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This book wanders about, somewhat aimlessly, in the territory between memoir and sociological examination of how divorce has been treated in different eras and cultures. I loved this weaving in and out, and so much of what she says about her own marriage and divorce really resonated with me, but it may irritate some readers. A cautionary note about the audiobook is that the author reads it herself, and pronounces “with” as “whiff,” which became surprisingly grating over the course of an entire book. Maybe opt for the print/ebook version.

For the first 3/4 of this book, I found it very tedious, a literature’d-up romance novel. I had hoped that some details dropped in the beginning of the story would turn into something interesting, but they didn’t. However, the remaining 1/4 of the book changed my mind entirely.

Loved it. I’ve worked in tech for 20+ years, and so much of this resonated. The author is a very entertaining writer, and she makes her points while keeping the plot moving.

So slow and long that I couldn’t finish it. Got about halfway through. The character development was interesting, but not interesting enough for a plot that hasn’t gotten anywhere by the halfway point.

A good friend recently took his own life, and he did it in a hotel. So the coincidence of my starting to read this book literally a couple weeks later probably put it off on the wrong foot with me. Also, I don’t typically read this sort of “elevated mass-market” fiction, so maybe my unenthusiastic reaction to this book is partly an unenthusiastic reaction to the category. This one was recommended to me, so I read it without knowing anything about it. It’s an entertaining story that doesn’t really say anything meaningful, and the characters are amusing but forgettable. The story is relatively contrived. This book felt like it was written with the author’s eye toward selling a movie or Netflix series based on it. But I enjoyed the process of reading it, and I’m sure the Netflix series will be enjoyable too.