The People We Keep by Allison Larkin
Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school, picking up shifts at a local diner, she’s left fending for herself in a town where she’s never quite felt at home. When she “borrows” her neighbor’s car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that’s all hers.
Driving without a chosen destination, she stops to rest in Ithaca. Her only plan is to survive, but as she looks for work, she finds a kindred sense of belonging at Cafe Decadence, the local coffee shop. Still, somehow, it doesn’t make sense to her that life could be this easy. The more she falls in love with her friends in Ithaca, the more she can’t shake the feeling that she’ll hurt them the way she’s been hurt. As April moves through the world, meeting people who feel like home, she chronicles her life in the songs she writes and discovers that where she came from doesn’t dictate who she has to be.
I’m just gonna keep things short, sweet and to the point with this one….
This book just didn’t really do it for me, yall.
Part 1 was kinda cliche and predictable.
A teen girl with a hard life runs away, magically finds ways to survive, finds hip urban friends, things get shaken up and change…blah blah blah.
Part 2 WAS more interesting…probably because she was a little older and the story became a little more developed….but it did not keep my interest peaked.
I had sympathy for the main character—the poor chic had some shitty times—but in truth, I just didn’t LIKE her that much. 🤷♀️
I didn’t hate her or anything…just didn’t feel ANY kind of strong emotion for her.
There were some likeable supporting characters throughout the chapters, but I don’t feel like any of them were developed enough.
Maybe that was the point…IDK.
The pace of the story didn’t gel right with me either…slow in some parts, too fast in others.
My fave part of the entire book was the last chapter. I appreciated how it ended…but really couldn’t care for everything leading up to it LOL
Wasn’t too crazy about the narration either.
This was definitely a “meh” read for me.
Not a hard pass…but definitely a shoulder shrug.