The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Summary from Amazon:

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs' joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.

This is a story about the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, the ways we depend upon one another and the ways we let one another down.

My Thoughts:

The Nest follows a year in the life of the Plumb siblings; Leo, Jack, Bea and Melody.  They are all struggling in the own ways through life with career, family and of course, money problems.  The one thing they have all been using as a way to get through these struggles is The Nest, a trust set up by their dead father that is to be a bit of a financial boost for them once all four siblings are in their forties. 

The problems start the summer before they are due to inherit.  Leo, the eldest Plumb, gets himself in a bit of a situation and people must be paid off in order to “make this go away.” Their distant and horrible mother decides the money in The Nest will go towards this and all the other siblings must wait for Leo to pay them back.  This, as you can imagine, does not go over well.

Since the debut of this book people have been raving about it so I added it to my June Book of the Month Club box.  I can honestly say that Ms. Sweeney is a very good writer and she creates wonderful characters that you will absolutely despise.  The Plumbs are not nice people! They are greedy, self-absorbed, conniving and completely clueless in how to deal with real life.  There are few redeemable people in this book and no one to really root for but I read every last word!  Why? I honestly cannot say other than maybe I just had to know how all the Plumbs ended up dealing with this mess…a bit of comeuppance was truly in order.

I cannot say that this is a high rated book for me because I couldn’t connect to any of the characters at all but I did enjoy disliking them a great deal.  I think this was well written and a great story to show how money can truly ruin your life even when you don’t have it and also that sometimes we have to make our own family because not always can we rely upon our blood relatives. 

3/5 stars

Author's site: www.cynthia-sweeney.com