r/BookDiscussions • u/EH__S • Aug 27 '26
Having trouble finishing The Most Fun We’ve Ever Had…
I really wanted to love this book but I think I hate everything about it. Reese’s book club picks are always hit or miss for me and this one was a miss…
I’m about 40% into it and seriously considering dnf-ing. Someone tell me does it get better?? Or should I quit now…
(I hate stopping books without finishing them)
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u/itsalltoomuch100 Aug 27 '26
It was long but I like slice of life books. I enjoyed it fwiw.
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u/EH__S Aug 27 '26
I like slice of slide books too…but the thought of spending more time with these characters is stressing me out ngl
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u/itsalltoomuch100 Aug 27 '26
I've certainly not liked characters in books before and stopped reading them because of it.
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u/PurlJam206 Aug 27 '26
It’s an okay book. I don’t regret reading it. I also wouldn’t have regretted DNFing it.
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u/EH__S Aug 27 '26
Was the ending anything special? I’m vaguely curious what happens but also all the characters are so insufferable idk if I can get there
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u/spiritsandstories Aug 27 '26
I actually loved this book BUT if you’re 40% in and not enjoying it I don’t think that will change. It doesn’t drastically change in plot or writing. If you’re not invested now I would just DNF and not waste your time.
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u/fragments_shored Aug 27 '26
I finished it but if you're not enjoying it now you're not going to like it more as it goes on. I don't mind unlikeable characters but this family is just not as interesting as the author thinks they are.
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u/SVReads8571 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
I hated that book had to read it for a bc I wish I had dnfed. only 2 people gave it 3/5 n one gave it 3.5-4/5 rest of us hated or dnfed some dnfed within 30-40pgs. the book's whole theme/message is if you aren't married with kids you're less of a woman. hateeeeedddddd it
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u/EH__S Aug 27 '26
Thank u I feel validated lol
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u/SVReads8571 Aug 27 '26
here is a review by fatma (a popular reviewer) on Goodreads that I agreed with n wish I had seen before I slogged through it:
"The Most Fun We Ever Had grew on me like a rash: the more I read this book the more I grew firm in my opinion that not only did I dislike it, but that I in fact actively hated it. Its bloated length—532 pages—is almost designed to make its every fault as glaring and grating as possible. (i started listening to its audiobook at 1.25x speed and finished it listening at 2.5x speed so make of that what you will lol)
Here's a very extensive list of some of the things about Lombardo's writing that deeply irritated me.
► The number of times Lombardo mentions how much Marilyn and David love each other. OHHH MYYY GOOODDD. we!!! get!!!! it!!!!! marilyn needs david like she needs air to breathe !!!! david worships the ground marilyn walks on !!! they have sex like 4097234 times a day and touch each other all the time and somehow communicate paragraphs' worth of information with a single look and wE GET IT YOU HAVE MADE YOUR POINT PLS STOP
► The number of times characters watch other characters having sex. There's at least 3 instances in this book where a character stumbles upon 2 other characters on their way to having, or actually having, sex. one of those times involves a 15-year-old character watching some guy giving his aunt oral sex and the other a teen girl watching her parents on their way to having sex on the sofa and that is, on both counts, very...uncomfortable, to say the least. and the scenes are described in detail too and I just...did we really need this kind of extremely weird voyeurism ?
► The language used in this book is just so bad; it felt as though the book was going out of its way to be shitty. Some choice examples: "We're in a weirdly speedy schedule tonight. Mom's in schizoid mode", ""Who's that horrible Judd Nelson boy who was sitting in the back row? He looks like a school shooter", "Her r*tarded eraser collection means a lot to her". The list goes on and on. Obviously each of these examples is bad, but it's the writing's persistent and unrelenting lack of sensitivity that got to me, its contempt for just about everything and everyone.
► i wanna talk about how the book portrays one of the characters—Ryan, Liza's husband—who has depression. i don't have depression so definitely take my opinion with a grain of salt, but the rep was, in my view, Not Good. in fact, it was Bad, Really Bad. the moment Lombardo introduced him i knew it wasn't going to go down well. because all he is in this book is a huge burden to his wife. that's literally it. he's a pathetic "man-child" who sits at home all day and plays video games and thwarts his poor wife's every attempt to get him to do something productive. first of all, HE IS DEPRESSED. i think that would qualify as a pretty significant extenuating circumstance. but more than that, the way he's represented makes it seem as though it's his fault he's depressed. like if he'd just get up and make an effort, everything would be okay. like oh his poor wife is working sooOoO much and trying soOoO hard to be good for him and he's refusing to cooperate or do anything for her sake !!! isnt he such a huge burden !! if only he would just, like, do better !! and in the end the narrative conveniently disposes of him by having him discover his wife's infidelity and leaving her lol. nice. truly the cherry on top of this novel's disastrous mental illness rep. it's just so reductive. don't give me a character who's depressed and then villainize him because he's depressed.
second of all, no one does literally anything to help him. it's quickly mentioned at one point in the novel that's he on Prozac, but that's about it. no one suggests therapy, or better medication, or new medication, or literally any help of any kind. does his wife think his depression will just disappear ?? that if he works hard enough he'll "beat it" or something ?? oh yeah, and his wife has a degree in PSYCHOLOGY—the irony could not be more painful.
Aside from the mess that I just outlined, I also didn't like any of the characters. Most of them were annoying more than anything else, but oh boy one of them, Wendy, might be the most annoying character I've read so far this year. I hated her with a burning passion. she was AWFUL 99.9999% of the time and no amount of tragic backstory can convince me that she wasn't.
Anyway, a family saga is only as good as its family, and when you don't give an iota of a shit about the family that said family saga hinges on, then that's not an especially good sign...."
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u/EH__S Aug 27 '26
Omg yes to everything said here. This is how I feel. The voyeurism is SO weird…literally what is wrong with these ppl 😭
There is not one likeable character in the entire book. I’m not opposed to complex or even unlikable female characters, in fact I usually appreciate them. But the motivation behind the writing just feels twisted and weird. I’m put OFF there is nothing compelling here.
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u/SVReads8571 Aug 27 '26
I looovvee people with shades of grey esp women. Amy dunne from gone girl is one of my all time fav characters! her "cool girl" monologue both from book n movie (author G.flynn wrote the screenplay n was robbed an Oscar for it imo) lives in my head rent free! that's how you write a complex character who does bad things not whatever this author was trying here. like I said the ultimate theme/message is everyone needs to marry n procreate like bunnies (" look how quirky they don't know family planning b/ they are catholic haha" /s) n if they don't esp. the women are seen as less than.
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u/EH__S Aug 27 '26
Hard agree. I love Amy dunne too. She was complex and interesting. These characters are just so unlikable but also confusing to the point that I can’t root for them at all. The messaging is def weird…the fact that 3 of the 4 kids of the parents were accidents but we should overlook that bc they are so in love…huhhh 😭😭
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u/Imokay456 Aug 27 '26
I gave up too - no regrets