Astrid Strick watches a school bus accident and suddenly remembers she wasn't the mother she thought she was. That's the premise, and honestly? It hit different listening to this at 4 AM while charting.
Look, I grabbed this one because I needed something that wasn't going to spike my cortisol after a rough shift. No murders, no medical emergencies, no one coding in the hallway. Just family drama. The kind where everyone's alive but maybe wishes they weren't at Thanksgiving dinner. I'd take this over Crime and Punishment any day when I'm trying to decompress.
The Stricks Are a Mess (And That's the Point)
Emma Straub writes families the way they actually are - messy, contradictory, full of people who love each other but also kind of can't stand each other. Astrid's three adult kids are all struggling in their own ways. Her youngest son's making parenting mistakes. Her daughter's pregnant but not ready to grow up. Her eldest is... well, he's the eldest. I felt that in my bones. (Being the ate of five siblings means I have opinions about birth order dynamics. Strong ones.)
The thing is, this book meanders. It really does. If you need plot-plot-plot, you're gonna be frustrated. But I drive 45 minutes home from the hospital at 7 AM, and sometimes I don't want a thriller making me grip the steering wheel. Sometimes I want to listen to fictional people work through their issues while I decompress from watching real people fight for their lives.
The thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend were my favorites. There's something about teenagers figuring out identity and truth-telling that Straub just nails. Made me think about my own kids. Made me think about what they'll remember about me in thirty years. (Great, now I'm having feelings in the Target parking lot.)
Emily Rankin Gets It
The narration here is warm without being saccharine. Rankin does this subtle thing where she shifts her voice slightly for different ages - you can hear when she's voicing teenage Astrid versus present-day Astrid. It's not dramatic character voices, it's more like... she understands that people sound different at different points in their lives. The pacing matches the book's vibe perfectly. Slow, but intentional.
I'll be honest - with this many characters, it took me a couple of drives to keep everyone straight. But that's more about the book's structure than Rankin's performance. Once I settled in, she guided me through it like a good shift nurse orienting a new grad. Clear, patient, but never condescending.
The emotional moments landed. There's this scene where family members finally start understanding each other, and Rankin's delivery made me tear up. Carlos asked why I was crying in the car. I blamed allergies. (It was not allergies.)
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Keep Scrolling)
My mom would love this. She's always asking me for books about families, about mothers and daughters, about what we owe each other across generations. This is that book. It deals with some heavy stuff - there's discussion of abortion, gender identity, family dysfunction - but Straub has this light touch. She doesn't lecture. She just... shows you people trying to figure it out.
If you want action, skip this. If you're the type who needs something happening every chapter, you'll zone out. But if you're coming off a twelve-hour shift where you've seen too much reality, and you just want to spend eleven hours with a fictional family that's working through their stuff? This is perfect.
Clocking Out
Night shift approved. Just maybe give yourself a few listens to learn who's who.
