Of course, this character – Astrid – had not done every single thing wrong. But, after watching someone she had known for 40 years get hit by a bus (literally), she suddenly faced the fact that she had made plenty of mistakes and had done things she had regretted. So now what? That’s the question the book begins to answer on page one. What should she acknowledge? Change? Forgive? This book is my favorite summertime novel of 2021 because it balances demons with comedy. Astrid is flawed, but not hopelessly. If she can find a way forward, maybe we can too.
Straub, Emma. All Adults Here. Riverhead Books, 2020, p. 332.