I really enjoyed this book. It was about family dynamics and the dysfunction, love, and anger that is embedded in those everyday workings of a family. The Figgs could be our friends, our neighbors, or our own family-and for that, I fell in love with them and felt like they were already my friends. They would make the perfectly imperfect dinner guests where you just have to serve the food, and the entertainment is provided, free of charge :)

The Figgs is a fast-paced, sharp-tongued, lighthearted, but emotional story of the Figgs, husband Randy, wife June, and three grown children whom they wish would get out of the house so that they can enjoy their retirement. In the first few pages, this dream is squashed when the youngest, and supposed favorite child, Derek says he needs a ride to the hospital because he is going to be a father, to a son, with a girl he has never dated, exactly. This new addition to the family becomes a catalyst of sorts, allowing Randy to reveal a secret of his own, and for June to start thinking about her own parents. What ensues is a fantastic journey of revelation, emotion, and a genuine empathy for every family member.

The part of the book description that caught my interest was the comparison to Little Miss Sunshine, but as I was reading this, I kept thinking that this seemed a lot like Bob's Burgers after the parents had retired and the children were still living at home. Some of the wit and banter between the kids, especially while Randy is trying to have a serious moment or while June is being offended, kids that seem rotten on the outside but really have hearts of gold, reminds me of the three children on Bob's Burgers. This idea makes me love "The Figgs" even more, and quite honestly, this is one of the best, funniest, novels I have read in a while. I cannot recommend this novel enough. In fact I keep telling everyone I know about it. "The Figgs" is definitely worth the effort.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I want to invite the Figg family to dinner! Ali Bryan has created such a colorful cast with this novel that you can't help but laugh and cry with them as they cope with whatever comes their way. The characters seem so real with their responses to life in general, particularly when it harbors the unexpected. The Figg family - retired parents with three grown children living at home - is sarcastic, soulful and mostly tender, especially when the youngest son becomes an unexpected parent. Bryan has captured what life can be like - unexpected, but not unappreciated - with "The Figgs." By the way, I wouldn't be surprised to see this novel made into a movie. It's easy to picture your favorite comedians as the various Figgs.

Personally, I could not relate to the characters or any of the familial relationships. It was really a rather tedious read because just as you learn about one character and their drama, the next on pops up and brings an even more ridiculous plight to the mix. I tried to find the humor in the dysfunction but this one was not for me. 3.5 stars.

The Figgs is a story about a slightly dysfunctional, gloriously messy, family consisting of two retired parents, three grown boomerang kids (or rather kids that just don't seem to want to ever move out), one newborn, an ailing mother in a nursing home, and a few family secrets along the way. I'm pretty sure, even if the dynamics vary, that a lot of people could see the shadows of their own quirky families playing out in the pages of the Figgs. Wry, unexpected by times, and definitely heartwarming, this was a book I couldn't put down.

June, the matriarch, occasionally grated on me, much like my own mother (love you, Mom!), in her need to make her children's and husband's decisions and crises are all about her, and there were a couple places where I was sure the story had ended but the book went on a few more chapters, but overall it was an engaging, relatable, and humorous read.

I had to google Ali Bryan to see if she had a degree in family psychology or was a stand-up comedienne when she wasn't penning books because her characterization and deadpan humor is spot on! Now, I'm on the hunt for her first novel, Roost.

As soon as I started this novel, I almost gave up. The "pace" of the writing felt frenetic and a bit like watching an action movie from the front row. I was exhausted, and really not feeling anyone in this odd bunch. But then, I turned a page and things slowed and I started loving it. This family seems strange, but they are likely more real than anything you've read in a while. Overall a light, but enjoyable read. Thank you Net Galley and publishers for providing an electronic copy of this novel.

Well, I guess we are all dysfunctional but they are funny dysfunctional. Cute story and very easy to read. Well written. Will look forward to more books from Ali.

I admit that I went into this with one eye open, almost afraid that if I read it with my full attention, I would be disappointed. This comes from comparisons to This is Where I Leave You, which is a book to which I am leery of any comparisons.

On the one hand, Ali Bryan delivers a fairly original, pretty believable, entertaining family. The Figgs feel like people you could know. Yes, some of the stuff they endure in this book is a little fantastical, but the heart of the story is the relationships we have as parents and children, particularly when we actively choose those relationships as opposed to having them foisted upon us.

I liked June, even though her characterization is occasionally uneven. We're meant to empathize with her and choose her, yet sometimes we aren't sure why. Parts of her are developed so well and so fully, whereas others remain flat and static.

As for the central idea of parenthood, I did like how Bryan approached that. She understands the nuances of adoption, the trickiness and slippery-ness of those parent-child relationships. She also understands the push and pull between parents and their children, the need to be needed and the need to be autonomous and the sometimes awkward, sometimes simultaneous juxtaposition of those needs.

The Figgs are a family of 5: 2 parents and 3 grown children who all live at home. It seems that they are all stuck in roles they should have out grown. When one of the sons finds out he is going to be a father, that very same day, it is a catalyst for movement within the family. While I enjoyed the multiple looks at adoption and parenthood, the pace of the book was a bit off putting. Did the entire story take place in a week? A month? A year? It felt like it was a big run-on day. Likewise, character development seemed a bit stilted. I frequently felt that they reacted to each other in a very subdued and casual manner where something more was expected. It was easy to see that they all loved and supported each other, maybe to the point of being a bit unrealistic given the drama they were enveloped in.

Ali Bryan creates an all-too-believable contemporary family in <i>The Figgs</i>: June and Randy Figg, confused and loving parents; Tom, Derek, and Vanessa, adult children all, negotiating adulthood with halting success. June’s recently retired, Randy’s still working as a carpenter, both eagerly but ambivalently awaiting the departure of their children from their childhood rooms. Each of the five Figgs hold secrets from each other: an out-of-wedlock child; a brief, unwanted pregnancy; a lesbian lover; a remarkably generous present to a grandmother sunk deep into senile dementia; an addiction to especially weird pornography.

Bryan threads several themes throughout <i>The Figgs</i>: adoption as guilt and as mystery; parents’ disappointments with and fears for their adult children; the limits of parents’ knowledge and understanding of their adult children; those many secrets kept by all families, both individually and collectively; parents’ difficulties in trying to discern the reality of the adult child from the fantasy of the adult child refracted through the parental lens of ten or twenty years earlier.

Reading <i>The Figgs</i> may bring with it a an uncomfortable frisson of recognition: some readers may dismiss <i>The Figgs</i> and its five fictional Figgs and say, “not another novel about a dysfunctional family” or “I’m so glad that they’re not my kids”; some may say, “we’ve been through much worse with our kids”; and others may say—and I’m among them—that Ali Bryan has done an extremely creditable job of populating a family with ordinary people with ordinary troubles and ordinary joys. What’s notable about Ali Bryan’s portrayal of <i>The Figgs</i> is how she tells their individual and collective stories with both humor and empathy throughout. Reading <i>The Figgs</i> brought to mind an updated family comedy, easy to read and cleverly compressed into about three hundred engaging and amusing pages.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Freehand Books for providing me with <i>The Figgs</i> in return for an honest review, and the excellent CanLit site <a href=https://consumedbyink.ca> Consumed by Ink</a>for bringing <i>The Figgs</i> to my attention.

I was fully prepared to hate everything about The Figgs upon seeing a comparison made to This Is Where I Leave You. Good grief but those are some big shoes to fill. However, the combination of my love for dysfunctional families along with the admiration of whoever had the cajones to namedrop Tropper like it was nothing was too strong to resist. And now that I’m finished? Well, I am happy to report I feel nearly the same way about the Figgs as I did about the Altmans . . . (The only thing missing is a wicked crush on Judd.)

All June ever wanted for herself and her husband Randy was to be able to retire in peace – maybe sell the house and move someplace warm, or at minimum get to take that road trip she’s dreamed of her entire marriage. That’s been impossible, however, thanks to Tom, Vanessa and Derek – their adult children who still reside in the family home. We meet the Figgs as June is trying one last push to get the children to clean up all of their old crap and clear out of the house. Little does June know that rather than losing some family members, the house is getting ready for a plus one, in the form of Derek’s baby no one knew was even expected.

The remainder of the story is coming to terms with alllllll of their family’s history. Learning the meaning of Hakuna Matata as well as to "Keep Calm and Dance Like Nobody's Watching" while realizing that the Figgs might not appear as dysfunctional from an outsider’s perspective as they do from an insider’s.

ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

Life is not perfect, but can be really good anyway. That’s the overall feeling I got from The Figgs by Ali Bryan. I read an Arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review. Jane and her husband have reached retirement age, but are bogged down with grown kids still living at home. I think a lot of us middle agers can sympathize with Jane as she struggles to make her family become responsible for their own lives and worries about their happiness. Life is complicated by single parenthood, adoption issues and finding our way home. Sounds quite heavy, but was actually laugh out loud funny for much of the book. I really enjoyed it.

Fast paced and extremely funny but not a story that I enjoyed very much. Read very much like a sitcom and certainly would be suitable for that format. Chaotic family with adult children living at home and basically there’s quite a lot of stuff happening yet it gives the reader a sense of not moving but spinning in their house. Cute cover - netgalley read - publication date next week.

This novel about a family with all of its complexity just never took off for me even though I love stories about complicated and quirky families that are emotionally honest. It was an okay read, but it isn't one I would enthusiastically recommend.

This was good and there are many humorous moments where you can identify your own family and their quirky dynamics. June Figg and her husband have retired and are just trying to clean and clear out the basement, and get their three adult children out of the house. When one son announces he's expecting a baby with a girl he's had a casual fling with, he brings the baby home to raise as a single-parent - this signals the flood of circumstances in the Figg family where June realizes she will never be getting her motley crew out of the house. But is that what June truly wants anyway?

The Figgs is 95% told through straight up dialogue. I generally have issues reading books written this way - I like having more depth in the description and development of the story and the characters as I find it enhances and deepens my reading experience. It wasn't as annoying as I've found other books written this way to be, but it was very noticeable and lacked creating that depth in the characters and their stories for me.

OMG I love The Figgs!!! What a glorious, funny, heartbreaking, made me scream out loud laughing - then cry a little - book this is!

The Figgs is a story of a family, seeped in dysfunction and love, told from the viewpoint of the menopausal mom. The parents are finally retiring and yet, still house all three of their adult children in their childhood home. The author weaves topics such as adoption, single parenthood and gay themes into the storyline, and finds a way to make them human and humorous. The story includes road trips with reluctant adult children and all the "mom and dad can't do technology" situations you can imagine. And yet, it does it with authentic dialogue and emotion.
Well written, this book is an easy read, yet brings forth many emotions for the reader, and is relatable to many of us.
I would like to thank #NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review of the book, prior to publishing. A solid four stars for entertaining me and give me sincere laugh out loud moments.

Right from the very beginning, I realized this book was very different than most books I read, and had a tone that was refreshing and light. I used to read a children’s series to my kids about “The Dumb Bunnies” and this novel and these characters reminded me so much about those books, and I loved it. The humor was spot on, and I found myself laughing out loud throughout the entire read. It can also be compared to the TV series “Shameless”, but on a more innocent level perhaps.

Aside from the humor, I also enjoyed the tone, the characters, the storylines, but mostly the portrayal of the intricacies of family and it’s inner relationships. I do feel that it was missing something, but I can’t quite put my finger on what. Maybe it is more in line with a TV series than a complete novel? A promise of more to come, rather than having a solid ending?

Overall, I am going to provide a rating of a 4. I was leaning towards a 3, but upon reflecting, I am giving a higher rating due to the facts that I enjoyed reading it and wanted to continue reading it throughout. I would recommend it to someone if they were looking for an easy read, and if the reader enjoys silliness, quirky humor and hilarity, and an enjoyment of dysfunctional yet loving families.

Thank you to Netgalley and Freehand Books for the opportunity to read this book!

The premise of this story of a family's relationships was very interesting. I just felt that the characters were too flat for me to continue reading the story,

Unfortunately this read was just not for me. I tried until 1/2 way through and gave up. The writing was very good and funny as plugged but as the characters became completely bizarre it was less funny and more silly. Might be a case of it's not you, it's me - but I simply was not enjoying this book. Since I did not finish, I will not post my review on my blog or anywhere else.