The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

The Guest Book sounded like my kind of book--a big, sprawling, multi-generational tale.But alas, I did not love this book. One, it was confusing. The story bounces around between generations of a family but there is no way to tell what time period it is until you get into the chapter. It would have been nice if the author had put dates at the beginning of each chapter. Two, it would also been good if there had been a cast of characters list or a family tree diagram at the beginning--because there are a lot of characters, some of them named after each other--which only added to the confusion. Finally, I didn't really care about the characters that much; they're really not a likeable bunch. So when tragedy befalls them, it doesn't have as much of an impact as it should.

To end on a positive note, the author does write descriptive passages very well.