Review: We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange (audio)

Publisher: Celadon Books / Macmillan Audio

Published: August 3, 2021

Source: Print: Arc Paperback via Celadon Early Reads Program / Audio: ALC via Macmillan Audio

 

Summary:

In the vein of Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest, Tracey Lange’s We Are the Brennans explores the staying power of shame—and the redemptive power of love—in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets.

When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it’s not easy. She deserted them all—and her high school sweetheart—five years before with little explanation, and they’ve got questions.

Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the east coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them. When a dangerous man from her past brings her family’s pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect them is to upend all their secrets—secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes—and ultimately find a way forward, together.

 

My thoughts:

A book about an Irish Catholic family that is full of dysfunction and family drama…sign me up!!! And it’s likened to Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes, a book I loved – I knew I was in for a treat and I could not have loved this one more. This is definitely going to be on my anticipated reads for August, even though I already read it because I want everyone to know about it…it is that good!!!

There is just something about family dramas and secrets that call to me and this one pulled me in right away. I come from a big family and we have our share of drama – what family doesn’t – so I always love seeing how an author tackles it. And this one, which may I just mention is a debut and totally knocked my socks off, gave me all the feels.

This is such an emotional roller coaster that had me loving some characters, and wanting to punch others in the face! I love forming those strong attachments to characters that I felt here with the Brennan clan and loved that there is a sense of suspense throughout as we wait to learn just what happened all those years ago and wonder if it is connected to what is going on now. There is such a sense of family and how if you mess with one, you mess with them all mentality to this book…and again, coming from a large family, I can totally relate to that.

The writing is so engaging and my favorite part is how the last line of each chapter was carried over to be the first line of the next chapter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this technique before, but I absolutely loved it.

I cannot recommend this book enough! It’s the perfect book for summer reading and I think it would be a great book club pick – I even recommended it to my own!

 

Audio thoughts:

This was so great on audio. Barrie Kreinik did such a fantastic job with the characters, giving each one their own unique voice.  Because I was so invested in the story, I ended up listening to it in one day – I just couldn’t put it down!