Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influenced by the author, publisher, or other related entity.
Synopsis:
Cover Love:
Very often, I lean towards books based on their covers. I may or may not read the synopsis before picking them up. Even if I do read the synopsis, the cover will play an important part in first grabbing my eye and can ultimately sway me one way or another as to whether I will give a book a try.
I had a bit of a hard time with this one. The Altruists by Andrew Ridker is a smart contemporary that focuses on a family following the death of their matriarch. A large sum of money has been surprisingly delivered at the disposal of her estate, leaving her two children, Ethan and Maggie, financially well-off. Her husband has been left out of the will in this matter due to the issue of infidelity. Arthur, the patriarch, is hard pressed for money and struggles to make his bills. Ethan is a self-indulgent...for lack of a better word...prat who is trying to work through issues of insecurity, instability, and romantic failure. His sister, Maggie, is attempting to live a life of doing good by working somewhat meaningless jobs for meager pay. She has no definite path in life other than to try and do this unspecified good.
Ridker's writing is good and very smart. It is clear that he is highly educated and pays quite a bit of attention to detail (most of the time...there was a flaw in the plot that seriously niggled at me). His prose moves well, but there are a lot of complex words included and obscure references. The reader will likely need to be prepared with a dictionary or access to the internet to decipher some of the words and items utilized in the narrative. This is somewhat nice, just to feel like I was learning something as I read, but it tended to feel a little over the top in spots, as if he was showing off. I think there could be a tendency for this to turn off a reader by making them feel somewhat...well...less than smart.
The characters were well-developed and definitely flawed. They did have some realism. Individually, they work fine to create narratives and draw readers into the story. Together, they are a trainwreck. There is SO much dysfunction present that it's painful. I recognize that there are likely families like this out there, but there just seemed to be way too much craziness in one small group. I really needed a character to root for and I couldn't find one. Though they were definitely well described characters, I didn't like them. They just irked me. Sometimes this won't really affect my opinion of a book, but in this case, there was just too much driving me batty without a "normal" character to rescue me.
Ultimately, I think this book may have just been slightly out of my wheelhouse. I enjoy contemporaries, but somehow this one just felt a bit too modern for me. I do appreciate Ridker's writing and the talent he clearly possesses. It was clear that he was attempting to create a narrative that displayed the family dysfunction, but then showed how the individuals mired in the situation could still move forward and survive. It just wasn't enough to win me over.
Emotional Response: Ridker's writing is good and very smart. It is clear that he is highly educated and pays quite a bit of attention to detail (most of the time...there was a flaw in the plot that seriously niggled at me). His prose moves well, but there are a lot of complex words included and obscure references. The reader will likely need to be prepared with a dictionary or access to the internet to decipher some of the words and items utilized in the narrative. This is somewhat nice, just to feel like I was learning something as I read, but it tended to feel a little over the top in spots, as if he was showing off. I think there could be a tendency for this to turn off a reader by making them feel somewhat...well...less than smart.
The characters were well-developed and definitely flawed. They did have some realism. Individually, they work fine to create narratives and draw readers into the story. Together, they are a trainwreck. There is SO much dysfunction present that it's painful. I recognize that there are likely families like this out there, but there just seemed to be way too much craziness in one small group. I really needed a character to root for and I couldn't find one. Though they were definitely well described characters, I didn't like them. They just irked me. Sometimes this won't really affect my opinion of a book, but in this case, there was just too much driving me batty without a "normal" character to rescue me.
Ultimately, I think this book may have just been slightly out of my wheelhouse. I enjoy contemporaries, but somehow this one just felt a bit too modern for me. I do appreciate Ridker's writing and the talent he clearly possesses. It was clear that he was attempting to create a narrative that displayed the family dysfunction, but then showed how the individuals mired in the situation could still move forward and survive. It just wasn't enough to win me over.
Meh. I didn't really care for it one way or another. It was okay. There were some bright spots and I could see other readers enjoying it, but ultimately this book just wasn't for me.
Rating:
I tried to like this book...I really did. I debated over my rating for quite a long time. I just had to stick with my gut. The writing was good, the structure was good, but I just couldn't get attached to the characters or really care about the outcome. And really, the outcome was underwhelming and felt like a bit of an awkward wrap up. I guess I'm just a crabby reader with no patience for the struggles of others...I need a bright spot in my books.
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