It's 2067 and the world is burning, but the residents of Palm Meridian Retirement Resort are living their best life. After all, is there ever a better time to be unapologetically, truly yourself than at the end of ones life? (The retirement home is a safe place for the queer community and that's the first time I teared up a little while reading this book)
Hannah, a resident, recently got a diagnosis that would significantly affect her quality of life and so she decides to take matters into her own hands: she will throw herself an "end of life party" to properly say goodbye to her loved ones...which includes Sophie, the "one that got away".
Initially, it took me a second to get into the book. I'm a fan of straight forward writing, I always feel like a lot of stuff goes over my head when people "overly" describe stuff, but that's definitely a "me problem". The second the first characters were properly introduced, I was hooked though. It's a kaleidoscope of identities and sexualities and even ages and I loved that. I'm a sucker for quirky, funny, full of love characters and Hannah definitely had a few of those around. What I didn't necessarily love was the plot twist hitting. I liked the build up of Hannahs life story, the art of telling it through time jumps and I'm a fan of drama, but not a fan of (in my opinion) "cliche" problems that could be solved by just talking to each other. This dragged on forever and wasn't solved in a way that satisfied me. And while I get that life is just...life sometimes, it's messy and unfair, I just feel like Hannah deserved better.
Overall, i loved that the book span decades of Hannahs life and her loved ones, didn't like that it also took almost as long for her problem to be a thing (i can't articulate this without spoilering I'm sorry).
I'd nonetheless recommend this book if you're looking for something different, the retirement home setting was definitely fun and even though the world was ending, this group of people still found a way to enjoy it ✨️
side notes: if anyone wants to be my luisa, I'm down🤭 also need a library wedding in my foreseeable future thanks

What a breath of fresh air! This is a beautiful book. Complex characters and a captivating plot are weaved together with some stunning prose. It is gloriously queer and I appreciated how effortlessly inclusive it felt throughout, I found the environmental sub plot an interesting addition as well. Palm Meridian is filled with happiness and heartache, it's a rather poignant read, but is balanced out by plenty of little moments of joy.

I'd definitely recommend to others. Queer readers will no doubt love it, but I think Palm Meridian's appeal could easily be wider. Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.