DNF Review / The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

'DNF' meaning Did Not Finish. 

A warm, funny and acutely perceptive debut novel about four adult siblings and the fate of the shared inheritance that has shaped their choices and their lives.

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.

Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale suburb, has an unwieldy mortgage and looming college tuition for her twin teenage daughters. Jack, an antiques dealer, has secretly borrowed against the beach cottage he shares with his husband, Walker, to keep his store open. And Bea, a once-promising short-story writer, just can’t seem to finish her overdue novel. Can Leo rescue his siblings and, by extension, the people they love? Or will everyone need to reimagine the future they’ve envisioned? Brought together as never before, Leo, Melody, Jack, and Beatrice must grapple with old resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledge the choices they have made in their own lives.

This is a story about the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, the ways we depend upon one another and the ways we let one another down. In this tender, entertaining, and deftly written debut, Sweeney brings a remarkable cast of characters to life to illuminate what money does to relationships, what happens to our ambitions over the course of time, and the fraught yet unbreakable ties we share with those we love.

Published:     22nd March 2016
Publisher:  Ecco
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Library
Rating:   Did Not Finish
Page Reached before DNF:  68

WHY DID I NOT FINISH THIS BOOK?

I always like to give every book I pick up a fighting chance and always aim to get to at least 50 pages in before I decide what to do next.  I just couldn't do it with this one.  Here's the reasons why:

• I could not connect with any of the characters.  None of them particularly stood out for me and I just wasn't interested in following their stories and finding out more;
• I was bored.  The start of this book was very slow paced.  I really wanted something surprising to happen but from the pages that I read nothing had happened by then.  It may be that something happens later that I missed out on; and
• this book was so hyped up that I think this was one of those that I had very high expectations for and just didn't get it. 

That being said the writing in this book was good and I was enjoying that part of it.  I would not hesitate picking up another book written by the same author.