Uncovered Book Club discussion

One of my favorites! Happily re-read this one with everyone!

ordered my cooy!

i meant copy!

I just read this last week! Looks like I'm ahead of the curve.

I read this in December. Really enjoyed it.

I've owned this book since months! I'm so glad I can finally pick this up =D

Just received my copy! hurrah!

This book really pulled me out of a reading slump post We Need to Talk About Kevin. I really love her writing voice.

I previously DNF'ed this book but am thinking of picking it up again to finish. I thought the first half was fantastic. I thought it was funny, compelling, different...the reason I quit is I got tired of the writing style. I just got bored. It felt all drawn out and too long to me. Anyone else feel like that?

I have finished the book!

I was so disappointed with the book, and I'm pretty bummed about it. I wanted to like this so much and was hoping that it was going to feel like a Marian Keyes book. I didn't find it funny at all. My favourite part was finding out Manjula wasn't Manjula (she was basically the only character I did like). It is incredibly rare for me not to like pretty much the whole cast of characters and this book did it. Good job book!

Something about the writing also felt very rushed and choppy to me, like they were trying to cram as much wit as they could in there and it all fell flat.

It does feel good to get a book crossed off my list that has been there for a long time though.

Right? I don't understand all the rave reviews!

I am getting to the point where I prefer to come to books without reading much about them ahead of time. Rave reviews just set up expectations that are often doomed to disappoint me. I came to this after a very dark book & had no idea what to expect, & it was a fun experience just when I needed it. Whatever I read post my current dark book will be a welcome break, as well.

So far I'm 100 pages in an I'm not minding the book. The epistolary technique is pretty good and Semple uses it to convey different points of view while building a back story. Basically the incorporates the past, present and immediate future at the same time - that's quite clever. Also I'm not too sure what Semple wants this novel to be - YA or Literary fiction?? Does that matter?

At this point I've read better books but this is passing the time nicely. Right now it's HOT (between 26 and 32 Celsius) in Malta and this is a good book to read during the slow hours of the afternoon.

Finished this on my flight today. Like the majority, I was also disappointed. The beginning was great, but the rest was a slog to get through. I feel pretty meh about it.

Another 100 pages in, really the only thing which I find annoying are the endless pop culture references, although the jab at Apocalypse Now was a bit unexpected. I'm not saying this book is amazing, in fact it's quite convoluted, you can see the Manjula thing a mile away, but I've read worse.

Finished the book. Not that bad - the last 30 pages or so are a bit silly but I was swept along for the ride. I'm glad I read the book so thanks for choosing it for the club :)

I finally picked this up today and hopefully will get it read by the end of the month.

I actually cover bought this and read it Feb 2015 but will offer my opinions now. I was pretty disappointed by it honestly, I found the characters pretty irritating and felt the ending was really flat. Appears I'm not the only one which is good to know as I'd almost entirely seen purely positive reviews and was wondering if I had somehow missed something while reading it haha!

I just finished it, and I am not really sure what to make out of it.

I actually really liked the first third of it. Maybe because I wasn't expecting the narrating style and structure.
For the first 100 pages, it really made you think about all the names, characters, and possible connections. It was fun to read at first.

But was it "divinely funny", as the New York Times praises on the cover of my edition? Not really.

I liked Bee, I liked how she and her mother related to each other. But Bernadette's mental health issues aren't romanticized or sugarcoated. As the story evolves, you actually realize, how dysfunctional she is and what the consequences for her and her family are. It is beautiful, because it is heartbreakingly real, but "divinely funny"? Definitely not.

Yet, for me, Bernadette was the most relatable character in this book, because towards the end everybody (even my beloved Bee) went totally crazy and hateful. I reeeeaaally hated the last third. All in all, it was a solid read, but couldn't keep up with the expectations I developed while reading the first few pages. :(

I just finished this book today and I must say I actually really enjoyed it. It wasn't laugh out loud funny but as a bit of a satire on suburban parents and neurotic people, it was pretty good. Really liked the epistolary format and my only issue was with the last third, which I thought was a lot more boring than the antics going on at the beginning.

Xeyra, I felt similarly. I think it came to me at just the right time & I had no expectations, just read the book without reading any reviews or blurbs.

I thought this book was just okay. Bee felt much younger in her thoughts and actions than she supposedly was, which was weird. The husband is absolutely despicable, which I found hard to get over. I sort of understand the rave reviews, because it's a different kind of mystery. It's not one that has a killer and a victim, but rather one that you're tying to unpack. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book, but I thought it was worth my time to read.