Book Review: Liquid, Fragile, Perishable by Carolyn Kuebler

Rating: 3 Stars

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, Carolyn Kuebler’s debut novel, and I have to say it’s a mixed bag for me—hence the three-star rating. Set in the quaint hamlet of Glenville, Vermont, the book paints a vivid picture of life in a small town, delving into the complex web of relationships among its residents. As May ushers in a season of rejuvenation, we follow three families navigating their own tumultuous journeys filled with life-altering events, promises unfulfilled, and inevitable tragedies.

Kuebler has a unique voice that I found both mesmerizing and powerful. The story unfolds through a chorus of characters, including a traditional Christian beekeeping family, a trio of teenage girls, and a woman seeking solitude in the woods. Each character grapples with significant contemporary issues like teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, and the struggles of poverty, all while intertwined with themes of young love and missed connections. It’s an ambitious narrative that seeks to capture the essence of small-town America.

First off, I have to mention the gorgeous cover of this book—seriously, it’s a real eye-catcher! The writing itself is where Kuebler truly shines; it’s beautiful and poetic, creating vivid imagery that pulls you into the world of Glenville. I appreciated the pacing for the most part; it flowed nicely and kept my interest piqued. Plus, who doesn’t love a good small-town setting?

However, my enjoyment was somewhat marred by the sheer number of characters. There were so many voices that none felt fully fleshed out to me. I was left wanting to know more about them, which was frustrating. Additionally, the shifting points of view without clear headings or transitions made it challenging to keep track of whose story I was following at any given moment. This lack of clarity took me out of the narrative and made it tough to engage with the book fully.

Despite these drawbacks, I would still recommend Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, primarily for its beautiful writing. Kuebler has crafted a story that resonates on many levels, capturing both the joys and sorrows of life in a way that’s worth experiencing. If you’re a fan of lyrical prose and don’t mind navigating a crowded cast of characters, this might just be the book for you!

⚠️This review was written based on personal opinions and experiences with the book. Individual preferences may vary⚠️

Liquid Fragile Perishable definitely applies to many of the characters in this small Vermont town, even moreso than the honey produced in the beehive represented on the cover.
This is a bit of a ramble as it bounces very quickly between characters, but touches on many major issues from climate change and drug dependency to conflicts around religion, urbanity, and just the temptation to get off the grid and disappear.
Many of the characters are compelling, it just would be great to have a bit more time with some of them and their dynamics.

Liquid, Fragile, Perishable was a really interesting and engaging read. I appreciated the character exploration and would read more from Kuebler.

An impressive debut. Kuebler weaves a beautiful tapestry I'm sad to part from. This was subtly powerful, bold, and moving.

3.75⭐

Told through alternating perspectives of several residents in a series of interconnected fragments, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable by Carolyn Kuebler is a quiet, slower-paced, character-driven novel that paints a compelling portrait of life in a small New England town.

The story begins in the summer that the Calper family moves to Glenville from New York. Willoughby “Will” Calper, set to attend college after the summer is over, falls in love with Honey Mitchell, the teenage daughter of a family of beekeepers. Honey is homeschooled, her family old-school, and their involvement, which they hide from their respective families, is only one of a series of events that send a ripple through the close-knit community.

The narrative takes us into the hearts and minds of the residents over the course of year, not just Honey and Will and their families but also Honey’s friends, older and younger residents of the community, families that form the backbone of the community and those deemed as disruptive. As the narrative progresses, we get to know more about the characters- their individual struggles, regrets and tragedies, disparities and conflicts within the community, love and friendships and the ties that bind the community together.

The writing is beautiful yet sparse, often adopting a matter-of-fact tone, with no excesses. I loved the setting, but though the cast of characters was well thought out, I was a tad disappointed with character development. There are several characters we meet in the course of this novel, and while the trajectories of a few of the characters do provide a sense of closure, the same can’t be said for the rest. Perhaps fewer characters sharing the narrative would have allowed us to get to know them better. Though a few of the threads in the narrative ended abruptly, I did enjoy the story overall.

I read an ARC of the novel and I am unaware whether there are any structural changes to the novel in the finished copy. Each segment begins without telling us whose perspective is being presented until we start reading, which took some time to get accustomed to, and the abrupt transitions did detract from the overall reading experience.

Overall, this is a beautifully written novel with a captivating setting and interesting characters that I did enjoy, just maybe not as much as I had hoped. However, I would be eager to read more from this author in the future.

Many thanks to Melville House Publishing for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

When I was growing up, I lived in a small village in eastern Ontario and life wasn’t always idyllic or like something out of a picture book. I frequently got picked on and bullied. In one incident, I was on the bus on my way to high school, and someone in the seat in front of me did something offensive. I cannot remember what that was, but I do remember him turning around and calling me a “city slicker” as though it were a terrible epithet. At the time, I thought he was saying this to cast me as an outsider — someone who wasn’t valued in the very town I was growing up in. Looking back on it now, I realize there was another connotation to this: that the individual was jealous that I would be smart enough to get out of town and go to university whereas he would be stuck there for life. (And, for the record, this person would grow up to be charged for discharging a rifle into a house, nearly missing a young woman who was sleeping. I don’t know what happened after that, though I think his firearms license was taken away from him.) In any event, this detail is important when it comes to Carolyn Kuebler’s Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, as it is a debut novel set in rural Vermont where people are itching to get out of Dodge — but just don’t realize it. Or just can’t leave to begin with.

The book is — like the similarly-themed The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring – a series of interconnected stories that make up the frame of the novel. At its center is the love story between out-of-towner teenager Willoughby and Honey, whose father runs an apiary/honey-making business. However, their story is only told peripherally. Surrounding them are teenage crystal meth addicts, impoverished older women, and jealous girlfriends. That’s the bulk of this novel as far as the plot goes because to say much more than this would risk giving away crucial plot points — which don’t kick in until at least halfway into the read. Unlike the aforementioned Bowring book, though, these are not short stories that are patched together, but more along the lines of vignettes. Kuebler has a unique style, employing the tell, don’t show style of writing — which, in some ways (and I hope I’m not being too harsh here), casts her as an amateur writer, one who makes jokes in asides that aren’t all that witty. Another thing that is striking about the book is that it doesn’t have much in the way of dialogue: this is mostly told through interior monologues. Again, if you’re looking for a book that subscribes to the “show, don’t tell” rule, you’re bound to be disappointed.

Still, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable isn’t all that bad — once you get past the unique stylistic voice of its writer. It’s a book that keeps the reader on their toes, especially in the beginning, where those partaking in this novelistic exercise must keep characters straight — and there are a lot of them. What saves this book from becoming a quick reject in the cutout bins is that the author writes with truth and honesty about the lives lived in present-day small towns. You have your wannabe drug pushers, you have your infantile youths, and you have single women without any money blaming themselves for something that happened 30 years ago. In some respects, I think that Liquid, Fragile, Perishable is a book best enjoyed by older female readers. It’s more of a hunch than something I can put a precise finger on, but even though these characters sometimes do despicable things, the story is told in a folksy, friendly voice — not the mad rantings of a MAGA lover. (Though you never know: I usually don’t do a lot of research on a book before reading it to not let details from other reviewers seep into my reviews.) In any event, this novel shows the darker side of the small-town inns and cottage industries that populate small New England towns but does so with a bit of a joker’s smile on its face.

Beyond that, though, I would have to conclude that Liquid, Fragile, Perishable — despite being shrewdly named — is more of an average book than anything great. It all comes back to the raconteur-like style of the writing, which is either going to turn the reader off completely or be as appealing as heck. For me, I was expecting more than just being told that certain things were happening internally inside a character, I was looking for those meaningful looks or gentle touches on the shoulder that populate most of literary fiction. To that end, I found this novel to be somewhat wanting. That said, it has a compelling enough story — once it kicks in and becomes apparent to the reader, and you can start keeping the characters straight — that will encourage readers to want to finish it. The book ends as much as it begins, with the possibility this time of a little more hope. Thus, curious readers may want to give Liquid, Fragile, Perishable a try. (I feel that this statement is becoming a cliché of my writing, but it’s true: if something about the description of the writing of this book sounds remotely appealing, chances are you may find something to enjoy about it that I may have overlooked.) For me, I’ll probably stick to other writers, but am glad to have given this one a shot. While I may just be some kind of “city slicker,” I feel that this isn’t all that bad of a book about small towns. To be prescriptive, the author could certainly benefit from some closer editing to weed out her more egregious puns and witticisms. Once that’s done, Carolyn Kuebler might be a talent worth keeping a closer eye on.

Liquid, Fragile, Perishable is a haunting, literary read. It tells the story of a year in the life of a town: the weather, the new arrivals, the rivalries, the triumphs and defeats, and the unexpected departures.

Its many points of view reflect on each other in ways that are equal parts interesting and confusing, and the (clearly intentional) decision not to provide timestamps or character labels to these short sections create a sense of dislocation that kept me at a remove throughout the my reading experience. Adding to that, the extreme interiority of the points of view omitted basic, objective facts about the setting (is this the present? why does nobody have a cell phone?) and the characters (such as their ages - several might be anywhere from 40 to 80).

Despite these frustrations, I found myself drawn into the pages. As the story began to pull together in the book's second half it became more compelling, but the plot at this point took a series of bleak turns (in total non-contrast to the novel's bleak tone and worldview up to that point). Liquid, Fragile, Perishable made, very well, its point that we are all interwoven and on the verge of collapse - but I would have liked a stronger thread of hope..

3.5 stars - more interesting than enjoyable.

Kuebler’s debut novel chronicles a year in the life of the townspeople in a small New England town. From the richest to the poorest and everyone in-between, the story is told in many voices, jumping from one to the next making it come across as disjointed and difficult to follow at times. It’s mostly mundane for most of the book, but it finally takes a dramatic turn, making it a better read in the end. Thank you to Melville House Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This beautiful cover is what immediately drew me in. I mean, look at it. It’s STUNNING.

I stayed because of the small-town familial expectations I had for this novel. Set in small-town Vermont, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable follows three families and the journey their stories take to intermingle. Here, you have a new family that just moved into a small town, families that have been around for years, old-school Christian families, and young love.

Kuebler is an excellent writer. She does an amazing job of capturing the small-town feel: the gossip and drama where everyone knows everyone, the community during hard times. As someone who grew up in a small town, it all felt very familiar.

That being said, with all of these families getting their stories told, character development wasn’t as in-depth as I would have liked. I would have loved to have gotten more on Honey and Will (no spoilers!!—you’ll have to read it to find out ;) ). I loved learning about the small-town dynamics, but the lack of real character depth was a miss for me.

Despite this, I enjoyed reading this novel. In her debut, Carolyn Kuebler crafts an objectively beautiful story, and I would eagerly read more of her work! Carolyn Kuebler makes her debut next year with an expected release date of May 7, 2024.

Thank you, Netgalley and Melville House Publishing, for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would rate this book 3 1/2 out five stars.

This is an interesting read focused on the many people of Glenville, Vermont. There is quite a cast of characters to the point in the beginning I felt I need a scorecard to keep track. But in time you are able to filter it all out. The main focus of this story is four families that will find their worlds intertwined.
There is the family who is Christian based who run a family honey business and by the way have a beautiful daughter. The new family to the area who are well to do and have a teenage son. A family who run the local inn and wedding event center who have a daughter who has friendship with the beautiful girl and the last girl from a family that everyone in the area considers trouble. All three teenage girls are friends. Most of the story is the struggles these individuals or families face with crime, first love, teenage pregnancy. But this story takes a dramatic turn which you do not see coming which in my opinion makes this story a little better than a average. Give it a read and see what you think. It is a pretty quick read.

I loved the writing, and how well captured small town living is. This is a specific sort of novel that needs to be appreciated and enjoyed for being told from multiple perspectives, less a small town romance and more so a study into the lives of all these characters.

Utterly beautiful!

Thank you to NetGalley and Melville House for this ARC!

🍯 Liquid, Fragile, Perishable 🍯

Overall, I didn’t love this book. I was drawn in by the blurb (especially since I live in New England) and the cover (which is gorgeous), but found I didn’t actually enjoy the book itself. It ended up feeling like a chore to read, which I hate.

🍯 multiple POV
🍯 small town life
🍯 family dramas
🍯 debut book

There were a lot of characters in this book, and all from their POV. This wouldn’t usually bother me much, but some felt superfluous, and many of the characters didn’t interact with each other at all. The entire LeBeau family could have been excluded in my opinion.

I didn’t love the writing, I felt it to be very staccato and disjointed. I also disliked the transition (read: lack thereof) between characters/POVs. It would just jump immediately to the next character, oftentimes not even the same day, and only delineated by as asterisk on the page.

I did like the storyline of Honey and Will and their families, and also liked Nell’s storyline. I did appreciate the overarching literary metaphor of the bees and their hives and this small town and its inhabitants.

Thank you Melville House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It was kind of a whim to request this book — it might’ve been the cover because the title told me nothing about the story I wound up reading. I don’t read the synopsis often, and I think this one was an impulse. If something calls me to it, I’ll likely read it or put it on my TBR to never be thought of again.

I’m glad I stuck to this book though, I was getting confused at the beginning and nearly DNF’d it because I was getting confused so often. The method/format which the author chose to write this book put a lot of names and point-of-views in the same chapter. I have to laugh at how confused I was at understanding who was speaking when Eli was introduced to the book because his thought process is a bit manic and almost unhinged in his obsession for the character Honey. But after some note cards to organize the who’s who in my mind the story started opening up and I was able to get comfortable in being the fly on the wall in the lives of the different characters.

The story is not necessarily unique, but the way the story is told likely is. The different perspectives of how single actions or events can have varying effects to the people around it. The announcing of a birth. A wedding. A lost cause. A recluse. A death. Although the immediate people might feel it the hardest, those that knew or were associated to that person will have their own thoughts and emotions on the matter that sometimes isn’t even related but only triggered by the event. That’s how this book felt. Several events some less exciting than others happened, and the various degrees of effect took shape — based on the age of the character, their life experiences, their relationship with any of the other characters, etc.

I don’t like reality TV, the chaotic mess of organized “unmeditated” media is not for me. But this was the kind of drama that I was granted just enough control to observe without feeling the second-hand anxiety of the event. Sometimes it was like reading under a cozy blanket or sitting in a big sofa with the lights off basking in the warm glow of the television.

Sometimes I felt like parts of the story were unrelated or focused on a part of the life of a character that was so incredibly mundane that maybe a person didn’t really need to learn about it, but I think it was meant to add a little more depth to a character. An attempt at a better understanding about who this character is to others and how they perceive it.

This was the author’s debut, and I think Carolyn Kuebler created a very basic, small town drama that didn’t really feel like it was dramatic but just like watching a cozy TV show and making you wonder what happens next to the whichever character you’ve invested your interest in.

As a side note, I think a novella about Sophie’s late teens/20s would be kind of intersting — if I’m being honest 🙂

This book was not what I was expecting, but sometimes those are the best surprises.

After a little bit of a slow start, heading into the third chapter I started to feel connected to the characters and that was it for me. I was hooked until the end.

This book took me on a journey and if you are looking for something different then anything else you’ve picked up lately; look no further.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love the characters. The small community of people who are just living and dying together. It will both break your heart and give you hope.

I might be the odd one out. This is the story of teens Honey and Will - or is it? It's told by everyone else in their families and their town (or so it seems) in an idiosyncratic format that wore on me. It's an interesting concept but it's also distracting because I never felt that I appreciated any one person, least of all the couple themselves. It's light on plot until deep into the novel when things become much more intense. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

this one was a me problem, couldn't connect with characters or plot. maybe i will revisit in the future once published.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I struggled to get hooked into this. I did not enjoy the seeming randomness of how the chapters were separated and the segue from one character’s view to the next with just an asterisk to denote change. There were so many storylines it took a good half of the book to keep characters straight. I did not feel compelled to keep going until a certain tragic event, where I then wanted to know the outcome. Overall would give 3.5 stars

I have never read a book that felt so... ominous. Like waiting for a shoe to drop at every turn. Which tragedy is going to strike? Which will stay dormant? A beautiful setting over the course of a full year, Kuebler really makes you feel the changing of the seasons. The rush of summer, the lull of winter, the promise of spring. Each scene a poem.

Cruddy execution for a concept that could have been really great. Even the cover drew me in. Did not love the format and how it rolled out.