Right off the bat, I have to confess that I originally bought Grant Ginder’s The People We Hate at the Wedding on somewhat of a whim and read it for the first time back in 2017, and I’m so glad that I did, because this ended up being a really great book, in my opinion. I honestly hadn’t even heard of this book until I saw it at Target one day. As soon as I read the plot synopsis that’s on the cover, I immediately knew that this book was right up my alley. I thought about whether or not I wanted to buy it for several hours, and I bought it later that same day; which is something I don’t necessarily do when it comes to books that are written by authors that I’ve never even heard of. I’m much more likely to buy books rather spontaneously if they’re written by authors that I’m already familiar with and have read some of their other books. I’m also incredibly ashamed to admit that this review was originally written for the most part after I read the book for the first time back in 2017; but because I find the proofreading part of writing rather tedious, I never got around to proofreading and posting this review while the details of the book were still fresh in my mind. I finally decided to reread the book recently after finding out that Amazon made a movie adaptation of the book; which I’m planning to watch now that I’ve reread the book. That being said, here are my thoughts on the book.
Despite what the book’s title might suggest, The People We Hate at the Wedding is ultimately not first and foremost about a wedding. At its core, this book is about a dysfunctional family; and the problems that they have, with both each other and in their own personal lives. Eloise’s wedding simply serves as the backdrop for the conflict within the family. I have to say that while I absolutely love the title The People We Hate at the Wedding, I still think that it’s the book title equivalent of a clickbait headline for an article on the internet since the titular wedding plays such a small role in the book in the grand scheme of things. However, I still think it’s a pretty clever book title that was definitely effective when it came to getting my attention as I was looking around at Target and originally discovered this book.
While I personally loved this book, I don’t think that this book is necessarily for everybody, especially if you’re not a fan of books where pretty much all of the characters are rather unlikable people. Personally, I honestly love books, TV shows, and movies that feature unlikable characters, as long as the characters are written with the intention of them being unlikable, and they’re well written, and it's handled well by the author. When it comes to TV shows, my favorite comedy is definitely It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and all of the characters on that show are all truly terrible people. If characters come across as being unlikable due to bad writing, then I usually end up not liking the book all that much. For example, I don’t think that Ana Steele from E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy is meant to be an incredibly annoying and unlikable, she just comes across that way due to terrible writing. That being said, I did think that Ana came across as being much more likable in Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, even though the book was still horribly written.
