Happy July! This month has, unfortunately, been a difficult reading month for me. I had multiple work events at the start of the month, and I was so busy dealing with that I hardly had any time to read. So, I’m only at 30 books so far this year, which is still ahead of schedule but not where I’d like to be. Regardless, I still got through this month’s book of the month, The Wedding People by Alison Espach. And to accompany this month’s review, I made a Purple People Eater cocktail.
Purple People Eater Recipe
1.5oz Vodka
0.75oz Blue Curaçao
0.5oz Sweet ‘n’ Sour Mix
0.5oz Grenadine
1oz Cranberry Juice
0.5oz Chocolate Wine*
*This is an optional ingredient.
In a cocktail shaker with ice, add all ingredients and shake for approximately 10 seconds. Strain into a martini glass and enjoy!
A few notes for this one… Note one, sweet ‘n’ sour mix is easy to make at home with lemon juice and simple syrup. Note two, the chocolate wine was found at Everything Wine! And note three, traditionally this drink would be rimmed with purple sugar, but that seemed like a lot of work to find or make, so I opted to skip the garnish.
I struggled with this month’s cocktail because I wanted to make the Vacation in a Cup from the novel, but there was no recipe and I didn’t feel like trying to make it up. So instead, I’ve made this kind of Halloween-themed cocktail in the middle of summer. Anyway, for my special ingredient this month, I added chocolate wine. It appears multiple times at the start of the novel, and I thought it would work well in this cocktail. And it really did! The dark colour of the wine worked perfectly with the purple hues, and the chocolate taste added some nice balance to the drink. The bitterness of the chocolate wine cut the sweetness of the original cocktail in a really lovely way. And the mix of the chocolate and cranberry juice tasted nicely of chocolate-covered cranberries! I definitely recommend trying this one out, especially at Halloween time!
The Wedding People Synopsis
(from book cover)
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.
Review
“There is no such thing as a happy place. Because when you are happy, everywhere is a happy place. And when you are sad, everywhere is a sad place.”
I really enjoyed The Wedding People. I originally thought this was going to be a romcom, but luckily, I researched ahead and knew what to expect. And while there was a romantic subplot, the darker, slightly satirical main plot was far more intriguing. But I can see this book not being for everyone. I feel some people don’t love this kind of dark humour around depression and suicide (trigger warning), but I personally enjoyed that aspect of the novel.
I loved Espach’s writing style in this novel. It’s quite blunt but somehow very poetic and flowy at the same time, and I loved the symbolism throughout. And while The Wedding People wasn’t written in a stream-of-consciousness style, it often felt similar to that but in a more organized manner. I imagine this is because of the third person limited point of view employed in the novel, which really suited the tone and style well. This also impacted how character driven the novel is. While the plot is strong, the characters, especially Phoebe and Lila, and the conversations they have really command the story. But on a less positive note, the novel started very slow and took me a while to get fully into.
And again, I’m a fan of dark humour surrounding topics of depression, so I enjoyed that in The Wedding People. I can understand why some readers maybe wouldn’t agree with this or enjoy it as much as I did. But as someone who has struggled with depression since a very young age, I always joke about it and poke fun at the dark moments because it helps. So, from my perspective I completely understood the humour. I also appreciated that the topics of depression and suicide were handled largely respectfully while also being realistic and humorous.
However, there were a few comments around suicide that I thought were a bit tactless. For example, Phoebe and her therapist describing her as “not the type of person to commit suicide” felt very stereotypical to me and further pushes the idea that only a certain type of person would do that, which I think is a bit of a harmful notion. And while I understand how Espach meant it in the novel, it just felt unnecessary to me. And this is really one of the points that dropped this novel’s ranking for me.
In regard to the characters, I thought they were great. They were fleshed out, unique, and had so much depth, particularly Phoebe and Lila. This isn’t overly surprising in a character-driven novel, but I still wanted to note how well thought out these characters were. I also loved Phoebe’s character development during the course of the novel. It was really interesting to see her start to become herself throughout the story. Lila is a bit of a harder one to talk about as she kind of is what she seems (a selfish, privileged girl), but I liked how her character further emphasized the theme of how we change ourselves depending on who we’re around.
I also loved Phoebe and Lila’s friendship. The romance plot was nice and cute and all that jazz. But the friendship plot stood out so much more to me. It was really interesting to watch these two very different women learn about each other and help each other in unexpected ways. And how they come together despite their differences was such an interesting display of womanhood and female friendships. And while I loved the commentary on marriage and love and devotedness, this depiction of friendship has stayed with me longer than the ideas on marriage. But maybe that’s just because I can relate more to the friendship aspect than the failing/negative marriage stuff. (Shoutout to Tom for being the best husband ever. I appreciate you!)
Moving past the style, themes, and characters I do have some more negatives for The Wedding People. First, it was pretty predictable. But I still the journey with the characters, and it didn’t end as cut and dry as I expected it to. Second, some aspects weren’t overly believable or realistic. But I still liked the sometimes unrealistic dialogue and the borderline weird acceptance of a stranger into a wedding. So, while it was an unlikely story, it was a fun one that shed light on how much easier it is to be honest to a stranger who doesn’t matter than those who do.
All in all, I enjoyed The Wedding People. I liked the dark humour, the witty and poetic writing, the themes and symbolism, and the heart of the characters. But this one did have its downsides, which make it not a perfect read for me but still a pretty good one. And I can absolutely see why there’s talks of this one becoming a movie! So, I think if you’ve checked the trigger warnings and are intrigued by my comments on this one you should definitely check it out. But again, I don’t think this one will be for everyone. And I’d probably say the same about the cocktail, but I still think it’s worth giving that one a try!
My Rating:
Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading Madwoman, Blue Sisters, Tom Lake, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow if you liked this one!
Teghann
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