The Celebrants provides all the wit, humor, loss, and ultimately uplifting message I have come to expect from Steven Rowley.
College friends experiencing the loss of one of their besties come up with a pact to perform living funerals for each person as needed during the remaining years of their lives. The purpose is a bit different for each of the remaining 5 friends, however, each comes away with knowing they are loved and a new view of their life.
I love the characters and the situations they find themselves in during their living funerals. The Mexico trip and parachuting had me laughing out loud. I felt I was there when it happened. And the swim from Alcatraz was another such funeral that the funny parts helped to buffer the sad.
I'm grateful to Putnam Books for allowing me an early copy via Netgalley.

This book follows a group of friends in their 40's who lost a friend suddenly in college, and started a tradition to hold "living funerals" for each other to make sure everyone gets their flowers while they're still alive to receive them. It is a nice idea but the book was kind of sad in tone and I didn't really connect with the characters which made feeling the appropriate emotions while reading more challenging. Overall well written and a heartfelt premise about friendship.

3.25/5 stars! Hear me out! I think the writing style was amazing and the author did a great job of portraying betrayal, shock, and turmoil amidst friends who had known each other for decades. However, I just couldn't get into the story. It felt too hard, too edgy, too something for me. Really hoping other readers are a better fit and I was just a one-off.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Absolutely loved this book. 5 friends make a pack to have their "funerals" when they're still alive, but at times when they need to hear all the good thoughts about themselves at the lowest points in their lives. They meet up over the years, celebrating each other, through births, deaths, sickness and hard times. Its a beautiful book about celebrating the good moments in life, and allowing grief for the hard times. Don't wait until someone dies to share the kind words about them. What a beautiful book!!

This book is unlike anything I have read in years and it is truly a masterpiece. I sobbed with both happy and sad tears at the end of this book. It was cathartic and made me want to pull all of my friends in tight with appreciation and love.

The Celebrants follows a group of five friends who in the face of tragedy decide to create a special funeral pact. Each friend receives one funeral at a time they deem they most need the love and support and the friends gather and celebrate one another. This concept was beautiful and honestly the way that this was written ensures such seamless storytelling that I truly believe any reader picking this novel up will love it. It moves quickly, but this faster pace doesn't lessen the emotional impact this story had on me. I found myself deliriously reading, faster and faster as I was pulled so deeply within the world and universe that Steven Rowley has created. I didn't know exactly what to expect right off the back, but I wasn't released until I read the final pages of this book.

I don't want to give too much away, so I will just say this. This book is spectacular, amazing, heart-wrenching, comedic, earnest, beautiful, deeply loving and moving. I know that's a lot of adjectives but I can truly say that that list doesn't cover even a fourth of the emotions that I found within myself while reading the Celebrants.

Check this book out and remember to celebrate the people in your life that deserve it.

The CelebrantsThis was an interesting book grappling with the themes of aging, friendship, love, and identity. Five college friends make a pact to hold faux funerals for the others after one of their friends dies unexpectedly. Each funeral is held while the honoree is going through challenging times in their lives. The book switches between the present, when one member of the group is going through a crisis, and the funerals held in the past.

I have mixed feelings about the members of the group. Marielle irritated me, for the most part, and I'm not sure I think the rest of the group would have been good friends with her, although she is presented as the heart of the friend group. I think if the relationship between her and Alex was developed more, it would have added a little more depth to some of her choices. But Naomi was a very real character to me, and I enjoyed Craig a lot. The Jordans blended together a little bit more, but I think part of that is me forgetting which was Jordan and which was Jordy for the first third of the book.b They also all tend to yell at each other. A lot. But despite it, you could tell they all felt connected to each other in a way that was different to their day to day relationships.

Overall, it's an earnest and deeply felt novel. If you have experience with long-term friendships through life changes, this should resonate with you. Steven Rowley has continued his delightful storytelling about found families after The Guncle, and I look forward to whatever stories he'll tell next.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC!

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝘆
LGBTQ Fiction
320 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs

The Celebrants tells the story of a group of college friends and a promise they made to each other.

When one of them dies, the rest decide they should have funerals for each other while alive so each person knows how loved they are. This is the pact they make with each other, then the years pass, and they live their lives.

Each person decides when to have their funeral. It typically happens during hard times. Throughout the story, we learn about why each person needed their living funeral as we learn about each character’s life.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs

The Celebrants grew on me as I read it. The group of friends is diverse, and even though they haven’t necessarily stayed in touch, they are there for each other when needed. It made me think of my past friendships and where they are today.

I think the living funeral idea is odd. I understand the premise, but I would rather celebrate to pep up whoever needed it using a different word than funeral. A funeral would depress me further instead of making me feel better.

Secrets come out as the story plays out. We learn a bit about Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle’s lives from college to the present. Cancer, divorce, losing parents, and art fraud all play a part in what brings them to their college pals to be reminded that life is worth living.

The Celebrants reminds us that we all go through shit in our lives but that life is ever-changing, and you will make it. It also shows that friends can be a significant part of getting through the hard times, even if time, place, and life, in general, have separated you from each other.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

I wanted to LOVE this book as much as I LOVED The Guncle...but it fell flat for me. Good character development, but not very likable characters. It also dragged on and on and on, and I found myself leaving it unread for days. Love the author and not giving up yet, but this one was not my favorite. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

I feel terrible writing this because I know this author is an amazing talented writer. I loved Lilly and the Octopus so much. It’s one of my favorites. But for some reason I just couldn’t get behind these characters. It felt like they didn’t like each other that much. Honestly the writing was great. It was just a book that didn’t really speak to me. I wish for the book’s success as I know most people will feel differently

Wow…what can I say about an incredibly well written and deep book about the bonds of friendship and humanity. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book at much as I did. Thank you so much for the Advanced Read!

I feel like I never think I'm going to have such emotions from Rowley's books and then they hit me like a bunch of bricks. Another super strong addition to his catalog.

The Celebrants has all the wit and humor we are used to seeing with Steven Rowley while tackling the most troubling concept most people deal with, Death. In this story about 5 friends dealing with this concept, we see the celebration of life instead. In times of true turmoil, it's best to remember how to live. The Celebrants shows us the power of friendship and how friends and the bond between friends can help pull us out of the most troubling times. The relationships we have curated are the reasons to keep going and keep feeling alive.

This book left me laughing just as much as it left me crying. A tragic yet uplifting story that I will be thinking about for a while. The characters and their dynamics are ones that other authors should be jealous they did not write first. The Jordans were a personal favorite in the book, as you can tell that Steven felt most comfortable writing about them. His ability to mix grief with humor should be studied as he is truly a master at it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5/5) for The Celebrants by Steven Rowley

After reading and adoring The Guncle last year, I was SO excited to get an @netgalley ARC of The Celebrants. This book follows a group of adult friends who met in college and made a pact to host living funerals for each other after they experienced the death of one of their friends in college. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one of the funerals and the circumstances around which the funerals are called for.

I did really enjoy this book and felt a rollercoaster of emotions - sad, happy, uplifted, and was laughing out loud when they do shrooms. The premise of this book is obviously more depressing/serious, but I wish it had more of the quirky charm that I loved in The Guncle. Despite this, I still loved the character development and Rowley’s writing. I’d recommend this book if you liked The Guncle (though it is definitely different so don’t expect them to be so similar) and if you like contemporary fiction with themes of dying, friendship, and making meaning out of life.

The bottom line of this book: always take the opportunity to tell the people you love how much they mean to you and how they’ve impacted your life. 🧡

Thanks netgalley for the ARC! This book is out on May 30, 2023!

The Celebrants is my new favorite novel by Rowley! I adored the concept of this novel and it made me want to take this concept on with my own friend group. Each character was brilliantly drawn and felt so alive and real. It is not easy to have two characters named Jordan and put them in relationship with on another and still have them seem so distinct, but it was expertly done here. Sometimes books with so many characters run the risk of being confusing, bogged down, or just shallow but this was not the case here. I loved every single one of our narrators and their stories. This one made me laugh, cry, and miss my best friends dearly. Rowley is a can't-miss author for me and I think this would be an excellent choice for book clubs!

I appreciate NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. I loved The Guncle and expected no less from the Celebrants. It's the story of 5 college friends who learn the lessons of love, life, and forgiveness through each other. The story begins with the 5 of them after a 6th friend's funeral just before college graduation. They decide to reunite whenever one of them needs the group to throw their funeral, reminding them that they, their lives, and their friendship means something - even as they drift apart over the years. They meet after divorces, family deaths, and when life choices go wrong. This "funeral" is different - Jordy's cancer has spread and he is growing weaker. I loved the part of telling people how you feel while they are there to hear it, too often we say things after a loved one has passed that we didn't tell them in life. The book was serious, but had funny parts too - I loved the Courtney scale - Cox, Thorne-Smith, and Love!

Thank you to @PutnamBooks and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #TheCelebrants. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I've enjoyed all of Steven Rowley's previous novels so requesting this from NetGalley was a no-brainer. And I'm happy to report I was not disappointed.

Written with his trademark wit and emotion, The Celebrants is about a group of college friends facing their own mortality. Two weeks before their graduation, a member of their group dies suddenly. Faced with their separate, adult lives, they make a pact: as needed, each member can trigger a "living funeral" so their friends can remind them how much they are loved and the impact their friendship has had on their lives.

Each character is given enough backstory to make them interesting and their relationships and challenges are relatable. Overall, an enjoyable, life-affirming read about the power of friendships.

Thought provoking and inspiring. The Celebrants is quite different in substance and tone from Rowley’s masterful The Guncle. This novel has an intriguing premise and many interesting tidbits throughout. The couple known as “The Jordans” were particularly well drawn. And I loved the many allusions to music of days gone by - especially the titles and lyrics of songs from The Carpenters - and the overall message of taking time to show love to those closest to you. I also found this to be quite a tedious read at times, however, and could not relate to most of the characters, whose antics I often found annoying and immature.

Many thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the complimentary ARC. Opinions are my own.

I'm forever a fan of Steven Rowley and will buy his books pretty much regardless of their plot. After I read THE GUNCLE he became an auto-buy. This book is not different. I ate it up and wanted more. I really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who would enjoy it as well. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

I'm always hyper critical of books which have cancer as a major plot point. It's too easy to get maudlin and sentimental, or to use it as a platform for some moralistic lesson. HOWEVER, Steven Rowley has struck the perfect chord with this story of love and loss and friendship.

Remarkably tender and funny, this story which follows six friends across the course of decades is utterly relatable to anyone fortunate enough to have the kind of friends who have known and loved all the iterations of you.

Steven Rowley is a master at capturing emotion without pounding the reader with it, and at revealing both the sublime and the ridiculous in intimate relationships. This book touched me deeply.

"Leave nothing unsaid"

After a close friend unexpectedly dies, four college students make a pact to hold “living funerals” for each other when they most need support and reassurance. As they approach middle age, the friends start calling in their pact favors as they are affected by job loss, divorce, and illness. Can lifelong friendships survive the pact and the secrets the living funerals reveal?