Being a huge fan of Daniel’s Lemony Snicket series I was very excited to read this one. His adult novels do not disappoint. I found the characters in this story to be extremely three dimensional. It had me giggling but there is also a very interesting element to this story that made me turning the pages.

Did.Not.Finish. I love the work of Daniel Handler, but I couldn't seem to find him in this book. Still, I'm not writing it off forever. I will give it another try another day.

Thank you to netgalley.com for this ARC.

I very rarely give out 2 star reviews, but I had a lot of difficulty getting through this book. I am a fan of the Lemony Snicket books and was excited to read an adult book by this author. However, the book seemed very disjointed and I had a difficult time following what was going on. All the characters seemed overly flawed and I didn't like any of them. The story jumped around a lot and some of the descriptions were too over the top for me.

Wish I had liked this more...

I had looked forward to reading this book as I'm a fan of Handlers children's stories. Sadly, this one just missed the mark for me. It's just not a great story. I expected a quirky tale, but this wasn't even that. Nope. Not for me.

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing on August 27, 2019

Novels about marriage (as opposed to romance) seem intended to persuade readers to remain single, which in my experience is good advice. Bottle Grove merges a giddiness of romance theme with a suffocation by marriage theme and adds a bit of crime to darken the plot. The overarching theme is that nothing remains static, no matter how much you might want your life to be untouched by change, a theme that is summarized in these lines: “You meet people and you tell them stories. You meet someone, you marry them, and they’re not part of the story you’re in. They are it. You’re the same story and it changes, every living day, you can never, never keep up.”

The story involves two married couples but it begins with two single men. Martin Icke and Stanford Bell own a bar called Bottle Grove in a place called Bottle Grove, a wooded area in San Francisco. The novel Bottle Grove is set during the height of the dot com years. A couple of wealthy characters work in the tech industry, early developers of the phone technology that allows phones to be tracked, making it possible for obsessive husbands to keep an electronic eye on their wives’ travels.

The story starts with a wedding at the bar. Martin meets Padgett, a drunken waitress supplied by the caterer. Stanford meets Reynard, a philandering vicar who disappears after a drunk driving accident. The groom is Ben Nickels and his bride is Rachel, who watches Reynard’s fiancé Nina scream at Reynard during the reception and wonders how much time will pass before she is screaming at Ben. He has not seen her true self because if people saw each other’s true selves before marriage, they would never wed. Rachel’s hope is to continue deceiving Ben “even, especially, when I want to tear my own eyes out and cannot sleep from trouble.”

Martin and Padgett are only together for a few days before a fellow known as the Vic intrudes on their budding relationship. The Vic’s life has intersected with Rachel’s in a depressing way that ties the stories together. Oddly enough — although it turns out to be not so odd at all — Martin is undisturbed by the Vic muscling in on Padgett. After all, Martin’s bar needs an infusion of money and the Vic has a lot of it, even if it is mostly the pretend money that fueled the dot com days. Martin suggests that Padgett move some of the Vic’s money in Martin’s direction. “She stands up then and there it is, plain in front of her, the two of them and how desperate they are.”

Bottle Grove is a novel of snappy dialog and witty prose. The main characters have complicated personalities. Shallow characters lurk in the novel’s background as comic foils. Rachel (complicated) comes into the bar twice a week to complain about Ben (foil), who needs an app to remind him to be spontaneous. Reynard is like Jekyll and Hyde, both shallow and complicated as he ghosts through the story. Nina is a shallower version of Padgett, with whom she bonds over alcohol and her need for the security that (she believes) only a husband can provide.

Readers who do not like a book unless they like the characters should probably avoid Bottle Grove, as the characters tend to be self-centered and ethically challenged. Some are impulsive, some drink too much, most are barely in control of their lives, except for two tech moguls who control everyone else. None of the characters are admirable but they are recognizably human, doing their best to keep up with a rapidly changing world.

The story is dark, sometimes suggesting that horrors lurk just over the horizon. The plot moves forcefully, surprising the reader with sudden changes of direction, looping in ways that define new and unexpected relationships between the characters. Unpredictability is both the novel’s strength and the antidote to stagnation. Life is always changing in unexpected ways. The novel argues that even if the changes are not always positive, people who embrace the inevitability of change will never want it to end.

RECOMMENDED

"A razor-sharp tale of two couples, two marriages, a bar, and a San Francisco start-up from a best-selling, award-winning novelist.

This is a story about two marriages. Or is it? It begins with a wedding, held in the small San Francisco forest of Bottle Grove - bestowed by a wealthy patron for the public good, back when people did such things. Here is a cross section of lives, a stretch of urban green where ritzy guests, lustful teenagers, drunken revelers, and forest creatures all wait for the sun to go down. The girl in the corner slugging vodka from a cough-syrup bottle is Padgett - she's keeping something secreted in the woods. The couple at the altar are the Nickels - the bride is emphatic about changing her name, as there is plenty about her old life she is ready to forget.

Set in San Francisco as the tech-boom is exploding, Bottle Grove is a sexy, skewering dark comedy about two unions - one forged of love and the other of greed - and about the forces that can drive couples together, into dependence, and then into sinister, even supernatural realms. Add one ominous shape-shifter to the mix, and you get a delightful and strange spectacle: a story of scheming and yearning and foibles and love and what we end up doing for it - and everyone has a secret. Looming over it all is the income disparity between San Francisco's tech community and...everyone else."

San Francisco and a shape-shifter? Did someone read my dream book combination?

3+ Quirky, peculiar, and patchy at times. But Bottle Grove is oddly compelling, with a great atmospheric vibe.

This is the story of two marriages. It's also the story of a spirit, and a wood, and money, and technology, and desperation, and choices, and San Francisco.

The book is well-written. It pulled me along and I couldn't stop reading. I'm at an exact right time and place - I'm closer to my ten-year anniversary than to my wedding, and we have a three-year-old. Personally I had a harder time emphasizing with the hard-drinking lifestyle at the beginning but it was very realistic to the uncertain and unmoored 20s many people I know traveled through.

This book has some level of ambiguity to it. It was nice to read a book that didn't hold my hand and say, here, this is who is right, this is who is wrong, this is how to feel. But unlike so many stories that pretend to ambiguity, the end is not lost in such a fog of ephemerality as to be nonexistent. There is meat on the bones of this story. I recommend it.

I had high hopes for this book because of the writing talents of Daniel Handler. However, I was disappointed, perhaps because the bar was set too high due to A Series of Unfortunate Events.

As I read, I found myself not caring about anyone or what would ultimately happen to them. I kept reading, until the very last page, because I was hoping and expecting it might develop more — the story, the characters and/or the relationships. But it never did. I neither felt invested in the story nor did it matter to me what happened next or at the end. I didn’t feel like I got to know any of the characters well enough to care. They all seemed rather selfish, entitled and self-absorbed.

At times, I found myself re-reading paragraphs several times because I was confused. Nothing seemed to flow - the story, the characters or the relationships. The story-telling felt disjointed at times leading to more confusion.. There were some great metaphors throughout the book but the writing was not up to par to what I expect from Daniel Handler.

Bottle Grove never lived up to expectations and while they may have been high, this book fell very far short.

Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Disappointing.

I enjoyed Handler’s We Are Pirates despite the mixed reviews it received and assumed that I would similarly enjoy Bottle Grove. Unfortunately, the book is all sass and no plot, and it simply isn’t funny enough to succeed as witty banter purely for witty banter’s sake.

It’s not that the book doesn’t have a point - it does. It’s just that said point is lost in a sea of inane and endless dialogue that overshadows the story’s purpose.

Handler’s mind is certainly a clever one, and there are plenty of bon mots in the book that will make you smile. But much of the humor gets repetitive and simply can’t overcome the flatness of the plot.

I am a fan of Daniel Handlers Lemony Snickett series and now I’m a fan of his adult novel Bottle Grove his quirky engaging look at Two marriages one for love one for greed and this quirky tale drew me right in,#netgalley #bloomsburybooks

This novel wasn’t for me, not my style. Story about two marriages, mainly wives. Book seems to be chaotic and confusing, I lost myself few times and I didn’t know what I was reading. It picked up on the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Who we're with, why we're with them, what it does to us to be with them and what it means to be with them, that's what I think this book explores. In Daniel Handler's lyrical style with a breakneck speed you're introduced to a trove of characters who are likeable but kind of jerks, well meaning and well flawed. I found myself staying up late, not wanting to put it down, and squirrelling away quotes that went straight to the heart of so many matters. One of Handler's best.

I loved this. I don't have much else to say so I'm going to repeat myself. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this. I loved this.

I'd never read Daniel Handler's work before this, so I was really excited to give Bottle Grove a try. I enjoyed his quirky writing style for the most part, but at times it seemed forced, which just cluttered up an already messy story. And a dark comedy about relationships is typically my kind of story, but I couldn't relate to or sympathize with any of the characters. Bottle Grove drew me in at the beginning, but eventually the disjointed flow and unlikeable characters made me lose all interest.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Many folks I know were really into the Unfortunate Event Series. I was looking forward to reading Bottle Grove. The first ten to or so pages were strong and engaging and then... As the adage goes, if you can't say anything nice... To be a bit more specific, the book was atmosphere without depth. I can't recall much other than it took place in San Francisco and there was a lot of wasted time and lack of storytelling. This was a disappointment.

I received an ARC of Bottle Grove from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. This book...was a bit messy and at times, hard to follow. I expect quirky from the author, Daniel Handler, but this was a little more out there than his other books. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve picked up of his, yet this one fell flat.
The back and forth storylines were difficult to follow (I attributed this to the fact that the copy I read was an ebook - maybe a formatting issue that will be fixed in a hard copy).
I wanted to love this. Yet, I found myself skimming paragraphs and not enjoying the story all that much. Mr. Handler’s book, “Adverbs” is my absolute favorite book of all time, so it was a shame that I didn’t find myself enjoying this.
When it’s published, I may try again. Mr. Handler has a very unique talent and a beautiful way with words, which is why I’m willing to re-read it when it comes out in a hard back form.

Thanks again to Netgalley, the publishers and Daniel Handler!

I love Daniel Handler's children's books, which are just brilliant. I have never read any of his adult novels before, but I did assume that his general writing style would be the same - full of clever plot twists, sharp writing, and sarcastic wit. Unfortunately, I am sorry to say that this book was just confusing and hard to follow.

The book keeps reminding us that this is a story about two marriages. You do need to be reminded, because it's hard to care about the marriages or think of them as central to the story. There are two marriages, and the wives are main characters in the book. The husbands need to be in the story to advance the plot, but that's all. Two other main characters are single, but are cut from the same rough cloth as their married counterparts. Some are darker than others, but all are basically just bored, selfish, and self-entitled people.

I didn't care about the marriages, but I did want to understand the foxes. They were very important. It seems to have something to do with the nature of men...and the nature of technology... and something to do with Japanese folk tales...and something to do with modern urban legends that I'm guessing were made up just for this story...and maybe how San Francisco is a dark place underneath the overpriced surface. Or maybe the Japanese folktales were convoluted in translation and this is an ironic statement against cultural appropriation. I just don't know.

To give credit, I thought the very end of the book was much more clearly written and served to tie a lot of loose ends together (although a lot was still left hanging). That chapter might have been fleshed out into a good short story instead of a novel. I appreciate the advance copy, and I'm sorry that I could not leave a better review. The book was just too muddled and disconnected for me.

2.5 - 2.75 Stars

If you have read even one of the Lemony Snicket books, then you know Daniel Handler is a talented writer with a quirky, unique style all his own. I loved those books, and I was anxious to read this one.

The story opens on Rebecca and Ben's wedding ceremony. Family and friends join the newlyweds for their reception in a park on the edge of San Francisco called Bottle Grove park. The celebration turns into an outrageous fiasco when Reynard, the officiating vicar, is caught in a compromising situation with someone other than his fiance' Nina. What follows is a huge blowout, leading to a questionable car accident where Reynard suspiciously goes missing.

Then We meet Padgett and Martin. They are a couple going in opposite directions and just don't know it. Martin owns the town's watering hole -- a bar Handler christened "the Bottle Grove." In financial trouble and sinking fast he thinks he has the perfect plan. He wants his to use his girlfriend as bait to siphon money out of a wealthy man and into his bar. The catch? His girlfriend is even sneakier and greedier.

Unfortunately, Handler's style did not translate well when paired with the Bottle Grove narrative. There were sections where his true talent would shine through; then sadly it would be followed by slow, boring dialogue. This book was confusing. I found myself reading and re-reading sentences, passages, even entire chapters in an attempt to wrap my mind around what was going on. I often felt what the author was trying to convey through dark comedy and satirical dialogue was "lost in translation." A story set amid the tech boom. A time when the division between the haves and the have nots was deeper than ever. These characters are not very likable, making it difficult to care about or connect with them. It felt to me like a lot of ideas were thrown at the reader in hopes something would stick. Love, marriage, cheating, money and how far people will go to have it. Plus a shape-shifter for good measure.

I love Daniel Handler, but I could not lose myself in Bottle Grove. For me, it was a jumbled mess that in no way represents this talented author's ability to entertain readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me a courtesy digital copy of Bottle Grove.

I want to start off this review with the disclaimer that I am not someone who usually picks up Literary Fiction. With that being said, I would like to apologize in advance if that makes me review "invalid".

The story itself, from what I understood, was about two couples and the many obstacles and shenanigans they go through and how they're intertwined. Then there's a side character that only cares about making sure his bar is successful, and wants nothing more than to acquire money and wealth. In the midst of all that, there's a character that can shapeshift? I just finished this book not too long ago, and haven't had the time to really dissect it and find meaning in every little thing. But from face-value, I didn't understand half of the things that happened in the book.

I am not entirely sure I understood the plot/meaning of the story. I understand it's meant to be satirical, so that could play into my misunderstanding of it. It took me a long time to get used to the writing style. I actually had to restart this book twice because I was lost and not paying attention to the beginning, or had misunderstood what was happening.

This brings me to my next point, this is a book where you HAVE to pay attention to every word, and where the punctuations are placed. To me, it felt like it was written as if spoken in conversation, rather than written word. It's definitely something I am not used to.

There were some enjoyable, easier-to-follow parts in the book that made sense, but then you're quickly reminded of the parts where you might have to reread the scene multiple times before you come to understand what's happened, or what the author was trying to convey.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, I apologize to those of you who are avid Literary Fiction readers, and would probably enjoy this book more than I did. I feel like I'm not giving it the review it deserves, but maybe that will help those who aren't familiar with the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.