After his astounding debut, "Did You Ever Have a Family," I opened Clegg's sophomore novel with trepidation. How could it possibly be as good? While in no way repetitive or derivative, "The End of the Day" is every bit as wonderful of a read as the first.

In both of his books, Clegg writes fabulous characters. Here, the three main characters' stories are intertwined in a story of friendship, love, tragedy, and redemption. Dana, a manipulative heiress, draws Jackie, a small town girl, into her orbit while Lupita, the help, watches enviously from the sidelines. Misunderstandings and missed communication set the stage for tragedy and provide the opportunity for the lone male voice in chapters that jump from character to character. The timeline moves from the women's late 60s to the beginning of Dana and Jackie's friendship as children, filling in the events between those times as it shuffles back and forth.

The writing, particularly in the latter half of the book, is incandescent. Clegg brings the relationships between the women together in a dreamlike sequence, contrasting water and fire, and leaving the reader breathless with awe. I reread these pages over and over, falling in love with the beauty of the writing.

When I wrote about his debut, I said I couldn't wait to read his second. It took four years, but the wait was worth it. Now, I can't wait for his third.

The End of the Day by Bill Clegg. Thank you to @netgalley and @gallerybooks for the opportunity to read and review this book before it comes out June 2nd.

This book is just wonderful. You know that stunning cover immediately sucked me in and between the richly developed characters and the beautiful writing, the read just continued to go uphill from there!

In the first few chapters we learn about a handful of different people living their own separate lives and by the end everything is connected. This is one of my absolute favorite writing styles and Clegg does a great job of gradually bringing things together.

I love that this book goes back and forth from the past to the present, filling you in just a little bit more each time until at the end when the whole magnificent story is laid out in front of you.

Clegg sure can write a character, y’all! 👏🏼 I loved how he dove into each different character’s psyche and showed how their past decisions lead them to their present situations. I know some people get turned off by too much character development, but not this girl. This book still keeps plenty of plot going to keep it well-paced though.

You find out pretty quickly (and on the dust jacket, no spoilers here) that an old secret is at the center of the story. Secrets often bring out the worst in people and this book does a fantastic job of juxtaposing poverty and luxury, innocence and manipulation, and most importantly truth from false assumptions.

When this comes out in June, you should definitely give it a read! Add this to your list because it’s a great one. 🙌🏼

The description of this book fell right into the type of family-drama-secrets revealed type of book that I always enjoy. This is also the first time I have read this author. The author knows how to tell a history of the main characters that allows the reader to feel they really know who they are: Dana, Jackie, Lupita, and Hap. Separate chapters for the characters, both present and past, bring the story to the conclusion and fills in the gaps of how each life has been entwined for the outcome. The story was well-written. That being said, I find that I had difficulty reading and sticking to the story as I read it. While the author’s attempt to bring the characters together, I felt myself slipping away from the story. Possibly because they all seemed so bereft of love for their family and each other in any way., that it was difficult to even like any of the characters or feel engaged in their stories. The writing was well-done; the story to me was lacking, and I’m sorry to say that as I looked so forward to reading the book. I receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Gallery Books in return for an honest review, which this has been. #NetGalley #GalleryBooks

Bill Clegg has a keen insight into human nature and treats his characters with compassion. His stories and prose touches my heart. I feel for his characters. Their hopes and dreams, their regrets, their pain, and the corrosive nature of long-held secrets and decisions can change lives.

The characters: Dana, Jackie, and Lupita were childhood friends but have been estranged for 50 years. Hap is a new father who discovers some disturbing news as his father lay dying. To understand how they interconnect requires some patience, but Clegg can and does bring it all together.

What Bill Clegg did so brilliantly in Did You Ever Have a Family he also does here: he writes beautifully about the inner lives of his characters and he slowly brings these seemingly disparate characters and stories together so that by the end you see the complete picture.

The story alternates between the present day and 50 years ago. The POV alternates as well between the different characters. The problem for me was I didn’t care much for any of them and struggled to maintain my interest in the story. It pains me to say this but while the writing is an easy 5 stars, the story itself was lacking. By the end, I was left thinking, so what? I need a person to root for and didn't find it here. It's not the author's responsibility to please all his readers, but for me, I found the characters and story lacking while absolutely loving the prose.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of Bill Clegg’s “The End of the Day.”

I had not read anything from this author yet, but was excited to dive into this book. I did not enjoy this as much as I thought. The amount of characters and underlying stories were, at times, hard for me to follow. It just fell a bit flat fir me and I felt like I was struggling to finish it as I just was not that invested in the story.

Thank you to Net Galley for an advance copy.
I read Mr. Clegg's *Did You Ever Have a Family,* and came away impressed and moved. This novel follows much the same format, for lack of a more elegant word: many characters, a lot of backstory and a few secrets.
Clegg's writing is elegant, and his insight into complex relationships fascinating. We meet most of the main characters when they're in late middle-age, and it's poignant to share their experiences of looking back, and evaluating (or reevaluating) their lives.
For many readers this is more than enough. It isn't for me. I need to want to know what happens next, and through most of *Day* I wasn't all that curious. The title itself sums it up: At the end of the day, it will all come together, and you'll know what you want to know. In *Family,* there was enough suspense to keep me going, but here it was too long a wait.

I am sure this book is said somewhere, but 20% in and there isn't enough information to keep me invested to find out what it is. I enjoy a book with an element of suspense, but not at a snail's pace. To me a book like this needs to be fast paced to keep me interested in turning the pages. This book was just too slow for me personally.

I loved Bill Clegg’s Did you ever Have A Family so I was very excited to hear he had a new novel . The novel is about three different girls from very different socio economic classes and how their lies eventually intertwine even after many years ..The novel is beautifully written and emphasizes how one decision in your life affects you and others for a lifetime

A solid work of fiction - I enjoyed the book throughout, but thought the ending fizzled a little. It left me wanting a stronger end to it. Other than that, I found the storyline increbily interesting and loved seeing how all the characters tied together.

Bravo! This is one of those books that pulled me in and would not set me free until I’d finished the very last page. Bill Clegg is a masterful storyteller, weaving many disparate characters into his narrative and tracing the paths that link them all together. I once heard a literary agent say that “every good book is a mystery,” and while this book falls more into the literary fiction category, it is also a wonderful mystery unfolding through beautiful use of language. I will now definitely read Bill Clegg’s NYTimes bestseller, “Did You Ever Have a Family.”

This is a beautiful book about the ties that bind us. It's a story about friendship, life's curve balls, secrets, and healing. While we may not fully like each character, they are relatable in their actions and that is what I appreciated the most. I don't think this book will be for everyone - it's a bit tough at first to keep the different characters straight with their extensive backstories. But once you're "in it", I think you'll appreciate the depth of this tale.

THE END OF DAY by Bill Clegg is a beautiful, sweeping look into a group of people and how, with secrets and betrayals, their lives are inexplicably changed. Across the hours of one day all comes to light in a series of flashbacks interwoven effortlessly into the story.

It’s absence of love that shapes the individual characters of THE END OF DAY, whether it was love not given or love not received. Lupita, the young immigrant that lives with an abusive father and has too few people she can confide in; Dana, who loves best friend Jackie to a fault, but receives no love from her parents; Jackie, who single-mindedly pursues the man who becomes her husband and abandons Dana to do this; Hap, who feels guilty that he had not loved his father and stepfather enough to know who they truly were and Alice, whose secret is the catalyst that starts the book.

Told from the third person omniscient point of view, this character-driven story is heavy with each characters’ thoughts and feelings, shaping each character as someone that readers can empathize with. Themes of immigration, LGBT relationships, and classism are handled with care, making THE END OF DAY a book both relevant and engaging.

While it took a couple of chapters to truly engage myself in THE END OF DAY, I quickly reached the place where I couldn't put it down. In so many ways this book resonated with me, including the idea of regret for things we did when we were younger. As we age it is regrets, in particular, that way heavy on an individuals and Clegg captured this brilliantly.

4 Stars for THE END OF DAY!

Descriptive writing and well-defined characters and a story that spans a lifetime... friendship, secrets, redemption. while I was intrigued by the description of the book and even the early acclaim, I will admit that it wasn't my cup of tea - I'm not sure if it was the tone or the pace, but I found I kept getting distracted and I skimmed. I didn't connect to anyone or really care about them in the least. That being said, the author does bring life to his words - I could see, I could smell, I was in the moment... but as a whole, it didn't resonate with me, unfortunately.

4.5 stars
The End of the Day is a complex story of five people spanning multiple decades, weaving them together a bit more with each passing chapter while jumping back and forth through time.
While I found it a bit slow and confusing at many parts, I really enjoyed this book. The author's style is as smooth as velvet and makes me want to curl up in it like a soft comfy blanket. He gives the characters such a unique depth and presence that I felt at times like I was watching a movie instead of reading a novel.

I loved this author’s last book so I was excited to read this one, only to discover that it just didn’t work for me. Too many POV with characters I didn’t like and didn’t care about. I did a great deal of rereading due to difficulties following the character lines - for me it didn’t flow and seemed almost messy. A little twist at the end, but by that time I really wasn’t interested. There were some passages that would grab my attention in a good way, but not enough to make me recommend this book to friends.

Thank you to Gallery Press and NetGalley for the ARC ebook.

I found Bill Clegg's first novel, Did You Ever Have a Family, moving, and looked forward to the opportunity to read The End of the Day. The author tells a domestic drama of friendships and family in a way that I enjoyed - several characters and storylines intersecting, while the reader wonders how they will all come together. There are secrets in the past of all of the characters, secrets they have kept and that have been kept from them. The consequences of these subterfuges have lifelong effects, even if some of them seemed to be inconsequential at the time. Don't let the brilliant bursts on the cover that look like fireworks fool you because there is really sadness and ruined lives contained within, but it is still a compelling story.

Thank you to Gallery and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book.

It’s taken me 14 days and I never got into this book. In the beginning just when I started liking a character the book switched to another character that had unknown connections with each other. Although I liked reading the characters I wasn’t interested in what happened next. I just wanted to finish the book so I could get the review done and move on to the next read.

I have not read this author before so I don’t know that I would like his other works or not but I must assume he is good or he wouldn’t have made it past the front desk.

This book went back and forth in time. Usually I enjoy reading books like that but this time I had a very difficult time following the story. I couldn’t keep track of the characters and never got a good feel for any of them. The writing was good but the story just didn’t keep my attention; way too confusing. I found the ending lacking, I went back and read it twice and still couldn’t tie it all together. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

As I read this story, I thought, "What a perfect example of literary fiction." This story is extremely character-driven and rather slow-paced when it comes to action. However, the plethora of intricate descriptions of the setting conveyed a strong sense of place. There are quite a number of characters to keep track of, but each of them have an important role in the story that is slowly unveiled.

The book shifts between the perspectives of a number of important characters, each one explaining the momentous moments in their past that shaped the course of their lives. As the narrative progresses, the connections between the people and the events are revealed, and the motives and reasoning become much clearer. The characters were relatable, but did not make a huge impact on me. Their individual developments over time were conveyed in a very realistic manner.

This book is well-written, with descriptive but not overly flowery language. Although there were slower sections of the book, the overall reading experience is a pleasant one.

Bill Clegg bases <i>The End of the Day</i> on triads: three girls, three families, three backgrounds and classes, and three generations. The three girls: Dana, rich and often manipulative; Jackie, tenuously connected to the middle class, often pathetic; and Lupita, immigrant Latinx working class, resilient, and ultimately noble. The three are intertwined as children and as teens, in ways that they know and in ways that they don’t know. In <i>The End of the Day</i>, the three look back to their childhoods from about fifty years out, unhappily rediscovering their connections and sometimes discovering their own histories.

<i>The End of the Day</i> is intricately plotted, sometimes too intricately for this reader, and usually fluidly written. Clegg sometimes skillfully evokes time, place, and class experiences, even on small points: he nails the class and religious sorting of colleges and college aspirations in 1950s and 1960s New England. To Clegg’s credit, he doesn’t try to explain away or excuse his characters and doesn’t strive for making them likeable. Clegg portrays some relationships affectingly, such as his touching portrayal of Mo and Alice. Fans of Clegg’s <i>Did You Ever Have a Family</i> will likely cheer the release of <i>The End of the Day</i>.

3.5 stars