This is actually my second time reading The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I read it for the first time last summer, having never heard of it, but having found it in my local used bookstore. And I loved it. So when “E” of my book club, R.A.G.E, chose it for her selection, I jumped at the chance to re-read and discuss with friends. And, once again, I loved it.
My taste in literature tends to run mostly towards fantasy and sci-fi, but I also love contemporary novels, especially those with a “problematic” female lead. The Wedding People only checks one of those boxes; it’s a contemporary novel. And while the lead is female, I don’t consider her, Phoebe, to be problematic. She is just a complex, realistic, well-written character.
The whole book is well-written though. It deals very heavily with suicide and suicidal ideation, and does so in a way that I found empathetic and kind. But, The Wedding People is also funny. Like laugh-out-loud-in-several-places funny. It’s no mean feat that Espach is able to take about book about a suicidal woman who accidentally crashes a million-dollar wedding and make it both sympathetic and hilarious.
And suicide isn’t the only sad theme in this book. We also get divorce, the pandemic, overwhelming loneliness (see also: the pandemic), loss of pets (both real and digital), and the loss of parents. This book basically needs all the trigger warnings. And yet, I found it to be a lovely book. The characters are smart, funny and well-developed. The prose is quite good. And even though you can see the ending coming a mile away, it doesn’t matter because it just feels right. For both the characters and the reader.
Rating: 4.5 stars
CBR18 Bingo Circle: “Left” because all sorts of people get left in this book
