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.

I really enjoyed the family dynamics and culture in this book. I had never read anything like it, and I was especially thrilled to find out it was set in my hometown. I loved the little glimpses of Montreal we got throughout the book. Where this missed the mark for me was the writing style. The author is obviously very talented, however some of the word choices made me feel uncomfortable at times, which may have been the goal but left me feeling a bit icky and hindered my enjoyment of the book.

Oh the dysfunctional family. The four members of the Reed family each tell their story, which might have worked better for me if it didn't try so hard. I found myself, surprisingly, bored, and DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

This one is hard to get into and stay invested because the writing style is extremely stilted and camp which really keeps you from investing emotionally in characters that are instantly unlikable or just plain unrelatable. The mixed ethnicity family setup did a lot of heavy lifting for way too long before things start to fall in place. Even then, I'm not sure if the story overall was worth all the gymnastics. Might be better as an audiobook.

Books about families that focus on each individual always are a hit for me. I like seeing characters grow and change as the stories go. The Reeds by Arjun Basu is the story of 4 people during pivotal moments in each life.

We are given access to the inner workings of each person through their failures and successes. While there are some sentences that go a little too long, I still enjoyed the different POVs and the likable...and not so likable family members.

While I generally do not like a 3rd person narrative, I enjoyed this one. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

3.5 stars rounded up. Poignant, often funny, sometimes frustrating, I think this is a wonderful slice of life book about a complex family. The parents often suck, but the kids are absolute gems.

I’ll be honest, I did not like this book for the first few chapters because I instantly hated Bobby, and I thought I would struggle to get through the rest of it because of that, but it turns out we’re all pretty much products of our environment. This is a story of deeply flawed, nuanced characters with rich inner lives that they are starting to realise need to be shared with their family, but maybe not knowing how to communicate clearly.

I think readers who enjoyed The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro would also enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for the ARC!

Unfortunately I DNFed this one. Only after 30% in and things moving a tad too slowly for my liking. I love a good slow burn but writing needs to keep me hooked too. The slow plot and so much exposition, at one point 4 pages of background before Bobby enters home, the all over the place writing needed to be more contained and concised while delivering the needed context.

I couldn’t put this down, but in more of a car accident kind of way. You find yourself caring about and interested in people who are not only genuinely unlikeable but who speak to each other like sentient robots. Maybe thats what kept them from feeling more performative than real. The teenage daughter reads like a parody of girlhood. Sure it’s kind of like that but it also isn’t at all. I feel like every other character got to be fully realized and well rounded except for her. I know a lot of that is being a teenage girl but still, her shallowness felt intentional and oddly cruel.
The writing was frustrating as well. Every thought that people have and action they take is written out in great detail as if it’s phenomenally important or interesting. It would be effective if it only happened when that was the case. Then it’s just kind of over? Right when things felt like they were turning and evolving. There wasn’t on any kind of imagine the ending you want or room for you be think “hmm I wonder what they’re up to”. It felt like he couldn’t find a way to wrap everything up and the book was already too long so now it’s open ended and over. Ultimately I couldn’t connect with this book but don’t regret having read it.

The Reeds is the portrait of a slightly dysfunctional middle class family of 4 set in Montreal's West End. Each family member is at a turning point in their life: father Bobby gets fired from his job, mum Mimi's e-commerce business is booming, their son Abbie develops as an artist while daughter Dee is on a path to self-discovery.

My highlights:
- the ethnic diversity of the family (as well as most of the secondary characters): Bobby is Mexican/Scottish, Mimi is Japanese/raised in France. They adopted Abbie (Abena) from Ghana and Dee (Devandhra) from India.
- the chapters seen from each family member's POV
- how Bobby turns into a domestic goddess
- set in Montréal, a city with a special place in my heart
- the writing is witty and funny - the police station scene is 😂

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read. If family-centred /character-driven books are your thing I highly recommend it!

Adored the premise of this book - a middle class family for whom changes in each of their individual experiences creates a fundamental shift in who they are. Imagine Schitt’s Creek but with a more immediately likeable main family. The writer is, however, a fan of VERY long sentences sometimes - sometimes this can be… arduous. That said, the book is still a winner.