielle, Naomi, and Craig. Over the years they’ve returned to Big Sur to honor a pact to throw each other living funerals so they would never have to wonder about the impact they made on others.

This character-driven novel is heartbreaking, warm, and filled with so much love. I enjoyed the glimpses into each character’s life and what the friendships and pact meant to each of them. Rowley takes you on an emotional journey while also sprinkling in great banter and hilarious jokes.

I knew THE GUNCLE would be near impossible to beat as it’s one of my all-time favorite books — but I sure enjoyed this one too. Now I need to pick up his two backlist titles!

The Celebrants is exactly what you expect of the author of Lily and the Octopus and The Guncle. It’s a book of joy, life, and grief. The humor of his books perfectly compliments the sadness unlike any book I’ve read. The characters are so well developed that you feel like you’ve known them your whole life. The setting of most of the book is Big Sur and it acts as another character. Rowley does a wonderful job of transporting the reader to wherever the characters are with his descriptions, especially at Sur La Vie. This is one of those books that you won’t easily forget. It’ll stick with you whether you recall every detail or just the feelings you had while reading. It prompts you to wonder if you would want a living funeral and what would your friends say about you? What would you say about your loved ones?

The narration is stellar! Rowley does an amazing job with the characters and delivering the lines as he wrote them - with humor, sarcasm, jest, and gravity.

Steven Rowley does it again with another amazing LGBTQIA+ unique novel! I thoroughly enjoyed The Celebrants, a novel about a group of college friends turned adults who hold living funerals for each other as part of a decades-old pact. Each person gets only one living funeral, and can trigger it at any time they want. The novel flawlessly weaves us from present to past, reliving funerals that have already happening, as well as staying current with the present. This novel will make you laugh, but it will also make you cry - in the best of ways. This is a perfect novel about friendship, published just in time for summer. 4.5 stars!

What a surprise if a book! This ended up bring such a tender story of friendship, loss, grief, love, and being okay with not being okay.
I listened to it on audio and really enjoyed it!
4.25 stars!

I started enjoying this book around 50%. Glad I stuck with it because it went from annoying to super interesting all at once. The ending was a bit cheesy but I enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery way more than the characters. I believe there was some thought provoking scenes that will come to me in the future but overall, it was a difficult read for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Why wait until a funeral to celebrate a person’s life and share all the things you love about them? Instead of leaving anything left unsaid, a group of college friends makes a pact after losing one of their friends right before graduation. The promise, each of them gets a “funeral” to use at a low point in their lives. When they need to call their funeral all of the friends will gather to lift that person up. They will celebrate that person’s life, share all the great things about them, and love on that person in their time of need. Jordan Vargas calls his friends together 28 years after graduation, only this reunion is different and Jordan is keeping a huge secret from his friends.

I fell in love with Steven Rowley’s writing after reading The Guncle and was very excited to read this book. I was not disappointed at all. This book is filled with so much heart and emotion right from the very first page. I loved the glimpses into their friendship over the years as I read about each “funeral” that happened in the past. It was beautiful to see how while each of the friends grew up and drifted away from each other, they were able to come back and pick up and be there for each other when one of them needed it. I love how despite all of the grief in this book, the characters were able to find moments of humor - it just felt so real. Be sure to have a box of tissues nearby, this beautiful story made me tear up multiple times.

Thank you to Putnam Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

🌈Book Review🌈
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Summary; It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.

But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts: this was a great follow up to Guncle but I just didn’t love it quite as much. I think the Jordans were such a sweet couple and I loved Craig’s character, I just didn’t like the girls in the friend group as much. It was such a powerful story and the ending made me cry, but it some ways I felt weirdly disconnected from the characters. I know this one has glowing reviews all over Bookstagram so maybe it’s just me 🤷🏼‍♀️but it wasn’t the perfect read I wanted it to be. Thank you @netgalley @putnambooks for the advanced copy of this one!

This book follows a set a friends that first met in their college dorm, and have continued their love and friendship. They came together once a long time ago after tragedy struck and one of them was lost, and made a pact to continue to get together afterwards to celebrate each others lives.
I felt so many emotions while reading this one (translation - I cried - a lot 😢) but the main one was love - love of your spouse, your friends, and of life.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!