Family and Other Catastrophes

Twenty-eight year old Emily is getting married. Worrying that she’s a little old for that, and about the fact that people already routinely think she’s middle-aged, doesn’t help her nerves. She’s going home with her fiancé, David, for the week prior to the wedding. She just needs to survive the week surrounded by her extremely dysfunctional family and live happily ever after, or will she?

The premise of this book sounds hilarious–a frazzled bride-to-be who has to dodge the zany antics of her flawed family to make it down the aisle to her “I do.” The reality, however, was not nearly so humorous. While a couple of lines and situations were truly laugh-out-loud funny, most of the book was cringe-worthy, with truly horrible characters doing increasingly horrible things to each other. Emily’s brother is a stereotypical womanizer, dialed up to outrageous proportions. Emily’s sister is a raging feminist, with the emphasis on raging. She doesn’t speak a line without referencing her feminist manifesto. Everyone talks about any and all aspects of their many sexual encounters. The vulgarity level is fairly high. The characters are difficult, if not impossible, to like, including the protagonist. Dorky LARPer Nathan was the most likable character of the bunch, and he doesn’t shower regularly.