Goodreads and some other book bloggers tell me I’m in the minority on this one – but I just don’t care. The Last Romantics was a DNF for me.
I requested the ARC of author Tara Conklin’s newest novel in a moment of optimism. I hadn’t been able to finish her debut novel, The House Girl; the premise had interested me, but the writing fell flat and refused to suck me into its story. Still, I had hoped that my encounter with The Last Romantics would be different. The fact that it chronicles the lives of four siblings intrigued me, thanks to my love for The Immortalists and all its family drama, so I decided to give it a go. And, hey, it was a free book!
I started reading this novel before my concussion, but I had to put it aside early on when I was forced to stop reading for several weeks. As a result, I wasn’t able to finish the book and post a review by the pub date. Which I felt really bad about since it was an ARC, and the whole point of ARCs is to review books in advance of their pub dates. Since I failed in this mission, I eagerly picked The Last Romantics back up as soon as I was healed, ready to enjoy and eager to write a great review in order to atone for missing the pub date.
I was into the story when I started my pre-concussion reading – “the Pause” ordeal is pretty interesting and emotional – but by the time I returned to The Last Romantics, I had kinda forgotten who the characters were… and, kinda forgotten what had happened so far… aaand, I kinda even forgot which character was narrating the story of the four siblings. #Whoops.
This bookish forgetfulness is unusual for me; I’m no stranger to starting a book, putting it down for a few weeks, then picking up right where I left off without a problem. I could blame my little concussed brain for this mishap, but…I don’t think that’s it.
I did a little backtracking, caught myself up, and tackled the rest of the novel with renewed vigor. I was determined to keep going! But, the more I kept reading, the more I jotted down my thoughts about the story, and the more I realized, I really don’t like this book.
Then, I turned a literal page and exclaimed out loud, “Oh my god. I’m on page 148 and I’m only on Chapter 7?!?!” I had a bit of a flashback to when I tried to power through Unsheltered during my #DNFDecember, and I decided to call it quits with this particular read.
The problem is… there’s nothing about The Last Romantics that really makes it an intriguing novel. In fact, I’m not quite sure what the point of the story is. It seems like a lot of rambling on about family drama and dynamics, without any real hook to the story. Why do we care about these siblings? I really couldn’t tell you; none of them are particularly endearing. Is all this backstory going to lead somewhere? I read up to page 150, and I still felt like Conklin was nowhere near revealing why it’s supposed to matter.
And, I’m sorry, but what’s with the 2079 thing? Parts of the novel take place in “the present,” which seems to be some post-apocalyptic world set a few generations from now. It frames why the narrator is telling her story, but I don’t understand why the author chose a dystopian society in which to do this. It just doesn’t seem to fit well with the rest of the book. I obviously didn’t get far enough in the novel to find out if it has significance later on, but from what I’ve read in other book reviews, it seems other readers found this aspect puzzling, as well.
So…there you have it. My quasi-review of The Last Romantics. Should you read this book? Honestly, I have no idea. As I said earlier, most people seem to really love it, so there’s a good chance you might, too. Many compare The Last Romantics to Commonwealth, which was also a DNF for me. (I wish I had known about this comparison before I requested the ARC.) If you liked Commonwealth and The House Girl, I say give this new one from Conklin a whirl.
Have you read The Last Romantics? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Ha! I read through part of your review and said to myself “it sounds like Commonwealth to me”. And then kept reading and you said the same thing! Thanks for the warning. I didn’t care for Commonwealth so won’t be reading this. Thanks for saving me the time!
Glad I could save you the trouble! I got further along with this book than with Commonwealth, but still… neither seems to be our kind of story. 😁
I got a copy of this at a recent book swap and many people told me it is very good. I have not tackled Commonwealth as I DNF-ed Patchetts book Bel Canto. Great review….I now want to pick up The Immortalists just so I can see what you are talking about!
THE IMMORTALISTS took me a little bit to get into (almost 50 pages!) but I ended up LOVING it.