Alison Espach - The Wedding People

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Comment: This book was quite hyped and liked by readers last year and has been praised by many critics and has won awards. My buddy read friend and I have decided to give it a go this month and now that I have finished, I've found it to be a little meh.

Phoebe Stone just arrived at the hotel she planned to stay for one night when she realizes something odd is going on and that there are many people around who seem to be there for a wedding. She tries to ignore this sudden change to what she thought would be a quiet time but at the hotel they assume she is part of the wedding too. When she tries to explain, the bride herself somehow gets in her way and Phoebe explains what her plan is, which, of course, the bride isn't happy about because it will ruin her day. However, they start interacting and without even noticing it, Phoebe is actually now part of the wedding and is starting to be privy to these people's ideas on the whole thing. Can it be this is what Phoebe needed to changer her life?

When this book started to be hyped, I wasn't too interested in it, but a vague review here and an opinion by someone whose taste I know about there started to intrigue me. It's not that I wanted to read this right then but it started to appear enough that I didn't ignore it. I've read the blurb and was curious and my buddy read friend too, and that is why we decided to read it. I will admit I had a certain expectation about it, which wasn't how the story went, so... I can't say I'm disappointed, I was not, but the story didn't go any of the ways I imagined would have suited the main idea.

There will be spoilers.

Phoebe is the protagonist and the story is all seen through her POV. She is at a crossroads, things have happened to the point she is depressed and feeling she doesn't want to go on. She is traveling to the expensive hotel so that she can have one final splurge, to have a quiet evening doing something she has dreamed of since he new about the hotel and saw the pictures of it, but she is planing on not being accountable for anything the morning after. I think the author has done a good enough work presenting Phoebe as someone who feels she has reasons to end her life, but this can certainly be a trigger for many readers, no matter how polite the information is shared.

This seems to be a literary contemporary, with serious themes and intellectual ideas but Phoebe sees herself in a rom-com type of situation due to all the wedding stuff around her. I prefer to think this was meant to smooth the development of the story because, obviously, Phoebe doesn't go ahead with her idea and on top of it, she is now intrigued by Lila, the bride, Gary, the groom and everyone around them. She and Lila somehow bond and at the same time we start learning about Lila's life, that gives us a glimpse to Phoebe's personality as well.

The writing is polished, competent and hints at all the little things that make these characters interesting for this context, there is depth to them, there are layers to people without the book offering too much right away, which is a technique I tend to like, because it makes the story more engaging. At the same time, however, some of the situations become a little contrived because I just can't see a bride like Lila simply inviting Phoebe because she wanted to stop her from doing what she planned and I can't see Phoebe accepting with so much worry in her head, but... 

The author clearly had a plan, and the road it took was an interesting one, which could lead into interesting choices. Would Phoebe realize things were hopeless after witnessing the issues these people had but which didn't stop them from marrying anyway? Or would Phoebe see her life was worth a lot more than she thought by being with these people and finding an unexpected connection? At a certain point, I had two expectations of how things would progress but then it felt as if the author had made her pick, but then everything sort of became vague.

The pages were becoming fewer and I could not see how the author would provide the kind of end I thought she would deliver because, surprise!, that wasn't the plan! The end is very open ended, although with positive vibes. yes, I should not complain because it is implicit things will end sort of well for everyone, but I'm stubborn in my preferences and I wanted a more obvious end. I think more closure would have fit the progress of the plot but I suppose the idea was to end it in a literary, open ended note instead... I mean, it's fine, but it feels incomplete. So, for me, all things considered... meh.

Grade: 6/10