I really loved Rowley’s Guncle, and enjoyed that this had similar humor and banter. A fun read with a lot of heart, you can’t help but care about the characters. The book is very dialogue heavy so I was craving more plot and backstory, but overall glad I read it.

Short Summary:
Jordan and his group of college friends reunite to celebrate each others “living funerals” for each member when they need it most. After a friend died in their 20s, they wanted to ensure everyone knew how much each other mattered.

My Thoughts:
I think this was a right book, wrong time situation for me. I struggled connecting with it. The characters felt very chaotic to me with POVS switching aimlessly.

It’s a character-driven story and I loved the overall message about celebrating the people you love.

A total 5 star read about 5 friends gather when one of them calls upon “the pact.” You see they made a commitment to show up for one another in the form of a living funeral when they need to know just exactly how much they are loved, during their darkest moments, or most troubling times. Those troubling times include deaths, cancer, divorce, and even art fraud. At times the reader will struggle through tears to finish this book but it will be worth it and the reader will discover they are not alone in their struggles, in their grief, in their hope.
I loved the trips to Naomi’s parents Big Sur house to remember the good times, to celebrate the idealism of youth and the reality of the present moment in which our 5 friends find themselves.
Admittedly my first time reading a Stephen Rowley book, but certainly not my last. This is a books about grief, friendship, love, trust, hope, and showing up; showing up when you are needed the most. And it is also a reminder that you may feel alone but you are not.

Pros: I really liked The Guncle, so I was excited to read the author’s newest book. This book is about complicated friendships and how special college friendships are. I think readers who love books about found family and family dramas will enjoy this book.

Cons: Although I wanted to like this book, I never connected with or cared about the characters. I think readers who connect with the characters will have a much different/better reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read this book.

3.5 stars but rounding up.

I had never read anything by this author before but had heard how wonderful Guncle was. The premise of this book sounded like one that I'd enjoy so I was excited to check this out.

The Celebrants follows 5 friends who lost a close member of their group when they were all in college together. They make a pact to give each other a living funeral whenever one of them is going through a particularly tough time in their life so they can reminded that they are loved. They can only call in their pact funeral once in their life and this story follows them all from college and into their 50s.

I agree with others in that it reminded me a lot of The Big Chill, which I loved. I guess the disconnect for me is that I didn't feel attached or even really like any of the characters. I liked the Jordans the most out of all of them. Still, there wasn't any moment in the book where I felt like I HAD to know what happened next. There weren't many fun and light moments. The ride was kinda all one tone. If that makes any sense. I can see why some people would love this though. The writing was very good. It's about found family and telling others why you love and appreciate them while they are still with you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me access to this eARC so that I may share my honest feedback and review.
This has been posted on my Goodreads

After reading Rowley's The Guncle two summers ago, I was thrilled to be provided with an ARC copy of his forthcoming novel, The Celebrants.

Spanning the decades of their friendship that formed in college, Jordan, Jordy, Marielle, Naomi, and Craig make a pact to throw one another living funerals - an opportunity to celebrate each of them while they are still alive.

I thought this was a really beautiful look at how friendships evolve and change as adults. I liked how it was told from the POV of the different friends throughout the book, and Rowley has a true gift for developing relatable characters, believable dialogue, and relationships worth rooting for.

Many thanks to #NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley is the story of four life-long friends who help each other through the challenges of middle age. The storytelling is well done and the reader feels like they know all of the characters intimately by the end of the novel. As with the author's other works, there is humor throughout, even when tragic events occur. There is a lot of heart here. Highly recommended for readers looking for a light read with some emotional depth.

As The Celebrants opens, Jordan, Jordy, Craig, Marielle and Naomi are together in Big Sur. It’s 2023 and almost 30 years since they all first met (along with their sixth roommate, Alec) as transfer students at Berkeley. It was fate (and the person assigning roommates in the Housing Department) that brought them together initially, but deep friendships and the “pact” that kept them together.
The story goes back and forth between the 90’s and present day, and each chapter is about one of the friends. I loved the titling of the chapters and the tremendous interest in the music of the Carpenters and related lyrics. The overall book definitely had Big Chill vibes for me!
When the friends first gathered in Big Sur, following Alec’s sudden death, they agreed on a pact to hold funerals for each other whenever needed to make sure nothing was left unsaid about how they were loved. And so, we experience their lives in and around each of their “funerals”. One of my favorite paragraphs:

“And yet here they were at a starting line, comically stretching cold muscles, waiting for the BANG of a starter pistol, not realizing they were twenty two years into a race that has different lines for them all.”

The Celebrants is a typical Steven Rowley book - you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and, in between, you’ll become immersed in an interesting story of beautifully developed characters. Mr. Rowley has such a talent for incorporating difficult issues, like the death of family and friends, into a poignant and yet often very funny novel. I can’t wait to see what he tackles next!
Thanks to Netgalley and GP Putnam’s Sons for the opportunity to read The Celebrants in exchange for an honest review.

This book absolutely hit everything for me. As someone who graduated from college in '95 and experienced the death of a friend weeks before graduation there was something cathartic in reading this book. There was a lot of emotion and remembrance for me, there was crying at times. Definitely a Big Chill for the Gen X crowd.

I am a huge Steven Rowley fan, and even so, The Celebrants managed to exceed even my highest expectations. I've also always loved The Big Chill - it was one of my mom's favorite movies and we often played the soundtrack in the car - so the premise of the book really jumped out at me. College friends reconnecting throughout their lives to help each other through tough times? Sign me up.

I’ll be honest, I don’t even know how to begin this review. Can I just shout, over and over, that you need to run out, right now, preorder this book immediately, trust me on this? I texted my best friend this morning and all I could come up with is “it is so f*#&ing good.”

I'm not much of an annotator when I read, but I found myself regularly highlighting passages through this book, and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I can reread and notice all over again all the passages that moved me. There were so many passages that leapt off the page and grabbed me by my heart. I even noted a few passages down to bring up in therapy; I don’t really know if that counts as an endorsement of the book, but I guess it shows that this book was exactly what I needed to read at exactly this moment. Rowley has such a way with words, and expresses the characters' experiences so well - no easy feat given the diverse perspectives represented among this group of friends.

This book will make you FEEL in all caps, but it will also make you laugh. There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments scattered throughout the book, so the experience of reading the book, swinging from tenderness to humor to grief, so perfectly captures human experience. This is a book I expect to reread again and again, and I've already started urging friends to get their preorders in - I fully expect this to become one of my top books of the year.

Just before graduation, an apartment of students at Berkley is shocked when their roommate Alec overdoses. Gathering together, they make a pact that when they are in desperate need, they can each request a  living "funeral" - a gathering where they are reminded that life is still worthwhile. They've been there through Marielle's divorce, Naomi's parents' death, and Craig's art fraud conviction. But now Jordan's diagnosis has him and his husband facing a living funeral that might preceed an actual funeral.

I wanted to like The Celebrants more than I did. I liked the idea of the book - the examination of life's struggles and our need for deeper connections. Yet, the characters fell flat for me and the friendships didn't seem genuine. In Rowley's last book, The Guncle, I felt drawn to every single character but in The Celebrants, none of the characters evoked any emotion in me. The funeral format of the plot resulted in a lot of telling about the characters instead of showing details of their lives. In all, The Celebrants was a heartfelt story that missed the mark for me.

The celebrants: if you want a heartwarming book that will make you laugh and want to call your friends, this is the book for you. Jordan, Jordy, Marielle, Craig, Naomi and Alec are friends in college at UC Berkley. When Alec dies suddenly before graduation, the remaining 5 make a pact to have living funerals that they can each invoke once, at the lowest point of their lives to remind themselves that they are loved and they matter. Told over an 18 year period, the story pops in and out of their lives and reminds you of those OG friendships that never change no matter how long you’ve been apart. Steven Rowley is such a talented writer - his books are sweet, uplifting, funny and poignant, and this one is no exception.

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley was perfect!
He is now a major favorite of mine!
Two for two…. You’re a winner in my book!

This was a hilarious but heartwarming story of five college friends who get together to celebrate decades of friendships and promises. To celebrate their lives and their challenges.
Oh, how I love these characters! The characters and their relationship is something special, beautiful and heart warming. I enjoyed and cherished the many meaningful discussion and moments.

Rowley’s ability to create humor and love, to writing characters that felt so real, who were truly enthralling.
Is really amazing. And he never needs to stop!
He creates stories that are unique and emotionally driven!

Hands down one of my top reads of 2023! This book was incredible.
And when The Celebrants releases May of this year do yourself a favor and get it!
It’s spectacular, moving, touching but most of it’s a fun and exciting time!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Steven Rowley has done it again.

“The Guncle” was my favorite book of 2022, and I eagerly waited for this book to become available. Thanks to @netgalley, I was able to get an advanced copy.

This story tells of 5 students, ready to graduate college who are meeting to celebrate the life of the sixth friend of their group.

At this celebration, they decide to make sure that each of them knows how important they are to each other, by allowing each of them to invoke a pact to have their “living funeral” when they need it.

This story takes us through some beautiful locations, (The Guncle made me want to go back to Palm Springs) such as Big Sur and Mexico, and each of the survivors funerals. What most do not know is that for one “Celebrant” they have a terminal diagnosis.

It was a great story, I read it slowly to savor the beautiful writing. Five enthusiastic stars.

The Celebrants is a worthy follow up to The Guncle.

Don’t compare it to The Guncle; that’s simply not fair. Guncle was far and away the hit of 2021, giving us big laughter and even bigger hugs. I adored every character, every plot turn.

I found The Celebrants to be a quieter story, a softer hug, a gentler chuckle. I loved some of the characters, but not all, realizing halfway in that it’s rather similar to real life friendships, some I love harder than others.

This group of college friends, who create a pact to call a ‘funeral’ when it is needed, know the value not only of friendship but of life. To say aloud the unsaid, to live life right so that death is simply the next stage, to embrace life with passion, to just be there for one another.

Yes, I was weeping over the final pages, highlighting so many quotes to remember as my own tomorrows get shorter and my yesterdays longer. The hug for The Celebrants is like my hug for the grandfather I adored.

I will happily read anything Steven Rowley writes! This novel of old college friends giving each other living funerals had a unique, cool premise and I kept picturing it as a movie or series as I read it. Wonderfully written, funny and touching, this one definitely had Big Chill vibes, which I loved.

This was a great follow up for this author. I think if you enjoyed his first book you will also love this one.

This author truly has a gift of crafting characters that are unique and a story that is emotionally driven. This feels reminiscent of what it's like to have your core group of friends. The ones you have grown with, went through life’s ups and downs, and have a bond with that goes beyond the word friend. This group of friends felt like that to me. He curated characters that are flawed, but still perfect by engraining them with a wide diverse emotional range.

How this author seamlessly intertwined grief with witty dialogue making this an entertaining read without being too heavy. His ability to switch between timelines while also having a multiple POV and never losing his audience along the way was masterfully done. This is a moving book that will touch your heart from beginning to end. It’s the kind of book that doesn’t leave you when it’s over and I guarantee you will be thinking about it for years to come

The Guncle was my favorite book of 2021 so I was eager to read this next book by Rowley. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold a candle to my fave, but those are big shoes to fill.

The Celebrants follows four friends that made a pact after losing one of their friends. They would hold a living funeral for each other once someone initiated the pact.

The book has a good message, but the writing felt clunky at times and the humor forced. I do enjoy that Rowley can take a depressing topic and give it a lighthearted spin. I’ll still be reading all his future books.

Pick this up for a quick read if you want a pleasant read with great LGTBQ representation.

Reading this book was a strange experience - not necessarily in a bad way - because it was different than most book-reading experiences. Being honest, when I wasn't reading it, I never thought of it. I didn't feel compelled to pick up my copy. It was just always there on my nightstand, waiting for me, during my usual reading window before going to bed. And yet, every time I did pick it up and start reading, I found myself racing through the pages. I found most of the main characters unlikeable, but that doesn't mean the story was. It was a sad and happy ride, situations both relatable and unimaginable. I never felt too strongly about The Celebrants, but at the same time, every reading session, I was in it. I give this one a 3.75/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC, in exchange I've provided this unbiased review.