Review: It All Comes Down to This (by Therese Anne Fowler)

My Rating:  2 stars

Therese Anne Fowler is a "new to me" author whose books I've heard good things about but never got a chance to read.  When I heard she had a new book out and I happened to get approved for an ARC, I figured now would be as good a time as any to acquaint myself with Fowler's works. Now having finished this book, I'm thinking I probably should've started with a different book of hers, as this one turned out to be a huge disappointment.

While the premise had sounded interesting, I quickly discovered, a few chapters in, that this book would be different from what I originally expected.  To me, the basic gist of this book could be summed up this way:  a bunch of privileged, self-centered people endlessly try to justify the foolish (and at times downright stupid) life choices / decisions / actions that they may (or may not) regret making.   None of the characters were likable (and that's putting it mildly) — nearly every character was whiny to the point of grating on my nerves and the more they complained about their messy lives (and even messier relationships), the less sympathy I had for any of them.  The only character I was able to tolerate (and probably the only character I didn't find annoying) was 10-year-old Arlo— unfortunately, his scenes were too few and far between.

In terms of the writing — well, let's just say that it left much to be desired.  There were way too many instances where scenes and dialogue were drawn out unnecessarily in what I would call "stating the obvious" type of writing ("he picked up the newspaper, opened it, read it, folded it back up, put it back down" — not a direct quote, but it conveys the general idea) — which, of course, is the type of writing I absolutely cannot stand.  

Basically, I could not get into this one at all — many of the scenes (in fact, the plot in general) felt contrived, the characters were frustratingly whiny, the writing felt stilted and rudimentary — so much so that each time I put the book down, I dreaded picking it back up again.  I did end up finishing this one (I'm the type of reader who finds it extremely hard to DNF a book once I start it), but not without A LOT of skimming through nearly 50% of the book.  While I don't intend to write Fowler off based on this one experience, I'm not necessarily in a rush to read another book of hers yet either, as I need some time to get the bad taste from this one out of my system.  

Received ARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.