‘The Reeds’ by Arjun Basu is a fictional novel that follows a middle-class family in the turbulences of their everyday. The novel is completely character based and contains a very minimal plot used to push and transform the characters.

I adored this concept and thought that for specific characters it completely worked. The narrative of the son was a good one, the burden of being an elder sibling really shone through. My only complaint would be that the perspective of the young daughter was a little misrecognised. She didn’t seem like a real girl to me. The way she spoke on thoughts that seemed authentic didn’t quite work or enhance her character for me. Other than this I loved her interactions with her siblings, and this really worked in counteracting her own thoughts. The family connections were dysfunctional in the best way. Everyone was desperate to be separated from the others, yet didn’t lack the feeling of a real family.

In terms of the audiobook format, the narrator was good and made the story easy to listen to. I thought he did a good job at taking on the role of an omniscient narrator well and individually replicated each character.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy character-driven stories and Sally Rooney-esque.

Thank youb to #netgalley for this advanced copy of #thereeds in audiobook

A story written by a Canadian Indie novelist about a Canadian family living in Montreal, narrated by the father, Bobby. He works for a prestigious firm and has a high position but mistreats his co-workers; he ends up losing his job but getting an exceptional severance package. Meanwhile, his wife, Mimi, has worked hard to get her business selling antiques and is finally finding success. They have two adopted kits, a boy adopted from Africa and a girl, Mimi, adopted from India. They are teenagers and are trying to find themselves. The dad is self-absorbed in the misery of losing his job, and the mom is extremely busy with her job. This story is about the parents coming to terms with the kids and what they discover about themselves and each other.
I wasn't blown away by the story, and at times, it seemed overly tedious.

Thanks NetGalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook.

Meet the Reeds. They are a family of four. The father loses his well-paying job while the Mom's at-home career thrives. Abbie and Dee are their adopted children. Both of them are suffering from typical growing pains. The parents are self-involved and don't give the kids the attention that they deserve. The family was entertaining at times and trivial at others. I

A moving family drama by a new to me Canadian author. I liked that this was set in Montreal and follows one South Asian Canadian family as they handle work, life and love problems during a particularly challenging political and economic landscape for middle class people of color. Great on audio and perfect for fans of authors like M.G. Vassanji. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

I unfortunately ended up DNFing this book. I was excited to find a book by a South Asian author in the LGBTQ section, but this book ended up being full of so many -phobias that I just couldn’t keep going.

Unfortunately this was not the book for me. The author writes the head of the family in the first few chapter as a Patrick Bateman-esque unlikeable character, but gives us no reason to root for him or his (rather annoying) family. I love an unlikeable main character but there has to be some reason to keep reading, whereas this took me a few weeks just to get through around 30% before I had to DNF. Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy of this book.

This book was terrible. The casual aphobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and ethnic erasure was really awful to read.

This isn’t the sort of book that I would normally pick up, but the blurb sounded interesting, it’s published by an Canadian Indie publisher who tends to publish stories I enjoy, so I thought I would give it a go. I have learned my lesson. I really wanted to DNF it, and I probably should have.

The book is about the Reed family, a culturally diverse family who sounded like every white suburban family I’ve ever read. The father is white and Latine, the mother is Japanese, the daughter was adopted from India, and the son was adopted from Ghana (I think? I feel terrible that I’m unsure of the country, but it was mentioned in such a offhand way that it didn’t really stick in my memory). I really don’t understand why the author would choose to make this family so diverse, but for that diversity to have zero impact on the story, other than at one point a side character asks Abby (the son) which of his parents is Black and he says neither, he’s adopted. Seriously, that is the most that is said about any of their ethnicities/cultures in the entire book. I think more is said about the next door neighbours being Jewish than is said about the family itself (the neighbours won’t come over for dinner, because the Reeds refuse to cook kosher, which, uh… 😬).

I’m not even going to bother going into the plot of the book, because it’s like any other litfic family drama I’ve ever read. It was just incredibly boring, with a whole lot of telling and not showing. There is an authors note at the end that talks about the book being such a mess when the author brought it to the publisher and how he was so thankful to all the wonderful people who made it a better book. Sorry, but this book is still a fucking mess, I shudder to think what it was like to begin with.

Anyway, 1/5 stars, do not recommend.

A family drama, where the problems are much the same as most families, everyone has forgotten the core values, they insist on no phones around the dinner table to unite, yet each of them are completely in their own heads and desperate to get away. The parents are absorbed in work, the lack of work and a little stuck going through the motions with family basics. the kids need to talk and for a long time nobody is listening .

I enjoyed the story, I wanted the characters to overcome and I wanted a happy ending. However I found Bobby and Mimi massively unlikeable and wasn’t overcome by them. I did love the kids and other side characters though.

If you enjoy character centric novels this might be for you.

Thanks to ECW Press Audio via NetGalley for this ELC

I’m always tempted by a good cover, I felt that this cover art really sold the book even before I’d read the blurb. A great story, the premise, plot and narration all worked well together and made the audio very enjoyable. I have recommended to the women in my book club. Only sad thei I listened to this on a super quick speed, promising to go back and listen at a slower speed at a later date