Publisher: The Dial Press,  March 14, 2023

Format: Paperback 

Pages: 416

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary (From Goodreads):

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

My Review:

Read if you like: Character-driven stories
–
The book follows William, Julia, and Sylvie as they navigate the complexities of life and relationships. This book is tough for me to review. The first half of the book was so boring for me but I persisted as this was my choice for book club and I knew it was on so many people’s favourites lists. Some interesting things do happen and the plot starts to pick up but I still struggled to get through most of it. And then I ended up bawling for the last 30 pages and just couldn’t stop. The ending was sad but beautiful and I appreciate the author’s writing skill but just couldn’t get past the beginning.
–
Some things that I did appreciate: the complexity between the sister’s relationships and how most characters handled mental health and the struggles/journey people go through.
–
The worst was the character of Julia though. She was just terrible and I couldn’t believe how she handled some of the events in the book.