Adulthood, deceit, infidelity, addiction, mental health – no one can handle such pertinent and difficult subject matter quite like Marian Keyes.
True to form, Keyes’ latest novel, Grown Ups, is full of gloriously messy, relatable characters, each living their far-from-perfect / dysfunctional lives, and we wouldn’t want a family saga any other way tbh.
Read the team’s full reviews below!
They’re a glamorous family, the Caseys.
Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together – birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they’re a happy family. Johnny’s wife, Jessie – who has the most money – insists on it.
Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . .
Everything stays under control until Ed’s wife Cara, gets a concussion and can’t keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny’s birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets.
In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?
Lareese
I’m easily overwhelmed by mammoth books – I get flashbacks of my uni days spent trying and failing to get through Middlemarch -and when I picked up this one I thought, there’s no way I’m going to finish this beast in time to write the review but Marian Keyes proved me wrong. The opening chapter starts with the final scene and though a little confusing due to how many characters are speaking at once, it sets up the main events that play out in the rest of the book. The family tree at the beginning definitely comes in handy and helped me get my head round who was who. Each of the characters and their stories are so intricately linked which makes for addictive reading. Grown Ups is a very realistic and convincing portrayal of the complexities of messy modern day life. One minute someone’s buttering toast, the next minute they’re in an air bnb with their pants down. It was a chunky read but it never felt like a hard slog to get through it and the juicy ending more than made up for any lagging in the middle. Jam-packed with all kinds of scandal and revelations, it’s the dysfunctional family saga we all live for. Ps: petition for a whole book on Ferdia next time please. Ta!
Rating: 3.5/5
Would you read it again: No
Would you recommend: Yes
Danielle
Listening to Grown Ups was fantastic, Marian has such a lovely voice which was perfect to pop in in the evenings when getting into bed. However, as there are so many different characters and stories it was sometimes hard to keep up especially as I didn’t have the family tree to use from the book. I love stories that have imperfect people in as they’re so much more relatable and they really help you to see more than one side of the story. Parts of the book were slow but I loved how much the excitement ramped up towards the end and I did finish satisfied which is always a good way to close a book. Marian Keyes is obviously a wonderful writer and I think Grown Ups is one of her best. A great chunky one to read if you’ve found yourself eating through your TBR piles quickly!
Rating – 4/5
Would you read it again? – No
Would you recommend? – Yes
Zoe
Marian Keyes is one of those authors that truly never disappoints, so I already knew going into Grown Ups i’d enjoy it. I loved the crazy and slightly dysfunctional Casey family and the way in which Marian writes her characters and the dynamics of family life. They always feel so real and relatable, which I thoroughly appreciate in novels. There are quite a lot of characters in this book, which felt a little daunting at first, but surprisingly after a bit of time I did manage to grasp the vast family tree, which I know others struggled with a bit. Overall this book was very entertaining with laugh out loud moments and equally teary ones. It had a good mix of everything you want in a cosy read and offered real deep dive into the fact that grown ups probably aren’t as “grown up” as you think, each with their own insecurities and things they struggle with.
Rating – 3.5/5
Would you read it again? – No
Would you recommend? – Yes
Holly
Well this was one BIG BOY! Blimey, I’m by no means an avid reader so the concept of a solid 636 pager was terrifying. In the beginning, with SO many characters I was sure I wouldn’t get into it but low and behold, here I am telling you it was bloody fantastic. Marian Keyes writes from an outsiders perspective which, again, made me worry I wouldn’t get in to it but actually it let me make up my own mind about each character, which I bloody well did! I had such a vivid picture of every character in my head and felt so differently about all of them. In every story within the story, so much and absolutely nothing happens. It’s just very realistic and gives an amazing insight into all types of mental health. I couldn’t have pictured a better ending myself. And it had what I think EVERY book should have and gives us a glimpse into the characters lives a few months later. Loved it!
Rating – 4.5/5
Would you read it again? – No
Would you recommend? – Yes
Darcey
I must admit I can get quite intimidated by a big book and get the fear that I won’t get invested early on, finding it hard to power through to the good bits! I did have the fear early on while reading this book, although it’s interesting reading about all their lives and starting to see little things unravel, I was gearing up for the big lies to start spewing out and the aftermath of all that. But continuing on and finding out more about the unconventional family and all the scandals happening within, it started to get really good and the ending was more than I could’ve asked for! It’s a great insight into a large family, and you really start to pick sides with characters and feel different emotions for them all. This is a great book to read now we have a bit more time on our hands, as I found reading large chunks of the book at a time helped me better understand the whole family! Really great book and I would definitely recommend.
Rating – 4/5
Would you read it again? – No
Would you recommend? – Yes
Amy McCulloch
