Book Review: One Big Happy Family | Jamie Day
Colorful Adirondack chairs will always catch my eye so I admit I would have probably selected this book regardless of the premise or author. After loving Jamie Day’s last book, The Block Party, and these pastel beachside chairs (empty because of course that storm is rapidly rolling in) on the cover, I knew I wanted to read One Big Happy Family. A great setting, a locked room format, and a complicated ending make this an engaging read.
What is One Big Happy Family about?
The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters—Iris, Vicki, and Faith—have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there’s murder in the air—and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out.
Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe’s nineteen-year-old chambermaid Charley Kelley: smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits.
The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or even worse, learn that she’s using a guest room to hide a woman on the run.
With razor-sharp wit, heart, thrills, and twists, Jamie Day delivers a unique brand of summertime suspense.
What did I think?
The teaser doesn’t fully capture the essence of the book, which to me is the main character, Charley. Everyone else can be messy, horrible, mysterious, or pretentious—but Charley is the driving force of this book. I immediately liked Charley, who works as a maid at the Precipice Hotel. The hotel is old, charming, and legendary. Her job allows Charley to scrape by helping to pay for her grandmother’s care while Charley lives in a converted storage closet at the Precipice. When she was offered room and board by the now-deceased owner George Bishop, she felt lucky. Now she realizes that she is trapped.
Charley’s backstory is heartbreaking—a father who she’s never met and who abused her mother, prompting her to move back home. A mother who wanted to escape life and eventually became addicted to drugs. An overdose. A nana who is in the early stages of alzheimers with no one to care for her costs but Charley—a nineteen year-old chambermaid. You can’t not feel for Charley!
As the book opens, hurricane Larry is bearing down on the hotel, and guests are cancelling right and left. The hotel isn’t empty, though. It’s about to be so full of drama your head will spin. And that drama comes from the children of the late George Bishop, who are gathered to hear the reading of his will. Which of the Bishop sisters is the worst? I’d probably choose Vicki or Faith, but they are all awful. Vicki is the eldest and owns a jewelry story. She’s married to a greedy, pompous man named Todd. Iris is the middle sister and a recovering drug addict and ex-con. She’s now found religion. The youngest, Faith, is a former model who loves being in the spotlight, and her wife Hope is an earth-mother type. Vicki’s adult son Quinn attracts Charley’s attention. Meanwhile Faith’s son Oliver seems withdrawn.
A woman Charley met a week earlier arrives seeking shelter. She’s fleeing an abusive relationship and needs a place to stay where he can’t track her credit card. She offers Charley cash, which she is in desperate need of after her Nana’s rent went up. Charley agrees to hide Bree in one of the rooms, but she knows if Vicki and Todd catch her, she will be out of a job. Surely they’ll be too self-absorbed to notice, right?
As you can guess with a book describing a happy family in a sarcastic tone, the gathering and the will reading do not go as planned. The attorney Brenda Black is slimy and apparently has a troubling past with perpetuating racial bias in the courtroom. Rodrigo refuses to work the weekend, and with the cook Olga quitting, Charley is going to be left with the drama of the Bishop family (and her stowaway Bree). Vicki comes out the best with the will. Iris and Faith are not happy with their father’s last wishes.
It’s the beginning of a weekend filled with secrets and murder. Cell reception is spotty, the hurricane has trapped them inside, and someone (or more than one) is out for blood. The number of hidden tidbits from the Bishop’s past had my head spinning. Charley has a front row seat to the meltdown of the sisters. Can she survive the weekend? It seems someone wants to quiet her for good.
I loved the setting and I thought Charley was a fantastic leading character. The Bishop family was so toxic, but well-written. The sisters have their own troubling pasts that make them somewhat sympathetic, despite their current behavior. The short chapters kept the book moving. I didn’t like this as much as The Block Party, but I thought it was solid and it kept me entertained. The second half dragged on a bit, but the ending made up for that.
The audiobook is great and helped with the pacing. I will definitely read whatever Jamie Day writes next!
Thank you to St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for my copy. Opinions are my own.
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