THE WEDDING PEOPLE
“She is so good at predicting what will happen in books, so bad at predicting what will happen in life. That is why she has always preferred books - because to be alive is much harder.”
— Alison Espach, "The Wedding People"
Please note that this is a review for an ARC that I received from Henry Holt & Company via NetGalley. The books publishing date is 30 July 2024.
Set against the misty elegance of Newport, Rhode Island, "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach opens with Phoebe Stone, lonely, grieving, and accidentally mistaken for a wedding guest. But instead of correcting anyone, she stays. What follows is less a meet-cute and more a beautifully tangled story about what it means to lose yourself and maybe, slowly, find a different version of you on the other side.
The tone of this book reminded me of watching The Holiday at 1 a.m. in your softest pajamas, or rewatching P.S. I Love You and pretending you won’t cry again. It’s light and funny, full of quippy banter and wry observations, but beneath all that charm is something raw. Espach writes with such ease, but the feelings linger. And that’s my favorite kind of writing: the kind that surprises you by how much it matters when you didn’t even see it coming.
Phoebe is flawed and strange and familiar. She is the kind of character who makes sense in her contradictions. And the cast around her feels just as vividly drawn, like people you’ve met before but never quite knew. The pacing is gentle but addictive, and one early reveal had me whispering “what??” aloud and flipping pages at full speed.
As someone who works in the wedding industry, I found myself delightfully immersed in the chaos and tenderness Espach brings to these scenes. She doesn’t just write about weddings, she writes about what they stir up in us. How they unearth things we didn’t expect to feel. The longing, the grief, the tangled joy of watching someone else begin again when you’re still trying to heal.
And somehow, even with some heavy and difficult themes woven into the narrative, this story never buckles under the weight. It holds space for both ache and hope. It reminds you that healing doesn’t always look like fixing, but might just it look like showing up, awkwardly, beautifully, for your own life.
The ending? Not devastating. But tender enough to sit with you long after the last page. I cried the good kind of tears. The kind that feels like a release.
Content Warnings (minor spoilers): suicide, infertility, cancer, infidelity, death of a spouse.
Altogether, "The Wedding People" is an absolute gem that offers a vibrant and emotionally resonant experience, making it a must-read for those seeking a captivating contemporary fiction read. In recommendations, "The Wedding People" finds its place within women's fiction, appealing to those who already appreciate the genre of romantic comedies and dramas. If you love books that feel like a late-night phone call with your best friend, conversations that are honest, layered, sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrecking, this book is for you. I’m calling it now, I predict The Wedding People will be one of the standout contemporary novels of the year. As for constructive criticism, none applies; the book delivers precisely what it sets out to achieve, earning it a well-deserved 5-star rating.
Rating: 5 Stars
