This was a really interesting book. I think it talks a lot about weddings and about people and Holly wrapped up them and I think it is really really funny and also dance off, but I think you also have to take this with a grain of salt because it is a little dry humour sometimes, and I also think sometimes it can come across a little judgemental and abrasive, but it was really good

I find myself ambivalent about this book, did I like it? Not sure, but I had to finish it. Was it funny ? In places. Which characters did I like? Ollie. Which did I dislike. Easy. Mark. Then Bill.
The others were all flawed but neither disliked nor liked.
The author did his job in building the story so I could identify characters enough to like or dislike. The story was somewhat predictable in that it would all fall àpart for everyone but then , maybe, come together for some and this is perhaps why I wanted to complete the book, to see who survived the fallout.
The style was that of modern writing which sometimes works, in this case it did.
I did understand Alice well, as this tragedy happened in our family and we still feel it at times. And it is often not given the weight it should. Carry.

DNF. Got 15% in and didn't care for the characters and the descriptions of extreme therapy were making ne uncomfortable and ill. Had no desire unfortunately to read further.
Sorry

Very quirky and enjoyable

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

I was expecting this book to be funny and was looking forward to reading it. However, it took me a while to get into it - it was an okay read but not quite for me.

A sarcastic and original story depicting a dysfunctional family trying to deal with a sibling getting married, in light of mutual jealousy and difficult family history. Definitely worth a read!

I really wanted to enjoy this book as the title sounds like it would be right up my street, unfortunately the third time i picked it up was the last time, I was around halfway through and could not feel any connection to the characters or storyline. The plot did not feel like it had a good flow and I had no desire to find out anymore about the happenings in the story.

Normally I love novels like this but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I picked it up and put it down so many times that it left me frustrated.

Description 🔖

Paul and Alice’s older sister is getting married and it’s going to be an extravagant affair. The wedding is to be held in London at a fancy country estate. Everything has been planned to perfection. Paul and Alice cannot stand it.

They are not the most functional family. Their mother, Donna is widowed and enjoys the odd joint, regular wine and trash TV. Alice is in her thirties, single, beautiful, smart, in a dead end job and a stereotypical affair with her boss. Paul lives with his more successful and better looking boyfriend who has recently started dropping hints that monogamy isn’t for him. Eloise is Donna’s daughter from her first marriage and has had a very different upbringing to Alice and Paul. She benefited from private schooling, fancy holidays and lots of privilege. Annoyingly, she’s incredibly kind and generous.

As this estranged family come together to celebrate Eloise’s wedding, they all go through the realisation that sometimes we hate the people that we love the most.

General Thoughts 🤔

I enjoyed this book; the story and the characters were entertaining, witty and interesting. The story was very relatable for me. I have a bit of a thing about large gatherings where the expectation is that everyone is going to have the best time, the most fun and love on each other. It always tends to end up feeling a bit disappointing and like forced fun and this story didn’t shy away from that.

There were some really funny parts of the book that had me giggling as I was reading (Paul’s drunken antics especially). There were also some quite sad parts; namely Alice’s heartbreak really seemed to strike a chord with me. I liked the way that the story captured the real parts of a family and a family wedding. It’s not all white votives, big smiles and perfect flower arrangements.

Characters 👫👭👬

The characters and their stark differences yet commonalities was probably one of the things I liked most about this book. Eloise had a very different lifestyle to Alice and Paul and this caused a huge rift between them. I wondered though, how much of the rift was real as opposed to imagined by Alice and Paul. The three of them were poor at communicating and I think that that was the root of their problem really.

I really liked Donna and I wish she had felt that she had the power to play more of a matriarchal role with her children. She made a huge sacrifice in order to protect her children from the truth which was admirable, though I didn’t agree that she shared this secret with Eloise. By doing so, she put Alice and Paul on the back foot without them even knowing it.

Writing Style ✍️

I really liked the tone of this author. He was able to mix emotional and serious with funny and lighthearted and the blend worked really well. The story was told from multiple POVs which I loved (because I always do). There were so many lines, paragraphs, pages in this book that made me think “ah, he said exactly what so many people are thinking but would never say”. The fact is, family can be hard, especially in life changing situations (like a wedding) and I loved that this author wasn’t afraid to say that whilst making a joke of it at the same time.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was witty, heart warming, funny and well written. I liked that there were some really tender moments between the characters, but also some explosive and angry outbursts. It’s what made the story relatable and I am positive that 99% of people could read this book and pick out at least one thing that has happened in their own family. Great weekend reading.

Ended up DNFing the book quite early on. I really liked the title and concept of the book but I thought the book would center more around the wedding event and aftermath than the build up.

I am not a fan of cheaters so I instantly didn't like Alice who is having an affair with a man she knows is married with kids and her boss. It just felt so wrong and it is one of my icks of a book.

Paul is just really entitled and unlikeable. I really don't understand why we should feel sorry for him. His mother's ex husband (first husband) is not his dad (he was the second husband) so why does he feel like his mother's ex husband owes him the life of luxury that he gave his own daughter Eloise. I feel really bad for Eloise because what her father does with his money on his own child shouldn't affect Paul who was never his son and he had no duty to.

I just find it very difficult to enjoy a story where the characters are so unlikeable.

Paul and Alice's half-sister Eloise is getting married in London. They have always been jealousy of Eloise because her father is wealthy and there's isn't, also their mother clearly pines for the life she had with Eloise's father before he left her for a Spanish au pair.

Paul's relationship with his boyfriend Mark is disintegrating and his career is waning, just as mark's career is taking off.

Alice is in a job she hates and having an affair with her married boss.

I thought I was alone in loathing this book and the characters in it but I have just seen a few headline reviews and they seem to agree. I fail to see the "shamelessly funny" side to this book, the characters are self-absorbed, spiteful, bad-mannered and generally obnoxious. I just wish I had had the courage of my convictions and DNF'd the book instead of ploughing through to the end.

I received a free copy of this book to review from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I love a good wedding feel good story
This was a great book that had, fun, heartfeltness, and of course a wedding tied in!this would make an excellent movie. I loved the characters, writing style, and message

Relationships are awful. They'll kill you, right up to the point where they start saving your life.

Paul and Alice's half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at 'it' restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins.

They couldn't hate it more.

The product of their mother's first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has everything Paul and Alice have ever wanted: a seemingly endless trust fund, model good looks, an international life of luxury and their mother's unconditional love.

Meanwhile, Alice is in her thirties, stuck in a dead-end job and mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss, and Paul, who still isn't speaking to their mother after their father's death three years ago, has upended his life to move to Philadelphia for his tenured track professor boyfriend, who has recently started looking at other, younger men and talking wistfully about 'opening up'.

As the estranged clan gathers, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder's bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender story brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most.

I started this book a few times and I couldn’t continue reading. Left it around 10%. The characters were a bit annoying and I didn’t enjoy the writing style and the whole paragraphs describing different things.

I was eager to read this book after reading the blurb and also heard that a movie was underway based on this book. However , after I started reading with expectations I realised It would not work for me. Even though I finished it, it felt quite lacking and some characters quite very childish.

Told over three parts, mainly by siblings Eloise, Paul and Alice and their mother Donna. From the receiving of the invites in part one, through to the final pages, it seems to be about family grudges/ personal relationships. Although I persevered to the end, it was a difficult read as there comes a stage where you know that there is not going to be that laugh out moment, and bordering more on a general read, which isn't my preferred genre.

Sadly nothing like I expected and definitely not humour or romance genre as first thought, not my cup of tea at all.

Slow to start with though I did get into it eventually. It was ok, nothing major happens, just the run up to a wedding with very miserable people, then it finishes. Not bad but not brilliant either.

I found this book hard to get into at first, I didn't like the characters very much, but it wasn't just that, I had issues with some of the words thrown at women characters and also the job Paul has (I think that's pretty worrying).
However, I carried on and ended up quite enjoying it.
Yes, they're all horrible characters, toxic people with toxic relationships, but I found myself interested in what would happen to them all.

I turned ever quicker and devoured this- the sign of a gripping, well written read. A captivating, rollercoaster of a book. Loved it.

I really enjoyed The People We Hate at the Wedding. It has some dark/sarcastic humour which I found really funny. The writing is witty and razor sharp, but there's also some gentle and tender moments weaved in which gives the story depth. A great overall read that I'd recommend to friends..

This book was okay but it definitely wasn’t one of my favourite and I don’t really have much to say about it other than it could of been a little bit better.