Okay, so here's my complaint: why does no one warn you that a 15-hour audiobook about friendship and envy is going to make you feel feelings about your own life choices? I did not sign up for that. I signed up for entertainment during Sophie's nap time, not an existential crisis about whether I peaked in college.
But here we are.
The Slow Burn That Actually Burned
The Interestings follows six kids from arts camp through decades of their lives, and look - this is not a fast book. At almost 16 hours, it took me nearly three weeks to finish. That's a lot of school drop-offs and a LOT of sitting in my garage pretending I don't hear Lucas asking for a snack through the door. But Meg Wolitzer does this thing where she just... gets inside your head about friendship in a way that's almost uncomfortable.
Jules, the main character, spends basically her whole life comparing herself to her more successful friends. And I'm sitting there in my minivan thinking about my old coworker Sarah who's now VP of Marketing at some fancy startup while I'm googling "how to get dried yogurt out of car upholstery." Thanks, Meg. Really needed that mirror.
The book jumps around in time a lot, which honestly I was worried about. My brain is Swiss cheese these days - I can't remember if I gave Sophie her vitamins this morning, let alone keep track of whether we're in 1974 or 2009. But somehow it works? Wolitzer drops enough context clues that even when I came back after being interrupted by Emma's Very Important Question About Whether Unicorns Can Swim, I could pick right back up.
Jen Tullock Made Me Care About People I Wanted to Shake
Here's the thing about these characters: some of them are deeply annoying. Ash is that friend who has everything and somehow still manages to seem humble about it (the worst kind of successful person, honestly). Ethan becomes mega-famous and wealthy and it's just... ugh. But Jen Tullock's narration made me care about all of them anyway.
She's got this conversational quality that feels like your smartest friend telling you gossip about people you both know. Each character sounds distinct without her doing weird voice tricks - it's more about the energy she brings to each one. Jules sounds perpetually slightly exhausted and self-aware, which, same. Ethan sounds like he's genuinely nice but also kind of oblivious to his own privilege. She nails it.
I will say there were a few moments where the emotional scenes felt a little heavy-handed in the delivery. Like, I get it, this is sad, you don't need to lean into it quite so hard. But honestly? Those moments were rare, and mostly the narration lifted what could have been a really dense literary novel into something that felt alive.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
Let me be real: this is not a quick, breezy read. It's not beach vacation material. It's the kind of book that asks you to think about your own friendships, your own ambitions, your own quiet resentments. If you need something lighter between heavy listens, Murder in an Irish Village is my go-to palate cleanser—cozy mystery, zero existential dread. (And yes, we all have them. Don't pretend you don't.)
If you're in a phase where you just need pure escapism - maybe skip this one for now. Come back when you're ready to feel complicated things about your own life while folding laundry.
But if you're like me and you miss having time to read actual literary fiction but now your brain only has capacity for audiobooks consumed in 20-minute chunks? This works. It really does. I listened at 1.25x and it was perfect - kept things moving without losing the emotional beats.
My book club would love this. If I ever had time for book club again. If book club was still a thing and not just a group text where we occasionally send each other memes about being tired.
The ending isn't a neat bow, which I appreciated. Life doesn't wrap up neatly, and neither do these friendships. It's satisfying in the way that feels true rather than the way that feels manufactured. Made me a little teary at pickup, not gonna lie. Worth it though.
Survived 47 pauses and still made sense. High praise from this mom.
