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The Lotterys Plus One

Emma Donoghue,

Caroline Hadilaksono (Illustrator)

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Jun 08, 2017 Debbie is on Storygraph rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-grade, contemporary-fiction, 2017, library, audio-book

I listened to this while spinning the most gorgeous skein of yarn from two braids of dyed combed top. So gorgeous, in fact, that multiple people at the yarn store asked if I sold my handspun.

I'm talking about what I was doing while listening to this book because the spinning was honestly more enjoyable than the book. This was a bit of a mixed bag. The narrator was fantastic and had a very unique voice for each of the characters and it was perfect. The narrator alone saved the book from a two-st I listened to this while spinning the most gorgeous skein of yarn from two braids of dyed combed top. So gorgeous, in fact, that multiple people at the yarn store asked if I sold my handspun.

I'm talking about what I was doing while listening to this book because the spinning was honestly more enjoyable than the book. This was a bit of a mixed bag. The narrator was fantastic and had a very unique voice for each of the characters and it was perfect. The narrator alone saved the book from a two-star rating. I will definitely be looking out for more audiobooks narrated by her.

The actual content of the book... Well. It seemed like Donoghue took a "everything including the kitchen sink" approach to show just how weird, and quirky, and accepting, and liberal the Lotterys were. The family was a huge mash-up of biological and adopted children of differing circumstances, the parental unit were actually two same-sex inter-racial couples, they homeschooled all the children (without an actual curriculum), and had strange names and words for everything. They didn't have a car, ate vegetarian, and all the children had plant names. It was as if Donoghue went, "What is the liberal dystopian hell that gives the far-right nightmares?" and incorporated all of that into this fictional family. And then there was Grumps, aka Ian Miller, aka one of the dad's father who moves in with the lottery because of early-stage dementia. And he's grumpy and disapproving, and Sumac, the narrator, is having none of it.

I found most of the characters completely annoying, with Sumac being particularly selfish and bratty. Many times I wanted to just yell at her to grow up and think about someone other than herself. Instead of finding the Lotterys lifestyle quirky and charming, I just found it over-the-top and felt like Donoghue was trying too hard.

And the ending felt a bit too neat because Sumac all of a sudden had a change of heart and Grumps was okay with her. A little too quick to that realization, given the entire book previous of selfishness.

And lastly, Brian, who was transgender and despite saying he wasn't a girl, was referred to as a "she" throughout the book because he hadn't specified a preferred pronoun. Which just seemed lazy and sloppy. Given the pains the author made to describe how accepting the family was, I find it really hard to believe the parents didn't have a conversation with him after he declared he wanted to change his name. It just seemed weird and odd and out-of-place.

But! The audiobook narrator saved the day and it was a delight to listen to her read the book and affect distinct voices and accepts for each character. I need to find more of Thérèse Plummer's narrating work because it was fabulous! ...more

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Apr 01, 2017 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: old-reads, mt-bookpile-2016-2020

Cute. And very obviously so: Donoghue is trying very, very hard to appeal to a middle grade reader with a love of puns. The diversity is wielded with a heavy hand and doesn't feel (to this reader) at all natural. Still, this is a relatively clever update on books like The Saturdays and that's not a bad thing at all.

ARC provided by publisher. ...more

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