The Unwedding (spoilers and ending explained) | Ally Condie
This review of Ally Condie’s The Unwedding contains spoilers and the ending explained. If you are looking for a spoiler-free review, I’ve got that over on the main page!
What is the TL;DR on The Unwedding?
I think this is the first Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick in ages that I just simply…did not get. It was fine. It wasn’t horrible. It wasn’t unenjoyable. I was ready for it to be over (and probably would have been fine not finishing). Take that for what you will…
The Unwedding by Ally Condie was bucketed as The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie. Those are two heavy hitters that it would be hard for any book to live up to. I’ve thought about it, and at the most surface level it’s kind of true. If you reduce Agatha Christie to “locked room mystery” format and reduce The White Lotus to a resort setting… sure. It is both of those things. Am I being too negative? Perhaps—this really wasn’t a bad book, but I was left wanting more.
What is The Unwedding about?
The book centers around a woman named Ellery Wainwright, who is going through a painful divorce. Painful! The “vacation” that Ellery is taking in this book was supposed to be their trip to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. Now she’s going alone, and it isn’t the empowered move she hoped it would be. This was the most compelling part of the book, and the flashbacks that showed the lead up to her separation and divorce added much-needed depth to Ellery’s character. It was hard not to care about her (at first).
While Ellery is at the Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, she finds that in the middle of her uncoupling, she is stuck at a resort with a big wedding going on (some may say she should have expected this given that she’s staying in a popular destination for weddings, but we won’t hold that against a shattered woman trying to pick up the pieces). The wedding draws Ellery to it, in some ways. She remembers the feeling of looking ahead and anticipating the wonderful things to come.
The book heats up when Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool (during a rain storm, of course). It seems that this couple isn’t going to get a happily ever after, either. Things get worse when the rain storm causes a mud slide, taking out the road that leads to the resort and trapping everyone inside. Yikes! It’s bad enough to be trapped where a death occurred, but a second death shortly after makes it clear there is a murderer among them and someone must figure it out.
Who are Ravi and Nina?
Ellery meets a strange duo on the first night—Ravi and Nina. I didn’t know what to make of these two. They invite Ellery to join them for dinner (this is kind, she’s alone), but they are weirdos. If I were Ellery I would have had the creeps over these two. They aren’t a couple, but they do travel together. I was never clear if one, both, or neither were flirting with Ellery. Also I thought maybe they were trying to rob her? Perhaps that was Condie’s goal with them, though. There is a theft storyline that comes into play. I dismissed it because Ellery isn’t exactly rolling in jewels—she doesn’t even want to order protein at the restaurant because of the price.
The explanation for Ravi and Nina’s role in the story is that every time they travel together, they find someone on the first night and invite them to join them for dinner. And it needs to be someone interesting! No shade intended, because I liked Ellery, but she wasn’t exactly who I’d describe as interesting in the way it seemed Ravi and Nina meant it. But they didn’t mind, so who am I to yuck anyone’s yum? Ravi and Nina become Ellery’s assistant detectives in a way, though that probably overstates their role.
What puts the “wedding” in The Unwedding?
I love a wedding-thriller. I love a wedding premise, in fact! Nothing cranks up the tension like the stress and joy of wedding festivities being upended by a murder (and maybe even revenge). The beginning was great. Ellery stumbles into the wedding only to discover that the groom left the bride at the altar. I was ready for some tea! Something more horrible is afoot when the groom is found (by Ellery) dead in the pool. Did Ben (the groom) die after he left Oliva (the bride) at the altar? Or did someone else send her the text from his phone?
The wedding and resort are full of secrets and rumors. There is a whole collection of side plots happening that kind of relate to everything else, but also don’t really matter. They detracted from the mystery, in my opinion. One was that there was allegedly someone secretly famous at the wedding, and a lot of the book circles around whether that matters (in my opinion, it absolutely does not). There is also apparently an art thief. We heard a lot about the art—who created it, what it looked like, why it mattered. I’m an art lover but this was painfully dull. We went back to the mystery, but by then everything was so diluted that I’m not sure I even cared. I was relieved when it was over.
How did it end?
After days of being trapped in the resort and another dead body (Matt) surfacing, Olivia (the bride) sent a note to Ellery to meet her at the altar (the one she allegedly got jilted at). Olivia actually sent multiple notes—one to every person who she suspected of killing her fiancé Ben, or who was involved with the investigation. A lot of dramatics lead to several reveals.
Ben was killed by Catherine (Olivia’s mother), but it was an accident. They were having a heated argument after she thought he left Olivia at the altar, and he tripped and hit his head on a sculpture (the art theme ties in here, I guess?). Catherine left him for dead. It turned out that Ben and Olivia were actually already married, but she didn’t tell her mom because… I think she wanted her mom to get to plan a wedding? This made no sense to me so please excuse if I misconstrued a much more vital reason to lie to your mother about a marriage. Also Olivia is pregnant, so there’s extra tragedy.
I bet you are wondering how Ben’s body got in the pool, right? It was Jason (a member of the wedding party). I’ll try to explain (I’m not even sure I get this weird, convoluted side plot). Jason used to work for Ben, but he fired Jason for stealing (theft again!). Jason found Ben’s body and got Matt to help him move it to the pool. Jason then framed Matt for Ben’s murder and killed him. So there is your second murder—and this one was definitely not an accident. Jason also sent the text from Ben’s phone to Olivia.
What are the other reveals?
Remember Ravi and Nina? I suppose they did tie in a tiny bit—Nina was Jason’s godmother. This doesn’t really matter nor become important to the ending. I’m still unclear what Ravi’s role is. Perhaps just as Nina’s friend and the cover story that explains why she is at the resort (though she didn’t need a cover story when she planned this because Jason hadn’t murdered anyone yet).
Maddox and Morgan were other guests at the hotel that had fled a cult and were being blackmailed by Jason. I don’t think this made sense, but it was technically a reveal. The mysterious cake that Ellery received (I didn’t even mention this earlier because it was such a non-entity) wasn’t from her ex, it was from her best friend Abby.
One of the other guests at the hotel (Gary) turned out to be the artist (Anonymous), and his daughter Grace invented a popular app (celebrity). Don’t ask me if this matters; I think my brain flatlined somewhere along the way because I cannot explain why this is important. Oh, and Ellery finally forgives herself for a past incident that involved a bus crash and a dead student who she tried to save. Apparently, Olivia knew about it.
Was it good?
As they say, I could sigh so hard right now my lungs would collapse and I might die (not to be dramatic). The book was—as I said earlier—fine. The beginning half is much better than the end. I felt it went off the rails and fractured into way too many storylines. Condie made a good show of tying them all up, but I struggled to think most of those threads mattered. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, so that might be why.
I was shocked to discover the book is 350 pages. While nothing to scoff at (that’s a pretty standard length for adult fiction), it felt three times as long. Painfully slow at times. Meandering. Too many plot lines detracted from the mystery. Olivia was so unlikable to me, and not in a fun way. I keep wondering if I was supposed to like her? Ravi and Nina were strange additions and I felt their inclusion never went anywhere.
I thought there would be much more of a tie in to Ellery’s divorce, since I found that to be the most powerful part of the book. It never did. Perhaps the title, The Unwedding, wasn’t referring to Ellery’s divorce and solo anniversary trip, it was referring to Olivia and Ben’s fake wedding. But that wasn’t clear.
Final Thoughts
Reese knocks it out of the park with her book club picks, and I’ve seen plenty of love for this book. I would read another book by this author, but I wouldn’t re-read this one. My guess is that Reese connected with Ellery—the chapters about the raw emotions tied up with the end of a marriage were captivating. That is the best part of the book, and I’d love if we got more tie in to that and closure. To me it read like Ellery was the detective, but not a participant in the main story. That led to a disjointed feel to the book.
I expect a lot of readers will enjoy this, particularly if you love a wedding-thriller and a locked room style mystery! Ellery’s backstory stole the show for me. It will be challenging for any reader to not feel for her as she navigates a major and unexpected life change.
