Status Updates From Keya Das's Second Act

I don't want this story to end

Slower start than i expected, but enjoying it, waiting to get into the ‘meat’ of the story. Definitely hearing that message “be sure your loved ones know you care”…..

This book is impossible to put down.

Why am I still reading this? Hell if I know. Initially there was a silly but mildly diverting major storyline and an unbelievably poorly written secondary story line. Those came together, forming a conglomeration of underwritten (or possibly simply boring) characters, TERRIBLE dialogue, and absurd plot. Also, the director of the play they stage makes Margo Channing look like a subtly drawn has-been.

This is becoming a hate read. Other than the rules for musicians looking for orchestra jobs on Broadway and the experience of having a birthday at Medieval Times not one thing in this book has held a whisper of truth. Deb appears to have no understanding of humans and how they interact. Everyone behaves like they are on a reality show or some horrible Netflix original. Does no one research anymore?

This is moving from not good to bad. The primary story is a little meh and a lot improbable but it is not unpleasant. There is a second storyline which is the backstory of the romantic interest of Mitali (the daughter in the primary family) which is so relentlessly clunky and over-the-top and poorly written and stupid it is sapping the tiny bit of charm the main story had going for it.

So far pretty standard "women's fiction" with middle-class characters living through family disfunction and the effects of grief in America. The difference: These characters are 1st gen Hindu Indian American when generally these books focus on white Christian or Jewish families. I may be a bad judge as this is not my preferred genre. I am not swept away and so far there is not an original or insightful thought.

“…we are all just buying time. Some of us just have more money to play with than others.” ooooof

IM SOBBING. LIKE ITS SO GOOD BUT I WEEEP