I had a lot of problems with this book, but I'll just say the one thing I haven't seen written about by other reviewers.

I love a good found family storyline, but I didn't love the tone deafness of Paulie, a white character from a not-at-all-marginalized population whose family tree is extremely accessible, calling wanting to know about your ancestors "evil." There was no discussion or consideration of how Black, Jewish, and other groups whose family histories were purposely erased through slavery, genocide, etc, would actually very much like to know their family trees but can't (at least not without a ton of money or the help of Henry Louis Gates).

It's very nice for Paulie (and I'm guessing the author) to decide that found family is more important, and for some people that is true, but Paulie is coming from a place of enormous privilege, and I wish that were at all acknowledged.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc!

i requested this purely for the cover, and i ended up being a bit disappointed. lovers of drama-filled reality television will probably enjoy this. i didnt like the talk about american politics. i didnt disagree with paulie’s opinions, but i found the way she talked about politics annoying. i just found her annoying and unlikable in general. i couldnt tell if she was supposed to be unlikable or not. i was glad the end was happy, though, even if it wasnt quite what i expected