Bug Hollow

by Michelle Huneven

A decades-spanning family saga featuring the messy but loving Samuelson clan trying to make sense of the world after the loss of their son Ellis

When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother Ellis went missing the summer he graduated high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture in the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but died in a freak accident weeks later.

From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep. Each Samuelson has sought their own Sybil Samuelson pours herself into teaching and numbing her pain after the loss of her beloved son; her husband, Phil, had found respite in a love that developed while he was working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia; Katie, the high achieving middle Samuelson, comes home to try and make peace with her mother after a cancer diagnosis. And Sally has become the de facto caretaker to Eva, the child Ellis never knew.

Michelle Huneven is “known for five enthralling novels, which chronicle the lives of middle-class Americans in her lushly conjured native California, as her characters struggle with addiction, excruciating romances, and resounding losses as they continue to seek meaning and a way to be good” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). She captures the Samuelson clan with glorious precision and the deepest empathy as they fracture and rebuild again and again.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Family, Family Drama, Adult

286 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2025

About the author

I am the author of four novels.

I was born in Altadena, California just a mile from where I live now. I college-hopped (Scripps, Grinnell, EWU) and landed at the Iowa Writer¹s Workshop where I received my MFA.

My first two books, Round Rock (Knopf 1997) and Jamesland (Knopf 2003), were both New York Times notable books and also finalists for the LA Times Book Award. My third novel, Blame, (Sarah Crichton Books, FSG, 2009), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and also a finalist for the LA Times Book Award. My fourth novel, Off Course, (Sarah Crichton Books, FSG, 2014), is coming out April 1, 2014.
Along the way, I’ve received a GE Younger Writers Award and a Whiting Award for Fiction. For many years my “day job” was reviewing restaurants and writing about food for the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly and other publications. I’ve received a James Beard award (for “feature writing with recipes”) and an assortment of other awards for food journalism.

I’m presently teaching creative writing to undergraduates at UCLA and writing the occasional bit about food. I live with my husband Jim Potter, dog (Piper), cat (Mr. Pancks), and talkative African Grey parrot (Helen) in Altadena.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compelling family story…one that where the loss of a family member echoes through the lives of the rest of them through the generations.
Each section focuses on a different family member.
I enjoyed it.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t be fooled by Michelle Huneven’s warm welcome. She can be just as capricious and brutal as real life. Her new novel, “Bug Hollow,” begins with a perfectly calibrated bit of domestic comedy set during a golden summer in the mid-1970s. Ellis Samuelson — the sweetest, smartest son any parents could ask for — has just graduated from high school and driven off on a week-long road trip with some buddies.

The first intimations of trouble start dripping in when his friends come home and report, “Ellis decided to stay away for a few more days.” Apparently, he met “some girl” on a beach near Santa Cruz. More time slips by. Ellis doesn’t return for his job as a camp counselor, but a few postcards suggest he’s having a blast working at an ice cream parlor. “I’m extremely happy here,” he writes, “so please don’t worry.”

Yeah, right.

“I knew we shouldn’t have let him go off like that,” his mother, Sib, says. “One fast girl on a beach and he’s a goner!” A straight-A kid with a full scholarship to Ole Miss: What if he doesn’t come back in time for college? “Something’s fishy.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” his father says. “It’s high time he gave us something to worry about.”

Not to be dissuaded, once Sib learns Ellis is camped out at a place called Bug Hollow in Boulder Creek, she throws everybody — the dog, too! — into their VW van, and they barrel off to....

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Bug Hollow was pleasant enough. It’s about the Samuelson family and their relationships as viewed over a period of about 50-years. It was funny, it was sad, it was touching. The disappointment, though, lay in its predictability, which I found to be a huge letdown. I did consider DNF-ing it, but I always held out a tiny bit of hope that it might yet surprise me. 🙁It did not. And though I’m not a fan of books that leave me with more questions than answers, neither do I enjoy books that tie everything up in a neat little bow!🎀 This book did that, and left me kind of wondering why I’d even bothered.

But please don’t let my review influence your decision to read it, or not, because most readers quite liked the book. It’s simply my opinion, alone, that…

“... once–it–becomes–predictable–no–one's–interested–anymore” 🥱 3-stars ⭐⭐⭐

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bug Hollow is a family saga, following the Samuelsons as they grapple with the unexpected loss of their son and brother, Ellis, and how this tragedy, along with other choices made, impacts their lives in the decades that follow.

Primarily set in California, there is some back and forth, from past to present, and each chapter focuses on a different character. It wasn’t confusing and I enjoyed reading various perspectives and learning more about each person involved in the story.

Bug Hollow is my second book by Michelle Huneven and I can confidently say, I am a fan! Her writing is engaging. I was very interested in the complicated dynamics of the Samuelsons. This was a great family saga — 4.5 stars

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the first chapter a lot. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there for me. I might have liked this more if I had been expecting a series of short stories about interrelated characters. I expected a cohesive story, however, so I was disappointed. The characters are multi-faceted and complex, but the reader doesn’t live with any of them long enough to really get a sense of who they are. I got to the end of the book and still didn’t understand the rationale behind many of the unconventional, unkind, or self-destructive decisions made by the characters.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book except don't pick it up if you are easily offended by the sanctity of marriage being broken in some way, that happens a lot. I liked this and devoured it in just over one sitting. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be thinking about it, but consider it great summer reading.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout vibes. I loved it.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories in this book were not cohesive. As soon as I settled into a storyline there was a jump to something different. We didn’t get to see character growth with all the time jumps. I didn’t like it.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kind of engaged in it, but it lacks the introspection and sadness I was expecting from the set-up. It was more of a story about what happened but not how it felt.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A college freshman goes missing one summer and it’s what happens after he returns home that flips the Samuelson family life on its head. Tragedy, family dynamics, begins in the 70s and spans over the next forty years. I loved so much I read in one sitting. Pub. 6/17/25

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published June 17, 2025.

3 stars.

This award winning author (including the James Beard award!) brings a tale about the Samuelsons, a family in Altadena, California (which made me very sad.) Sally was eight, her sister Katie, 14 and her golden boy brother, Ellis was seventeen the summer Ellis disappeared for the summer. It was after he graduated from high school and just before he was headed to Ole Miss on a baseball scholarship. He had gone on a trip with some high school friends and just didn’t come back.

Turns out he had been living at a group home. His parents found home through an ad in a newspaper, went up, met his girlfriend and brought him home. But he was still in love with Julia, a college student who was, after their two months together, pregnant. But neither she nor Ellis knew that before he headed to Oxford and died, just days after his arrival.

When Julia discovers her pregnancy she goes to the Samuelsons to see if they want to raise the baby. They do, but after their two death of Ellis, each member of the family is damaged. This is the story of a family dealing with grief.

I enjoyed this but wonder how much I’ll remember about it long term. This is one I might change my rating on. Katie and Ellis are mostly ciphers here. I enjoyed the portions set in the Middle East.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focuses on the Samuelsons, and the lingering impact of a family tragedy. Phil is a project manager for an engineering firm. His wife Sibyl is a teacher. They have three children – Ellis, Katie, and Sally. It reads as a series of episodes, focusing on one family member at a time, as they experience life’s ups and downs. Do not go into this book expecting a story of a 1970s commune. The titular Bug Hollow, a dilapidated house in the California countryside, only appears in the initial episode and one other. The characters grow and change in a time frame that covers almost fifty years.

I had previously read Huneven’s wonderful novel Search, which set my expectations very high. Unfortunately, Bug Hollow seems very similar to other books I have read whereas Search was unique. I enjoyed the first half, and found it reasonably enjoyable as family dramas go, but it feels a bit “cobbled together.” I liked it but tend to prefer a more flowing narrative. At any rate, do not let my review put you off. Some of my friends have given it 5-stars.

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m happy to give this 3.5 stars but I’m not rounding up.

Here is a case of a story that does not match the cover or the title. So I have a small feeling of being duped. Worse is that the first chunk most certainly matched the cover and title.

And then we take maybe an abrupt turn into the rest of the chapters almost being those interconnected essays like Olive Kitteridge. Which this worked for Olive but here seems like an afterthought.

I think the author can write really nice characters but I didn’t get to know any of them up close. Most annoyingly, I wish she could have stayed with Sally. In the beginning, Sally had Scout Finch vibes.

This book is a read alike to Amy Poeppel books and Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful. If you like those than maybe this. For me, she had elements of both but they didn’t quite measure up to these other authors.

Overall, not a bad read but not one I’m hugging to my chest either.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 2 out of 5]

sid was just awful. a review described her as prickly & i object to the word as it minimizes her actions. i can't think of a time that i disliked a character more. i even gave this an extra star because it takes talent to write such a character. otherwise this was fine. i'm not sure it succeeded in emotionality or depth which is odd given this is about kinship & connection.

quick thoughts: sid was awful before ellis died. i don't believe she acted as she did because of grief. the chapter about mrs. wright left me deeply confused. did i miss that she was a central character? i also struggled to believe phil samuelson would have an affair (even knowing his wife was so difficult). he was way too passive!

this could have been so much better.

[Georgina Krotje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Penguin Press for this Advanced Reader Proof.

This would be a great book for people who are a fan of Claire Lombardo or Ann Napolitano.

A generational family drama, that hits on grief and complicated family dynamics. Huneven is a skilled writer and I felt connection to Sally especially. The first half of the novel was especially gripping.

If anything, I wanted more from this novel- a deeper dive into the characters, rarely a book should be longer but I think this is one of them.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If your family tree looks more like a bramble than a post oak (like mine), then this novel is probably for you. Or, if you are an only child from a long line of only children, spending a few hours with the Samuelson family of this story, encapsulating decades and generations, sheds joyful light on how lovingly crazy families can be made.

Huneven consistently writes fully human characters in stories that can be enjoyed by everyone from teenagers to grandpas.

[Holly R W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet the Samuelson family. This book is a montage of short stories about their lives though the years. It grew out of the author's writing stories from prompts that she had given her Creative Writing students in her college classes. While they are short stories, the book reads like a novel.

Key characters are:

Sybil Samuelson - Mother - tightly wound, perfectionist, secretly alcoholic, and complicated. A gifted elementary school teacher who has more empathy for her students than her own children.

Phil Samuelson - Father - Warm, loving, generous with his family. A civil engineer who travels to Saudi Arabia on assignment and finds himself attracted to a woman there.

Ellis Samuelson - 18 year old son - "A" student, top athlete, never giving his parents a moment of worry - In the summer before college , he takes a road trip with his buddies and decides to stay in "Bug Hollow," cutting off reasonable communication with his parents.

Katie Samuelson - 15 year old daughter - rebellious and surly with her mother - Like Ellis, she has a minor role in the book.

Sally Samuelson - 9 year old daughter - Artistic, creative and sensitive - she is a wonderful character who is easy to relate to.

Eva Samuelson - Infant - Adopted, will have a special aptitude for math. She will eventually reconnect with her birth mother, who happens to be Ellis' former girlfriend.
=====================================
I enjoyed my time getting to know the characters. The book comes across as a collage of their lives. My only quibble is that huge sections of their lives were glossed over, due to the way it was written.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I prefer a chronological story, rather than jumping back and forth through many years with the same characters. And, because the story shifted POV from character to character, I didn’t feel invested or close to any one character.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half stars, almost five, for this charming family story .

[hhitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book, and I have not read anything from this writer before. The writing is rich and vivid, and the story spans decades. It sounds sprawling, but it was surprisingly easy to follow through time and space. I didn’t want to put it down.

The book begins during the 1970s in coastal California and centers on the Samuelson family: the parents, Phil and Sybil, and their three children, Ellis, Katie, and Sally. Ellis, the teenage son has just graduated from high school and takes a road trip. He ends up meeting a woman in a hippie community called Bug Hollow, and from there, everything changes for this family.

What follows is ten interconnected chapters that take on the POV of different characters. It felt to me sort of like an Elizabeth Strout novel but on the opposite coast. The characters experience much of what plagues us in life—strained relationships, issues related to addiction, loss of love. She writes about their conflicts with care and empathy. I was so emotionally invested in each one.

Highly recommend this book! I plan on seeking out more of Michelle Huneven’s novels. Also love this book cover!

[Seawitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a few moments where I thought this family saga was getting very lost, but I was wrong. Sure, it took some turns, but then it all was put neatly in order and the turns made sense.

I don’t like spoilers and it would be easy to spoil parts of this story were I to start explaining too much.

Suffice to say, a family has its moments of closeness, drifting, pain, loss, and change.

I loved Huneven’s Search and enjoyed a few of her other books well enough. This was not quite Search, but still interesting writing about characters I cared about.

[JoAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded up

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite genre is family literary fiction that spans decades, stories centered around a single pivotal event that shapes the lives of everyone involved. Bug Hollow is exactly that kind of novel.

Set in the mid-1960s, we’re introduced to the Samuelson family just as their world begins to shift. Ellis, on the brink of leaving for college, vanishes into the Santa Cruz mountains, and what follows is the family’s desperate search for him.

What happens next is best discovered through reading, as the story unfolds in unexpected ways. Michelle Huneven masterfully captures the evolution of a family grappling with loss, growth, and the quiet rhythms of everyday life. Her prose is deeply affecting, and the passage of time, sometimes feeling like mere days, sometimes like whole lifetimes, is handled with subtle, powerful pacing.

My only critique is a particular subplot that felt somewhat out of place, momentarily diverting from the book’s central focus. Still, it didn’t detract too much from the overall impact.

Bug Hollow left a strong impression on me, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of Huneven’s work.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely little gem of a novel.

[Leigh Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I loved this book and read it in one day. I liked how each chapter focused on a different family member and segment of life. I cannot imagine the author’s work in creating so many detailed storylines but making them all fit together. Beautifully done. Giving it 4 instead of 5 stars simply because I didn’t agree with some of the choices the characters made. But, I know that we are all flawed too, and beauty can and does come after our mistakes!

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

81st book read in 2025

This novel just wedged its way into my heart and soul. It is only the second book I have read by Michelle Huneven, but both times she has affected me deeply. She lives in Altadena, a suburb of Los Angeles and right down the road from me; also the site of one of the terrible fires here earlier this year, where many homes were burned to the ground, though fortunately not the author’s.

Bug Hollow is the name of a summer retreat where the eldest son of a family spends weeks, falls in love and finds himself happier than he has ever been. Which he has good reason for as his family is not particularly happy. Learning why that is so was the charm of the novel for me, which is told in an episodic form, almost like connected short stories.

Michelle Huneven has a huge heart and possibly an overload of empathy for people, for the underlying issues that complicate relationships and the unexpected upheavals in relationships between husbands and wives, sister and brothers. It is the complications and upheavals which drive the novel and the results of them which lift it almost to the unbelievable.

I read this with one of my smaller reading groups. There are just three of us and we each had widely divergent reactions to the book. Of course, that made for a great and interesting discussion!

[Andrea Gagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book, sweet and a bit emotional. A study in family: how do we build a family, how do we maintain a family, and how do we continuously redefine family through the grief of loss, unexpected growth, shifting dynamics.

The book follows the Samuelson family over several decades, each chapter a jump forward in time a few years, and each written from a different family member's perspective.

The first chapter is written from eight-year-old Sally's perspective the summer her big brother Ellis runs off to a communal house in Northern California nicknamed "Bug Hollow."

As we move through time and perspectives, we gain nuance into the family that we first meet through a child's eyes - the grumpy teenage sister, the short-tempered mom, the nice but always working dad, and others who grow the size and complexity of their family.

The characters were so well written, and I loved gaining new insights into each of them as time passed. They felt unique, layered, flawed but well-intentioned. Genuine.

This is my second read from Michelle Huneven, but it won't be my last.

4 stars

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bug Hollow is a vivid portrait of a family that begins in 1970's California that spans decades to the present day. Without giving too much away, this novel reads almost like a collection of interconnected short stories, with each chapter focusing on different family members whose narratives slowly weave together to create a more complex family picture.
If you like a book that is very character driven, this will be your jam. Huneven crafts complex and quirky characters that feel authentically human, and her writing had me hooked from page one. Just a really lovely and well done novel.

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michelle Huneven's latest novel, Bug Hollow, delivers a profound meditation on loss, love, and the intricate ways families rebuild themselves after devastating tragedy. This multigenerational saga centers on the Samuelson family, whose world irrevocably shifts when their golden boy Ellis drowns just weeks after graduating high school, leaving behind a pregnant girlfriend and a family struggling to comprehend their new reality.

Huneven, acclaimed author of Round Rock, Jamesland, and Blame, demonstrates her signature ability to excavate the complex emotional landscapes of middle-class American families. In Bug Hollow, she crafts her most ambitious work yet—a novel that spans decades and multiple perspectives while maintaining an intimate focus on how ordinary people navigate extraordinary grief.

The Catalyst: Ellis's Brief, Shining Summer

The narrative begins in the 1970s when seventeen-year-old Ellis Samuelson disappears after graduation, eventually turning up at Bug Hollow, a ramshackle commune in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Huneven's portrayal of this countercultural haven feels authentically lived-in, capturing both its genuine appeal and its inevitable transience. Ellis finds happiness there with Julia, an art student two years his senior, but their idyll ends tragically when he drowns in a quarry pond at Ole Miss, just as college life was beginning.

This opening section establishes Huneven's remarkable ability to render the specific details that make characters breathe on the page. Ellis emerges not as a saint memorialized in death, but as a recognizable teenager—gangly, earnest, and searching. His brief summer of freedom becomes the novel's emotional anchor, the paradise lost that haunts every subsequent chapter.

Multiple Perspectives, Singular Vision

Bug Hollow unfolds through interconnected stories focusing on different family members across several decades. Each section reads like a complete novella while contributing to the larger mosaic of family life. This structure allows Huneven to explore how trauma reverberates differently through each person's experience:

Sib Samuelson channels her grief into teaching, becoming a fierce advocate for overlooked students while battling her own demons with alcohol
Phil Samuelson maintains his gentle steadiness while harboring secrets from his engineering work in Saudi Arabia
Katie struggles with her role as the achieving middle child, eventually becoming a psychiatrist
Sally emerges as the family's emotional caretaker, particularly devoted to Eva

The novel's greatest strength lies in how Huneven renders each character's interior life with equal empathy and complexity. No one is purely victim or villain; everyone is trying their best within their limitations.

The Ripple Effects of Secrets

One of the novel's most compelling threads involves the revelation that Phil fathered a son, JP, during his time in Saudi Arabia—a secret that emerges only through a DNA test decades later. Huneven handles this potentially melodramatic plot device with characteristic restraint, focusing on the emotional rather than sensational aspects of such a discovery.

The introduction of JP and his integration into the family demonstrates Huneven's skill at showing how families can expand and contract, adapt and survive. Rather than treating this as a crisis, she explores it as another form of the unexpected gifts and burdens that shape family life.

Julia's Journey: From Grief to Acceptance

Perhaps the most psychologically complex character is Julia, Ellis's pregnant girlfriend who makes the difficult decision to give birth and then place Eva with the Samuelson family. Huneven traces Julia's evolution from grieving young woman to successful businesswoman with remarkable nuance. The relationship between Julia and the Samuelsons—particularly the tensions with Sib and the bonds with Sally and Eva—feels authentically complicated, free from easy resolutions.

Julia's story also serves as a meditation on motherhood itself: what it means to love a child enough to let them go, and how maternal feelings can persist and evolve across decades of separation.

The Art of Everyday Details

Huneven's prose shines in its attention to domestic minutiae that reveal character and create emotional resonance. A green plastic tumbler becomes a symbol of Sib's hidden alcoholism. The family's elaborate camping trips reveal both their closeness and the pressure to maintain happiness. Sally's work sewing custom blinds provides a metaphor for how we frame and filter our view of the world.

These carefully observed details accumulate into a vivid sense of place and time. Huneven captures the specific texture of middle-class California life across several decades, from the countercultural optimism of the 1970s through the more cynical prosperity of later years.

Themes That Resonate Across Time
The Weight of Sibling Relationships

The novel explores how sibling dynamics established in childhood persist and evolve throughout life. Sally's devotion to Ellis's memory and her surrogate maternal relationship with Eva illuminate how family roles shift in response to loss.

The Complexity of Maternal Love

Through Sib, Julia, and Sally, Huneven examines different models of motherhood—biological, adoptive, and chosen. Each woman's relationship with children reveals different aspects of nurturing, sacrifice, and fierce protection.

The Power of Art and Creativity

Multiple characters find solace and expression through creative pursuits—Julia's early painting, Sally's textile art, Eva's scientific curiosity. Art becomes both refuge and communication, a way of making meaning from chaos.

Minor Criticisms and Considerations

While Bug Hollow succeeds admirably in most respects, some readers may find the episodic structure occasionally disjointed. The time jumps between sections sometimes require reader patience to reconnect with characters after significant life changes. Additionally, certain plot threads—particularly those involving secondary characters like Mrs. Wright and her relationship with Linda—while beautifully written, occasionally feel tangential to the central family narrative.

The novel's length and scope may also challenge readers seeking a more tightly focused narrative. However, these minor concerns fade beside the book's considerable achievements in character development and emotional authenticity.

Final Verdict

Michelle Huneven has crafted a deeply satisfying novel that honors both the devastating power of loss and the remarkable resilience of human connection. Bug Hollow confirms her position as one of our most perceptive chroniclers of contemporary American life, offering readers a rich, emotionally complex experience that lingers long after the final page. This is literary fiction at its finest—ambitious in scope, intimate in detail, and ultimately life-affirming in its vision of family as both burden and blessing.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was too bright and easy- everything fell together like a 50 piece large size puzzle.