Synopsis (From Netgalley, the provider of the book to review)
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A vivid and moving portrayal of the intricate web of relations and fate in a small New England town told with interlocking storylines in a unique and mesmerizing voice of uncommon power in this debut novel.

It is May in the tiny hamlet of Glenville, Vermont, bringing with it currents of rejuvenation and rebirth. For 3 families, though, the year ahead will prove to be a roller coaster of life-changing events, promises, and tragedies.

Liquid, Fragile, Perishable unspools via a chorus of unforgettable voices: an old-school Christian beekeeping family and newly transplanted New Yorkers; a trio of teenage girls and a deeply rooted family of ne’er-do-wells; and one woman who just wants to live alone in the woods. The shifting set of relations among the citizens of this community encompasses teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, poverty—and a cavalcade of thwarted dreams, young love in bloom, and poignant missed connections.

This powerful debut is a subtle and beautiful story about the interlocking relationships among the residents of a small town out of Sherwood Anderson or Thornton Wilder—but with a very contemporary set of problems ... By turns sexy, shocking, and wistful, this coruscating debut conveys the hopes, the sadness, and the secrets of a whole great world.

Told in a vivid style of complete distinction, the novel has magic and momentum all its own, giving a look into the aching, silent heart of America.

This is a very small town filled with a lot of weird interactions and even weirder people – I had a really hard time reading this book, though. My mind would wander as I just could not keep my attention…so I skimmed and scanned the rest of the book. Maybe for book clubs but not for a casual reader as it is very incohesive as a novel about intersecting families.

MEH … 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
#shortbutsweetreviews

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really get into this book and I think it was primarily the format of the text itself into tiny 1-3 line chunks instead of paragraphs. It was a bit of a jarring reading experience and I think if it was a bit more traditional I wouldn’t have had such a difficult time getting through it.

I also think that it was a bit scattered between perspectives and stories to the point where the pinnacle romance didn’t really grab me in any meaningful way.

One positive was that the author definitely knows how to paint pictures of scenery and build a lot of different characters, but I would like to see it all a bit more focused. Not a good or bad read, just average I would say.

To be frank, this book was confusing. As a woman from New England, I thought I would enjoy this book for that sole reason. The book was written well, but I think the author was tackling more than what the story could handle.

Wonder what life in a really small NE town might be like from multiple points of view (teens, adults)? Then this novel can fill in some of how it feels - from the lowest of the lowly criminally inclined families to the well-off incomers from NYC to the everyday people struggling to keep food on the table/heat on in the winter. Then there were the kind ones who helped their neighbors because that's what you do in a small place. Most of the characters were very realistic and well developed, especially the creepy guy who watched people from the woods. Great title too.

Update: although the novel continued on in the same manner as the first half, I ultimately did not care to keep reading this story so wound up skimming the last half to find out how it ended. In a different frame of mind and with two weeks to read it I am sure I would have a very different opinion.

First day opinion::
Not sure if this novel will be a DNF for me but at 48%, I am already skimming/skipping whole pages. The plot is interesting but the repetitive 'woe is me' from many of the characters is getting old. I get it already. Still, I want to know how people end up and if they can make better choices than they seem to be making now.

Once I saw the reference to Thornton Wilder I knew I wanted to read this book. Our Town is one of my personal faves. This book didn't quite hit me like that one did but I can see how the comparison can be drawn. Small town life, issues with the young people, older folks aging and passing away. Overall I liked what Kuebler crafted. I'd probably pick this up again at a later date to read once more. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Four stars.

Liquid, Fragile, Perishable weaves a story of a number of crisscrossing relationships among the residents of a small town in Vermont. At first glance the title seemed to refer to the liquid, fragile, and perishable nature of honey -- the product of one of the main character's prized bee farm. But as we dive deeper into the story we realize it is a double entendre and refers to darker situations the characters themselves must extract themselves from. Liquid, Fragile, Perishable explores a lot of themes and really encapsulates small town America. For me as a reader, I really struggled getting through and reading the book. I did not feel like I was ever drawn to read the novel. There were so many characters that I couldn't really follow the relationships or feel any sense of attachment to any of them. In a way I suppose that's what it's like following the events in a small town. Another reader would likely really love this & I would recommend especially for fans of family dramas and small town narratives.

Thank you to Melville House Publishing / Melville House, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

BOOK REVIEW
Liquid, Fragile, Perishable by Carolyn Kuebler

This beautiful cover is what immediately drew me in. I mean, just look at it? It’s STUNNING.

I stayed for the small town familial expectations I had for this novel. Set in small town Vermont, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable follows 3 families and the journey their stories take to intermingle. Here, you have a new family that just moved into a small town, families that have been around for years, old school Christian families, and young love.

Kuebler is an excellent writer. She does an amazing job of bringing together the small town feel: the gossip and the drama where everyone knows everyone, the community during hard times. And as someone who grew up in a small town, it all felt very familiar.

That being said, with all of these families getting their stories told, character development wasn’t as in depth as I would have liked. I would have looooooved to have gotten more on Honey and Will (no spoilers!!—you’ll have to read it to find out ;) ). I loved learning about the small town dynamics, but the lack of real character depth was a miss for me.

Despite this, I really enjoyed reading this novel. Carolyn Kuebler, in her debut, crafts an objectively beautiful story and I would eagerly read more of her work! Carolyn Kuebler makes her debut next year with an expected release date of May 7 2024.

Thank you netgalley and Melville House Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Rating 3.5 Stars

"Liquid. Fragile. Perishable" has the title and cover to draw the reader in with an intriguing plot of two young adults whose worlds collide.
Honey, is a young teenage girl from Vermont raised on a beekeeping farm and Will is a teenage boy from New York. Their story is told through the perspective of others and at times, I feel that the overall plot was lost through the multiple voices and would have loved to have heard more from Will and Honey. There is a beautiful story buried beneath and with more character development for Will and Honey this could be an incredible story that feels is lacking in being told in its entirety.
Overall, this was not a quick read and is one that I would pick up between other books. I never felt the "itch" to stay up all night to journey into the world of Honey and Will. I would love to see the author revisit these characters and grow their story by taking out other characters and allowing them to speak for themselves.

A subtle, slow character driven debut novel by Carolyn Kuebler.

We spend around 12 months in small town Vermont with a range of characters narrating their year. A New York family moved to the area, a Christian Beekeeping family, an Inn Keeping family, a living on the edge family - whose teenage children form a strong bond. Cover off teen pregnancy, drug abuse, poverty and memory. I loved the story, but it took me half way through the book to understand the character linkages and some of the stories remained too untold for me.

Beautifully written, but lacking complete story arcs. I feel like I meandered through this book in a leisurely 10 days, I did want to pick it up each evening and see how lives progressed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Melville House Publishing for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Liquid, Fragile, Perishable
Carolyn Kuebler

I was very intrigued by the premise of this book
and the interesting cast of characters. A young teenage girl, Honey, raised on a beekeeping farm in Vermont by evangelical parents meets a boy, Will, one summer who is new to town and straight from NYC. Two different worlds colliding. Her folks, his folks, their small town life banging up against his family’s urban history.

But unfortunately, this intriguing storyline was only minimally explored and wound up feeling like it really wasn’t about them or their love relationship. Big opportunity missed!

Their story unfolds via many different voices, and while I could see the appeal of telling a story of how Honey and Will’s situation was perceived by others, it was confusing and unsatisfying for me. There was never enough in depth character analysis or time to get accustomed to each character’s voice. I wanted more of each persons story! But i appreciated the fact that Kuebler’s writing was strong enough to make me
want more!

The supporting cast was oddly the main cast because we barely heard from Honey or Will. Every couple of pages there was an abrupt change to a new voice, a different time, often days, weeks or even months later. Kuebler gave us two other teenage girls that were friends of Honey, their parents, multiple siblings and side characters including a postal worker and a random lady named Nell and her love interest Len who barely interacts with the rest of the characters. It was just too much and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who was who and where we were in the story. It was distracting and frustrating.

I did appreciate that the writing quality is truly good enough to pull you into to each person’s interior world and get you invested in their lives. I loved the unique voices and different age ranges. That is talent to paint so many diverse characters well enough to draw you in.

Yet by doing too much, this book did too little. I honestly enjoyed the characters but they were too underdeveloped and not fully linked in to the main storyline. One character, Cyrus, has zero involvement with Will or Honey and their story arc. He’s full of angst and interesting story angles but his story is put out there for us and then never told. He’s just left swinging in the wind at the end! so frustrating! Truthfully Joanne the postal worker and Cyrus’s characters could be cut completely so more of Sophie, Eli, and Sarah’s story could shine.

Also, I would suggest better headings and a way to make the timeline and character changes less jarring. I struggled to follow the changes.

When I read a book, I want to take something away from it that made me think or let me live the life of a person I’d never meet. This book almost got there and absolutely Kuebler has that special something to paint a world in high def that makes it come alive. With better organization, less characters and more unification, I think this book could have gotten there but just didn’t in the end.

In the small community of Glenville, Vermont everyone is connected. Told with multiple voices over a year we watch as this small town and it’s residents move and change with the seasons and the uncertainty the future may hold.
If I could sum this book up in one word, melancholy. There is definitely a strong presence of global environmental changes. The feeling of being stuck despite trying to move ahead. An impending sense of something bad coming. There are no dramatic changes in emotions or feelings, everything stays around the same general melancholy.
Which sort of sums up how I feel about this book, don’t love it, don’t hate it, it’s fine.
Thank you to @netgalley and @melvillehouse for letting me review this book. It hits shelves May 7 2024
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I truly wanted to love Carolyn Kuebler's "Liquid, Fragile, Perishable," but I ended up disappointed. The narrative's complexity, especially during narrator shifts, left me confused, and it took me until the book's 80% mark to truly engage with the plot. However, I must commend the author's beautiful writing style, which was the sole reason to why I finished the book.
I have decided to give "Liquid, Fragile, Perishable" two stars because while the plot fell short of expectations, the book's redeeming quality lies in Kuebler's beautiful writing, which motivated me to finish it after all.