I usually read ARCs a little closer to publishing date but I love Steven Rowley’s books so I could not wait. All of his books are different but all are quirky funny and touchingly emotional. The Celebrants is also different, it is funny but less quirky, and more touchingly emotional. It’s kind of like a new generation Big Chill without the great soundtrack. After the unexpected death of a friend at the end of their senior year of college, the remaining five make a pact to have funeral wakes for each other while they are still alive. The “deceased” can trigger the living wake when they need it most. Great writing, storylines, and characters.

This book was GREAT!!! It went through the many different stages of life and how it can be taken away so fast and also how time flies in a blink of an eye. The characters were all good in their own right and they were interwoven in a wonderful way. I found myself cheering on the characters throughout their current life and their memories shared. The concept of living funerals was an interesting take and a good way to show appreciation to those you go through life with, it reminds you to appreciate your friends/family and let them know what they mean to you while you still can. You never know the twists and turns of life and this book really helps you realize that, You really feel like you are part of their group and its a story that just pulls at your heartstrings. I was so happy when I was approved for an advanced copy of this book and would recommend it to anyone when it comes out in May. Thank you Netgalley, Putnam Books, and Steven Rowley for his ARC. It was so wonderful and I will be buying a physical copy when its available.

I quickly fell In love with this book and all of its characters. It follows a group of college friends- Jordy, Jordan, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle and how they cope after the death of their friend Alec a few weeks before graduation. They form a pact to have living funerals for each other when needed so that each of them will remember they are loved.

I love Stephen Rowley’s writing style- in each bookbinder his I have read I become very attached to the characters and so invested in their story. This one was no exception and made me feel all the feelings along the way. I loved watching the 5 character’s friendship along the way.

The end was true perfection. Good luck not crying!

This is a great book and one most people will enjoy! Thank you netgalley for the advanced reader copy.

After The Guncle and now The Celebrants, Steven Rowley has become a must-read author for me. This book was beautiful in every sense, a celebration friendship, of love, of life. I cried through the final 10% of the book, tears dripping down my face for the final few pages. This book started and ended with a group of college friends who, despite years apart, never gave up on each other and became a family when they each needed it most. Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC.

After one of their close friends passes away, a group of five college friends make a pact to get together throughout the years to throw each other “living funerals” to celebrate each other while they can still be around to enjoy it and to leave nothing left unsaid.

The Celebrants was such a perfect book to start the new year with! Filled with deep lasting friendships, this beautiful story follows these five friends through almost 30 years of grief, growing, and the genuine challenges of life. It really made me reflect on the importance of friends who are always there for you if you need them, who help you remember who you are when you lose your way. I really enjoyed each of these characters and loved how they encouraged each other and made sure that they would never doubt how much they were loved.

Warning: this one will definitely pull at your heartstrings and make you want to call your family, hug your friends, and let everyone know how much they mean to you!

The Celebrants releases May 16, so make sure to grab your copy this spring! If you loved The Guncle as much as I did, you definitely don’t want to miss this one!

Special thanks to G P Putnam’s Sons and Netgalley for sharing an ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

Another winner from Steven Rowley! While Rowley's latest novel, The Celebrants, is 180-degrees from last year’s blockbuster, The Guncle, it still rises to the top of literary masterpieces with its pinpoint character development and innovative plot and storyline. With characteristic humor, Rowley spins a poignant tale of enduring friendship, unconditional love, and impending loss that will leave readers emotionally invested and truly satisfied.

After the death of their friend right before their college graduation, five friends (Jordan, Jordy, Craig, Marielle, and Naomi) make a pact. They don't want to miss the opportunity to share their feelings with each other, and they don't want to leave anything unsaid between the group members. They agree to return to Big Sur to celebrate a living 'funeral' for each of the members. As each person goes through different struggles and challenges along the way, the members come together to follow through on their pact.

The story is told through flashbacks to each person's 'funeral', and the flashbacks fill in information about what the characters have gone through over the years. The chapters are very long, and it took me some time to figure out the structure of the book. Once I got into it, I really enjoyed the structure.

There were many characters in this story, and I had to take notes (I kept sticky notes on my desk at work for each character!). It really helped to keep track of each character because the story is told in flashbacks, and I tried to keep everything organized.

As I'm getting ready to attend my 20 year high school reunion next weekend, I have been reflecting about the power of friendship and how much people can change over the years. After reading this book, I can't wait to see friends that I haven't seen in a long time, and I look forward to being able to see how much everyone has changed or stayed the same over the years.

This story is very inspiring because it shows you the power of friendship and love. It also shows that no one's life is perfect, and we all go through struggles. I loved that these friends shared how they feel about each other while they were still alive. Words have so much meaning, and it's beautiful to be able to share them with those that we love.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Putnam Publishing for an ARC of this beautiful story.

QUICK TAKE: yeah duh, I adored it. Emotional and funny and sharply-written and all the things you would expect in a Steven Rowley book. Reminiscent of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL meets THE BIG CHILL, this will be a lovely crowd-pleaser when it comes out in May.

The Celebrants - Steven Rowley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub date: May 30, 2023

Thank you @putnambooks and @netgalley for this ARC!

Y’all… @mrstevenrowley has done it again! I loved Lily and the Octopus. Guncle was my favorite book of 2021. I realized when starting The Celebrants that I haven’t read The Editor, no worries I bought it.

The Celebrants is described as “A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and celebrated author of The Guncle” I’ve never seen the 80s movie, but as someone who still has a close circle of college friends over 10 years after graduation…this hit me right in the feels. It’s a blessing to have those lifelong friendships that have stood the test of time and so many changes. It made me sentimental to think about how those relationships have evolved as we see each other less and less with busy lives…yet the love and support is always there in the background. I saw someone else describe The Celebrants as “soul-stirring” and that feels so accurate. Rowley riled up all the emotions as the story weaves together past and present. This is going to be a popular summer read for sure

Guncle was my favorite book of 2021 and the book that I am still recommending to everyone so maybe I had too high of expectations of The Celebrants.

The book is a slow start with characters who you never really get to know, even The Jordans, the primary concern of the author. We only see two or three days of each character's life and everyone has fairly simple things that lead them to hold their preemptive funeral family death, a failed marriage, a failed career, etc. We don't even get a glimpse into The Jordans' relationship or the relationship between Marielle and Alec.

Rowley continues to write wonderfully and the book kept my attention enough that I was able to breeze through it. It's a good story with plenty of highs and lows, just a bit too surface level for me at this point.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for a review.

Steven Rowley continues to write heartfelt, comedic and engaging books with his release of his latest novel, ""The Celebrants" I can remember reading "Lily and the Octopus" and finding a writing style which felt like the way my friends and I all speak - Rowley has a real knack for writing dialogue which makes his characters really come to life and make you want to root for them. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

"The Celebrants" follows the lives of 6 college friends, over the course of 28 years, from the death of a friend just weeks before college graduation all the way to present day. Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle created a pact on the night of their friend's funeral to give each other living "funerals" over the course of their life. As each friend triggers the pact at a pivotal point in their lives, each of them must face what the future holds, while letting go of the past and learning from it.

To say Rowley made me miss all my closest high school friends - who I'm still very much in touch with today - is an understatement. While we haven't quite hit that age the characters have hit, we have been through many of these same ups and downs. Distance has pulled us all over the country, and when we have a chance to get together, it is like we are picking up right where we left off; there is, however, an element of mystery to all of our lives, ways in which we are living and growing as humans apart from one another that we don't get to see in those meetings. "The Celebrants" celebrates those moments - the moments that make us question if we are a good enough friend, if our friends are good enough for us - encourages the reader to reflect on the ebbs and flows of friendship. Each of Rowley's characters is complex in their own way, many times hiding something this group of friends eventually uncovers with the triggering of their pact. I found Marielle and Craig's relationship to be one of the most delicate and well-written relationships I've read recently, a real exploration of the "things never said" between close friends. Naomi's funeral was perhaps the most comedic story in the book - something almost straight out of a Real Housewives episode. And that ending? Rowley had me going for a moment there, and I couldn't flip the pages of my e-reader fast enough.

"The Celebrants" is a deeply joyous, well, celebration of friendship and all the ups and downs of them. If you have a group of people in your life who you have really grown up with and been there for (and not there for), this is a must read for you. Rowley puts it best when he writes:

"We celebrated people after they were gone in a manner designed to bring closure to those left behind. But closure was not what was needed when it comes to death and dying: open was. Acceptance that we share the same fate."

I really wanted love this book because I loved The Guncle. But it took me a long time to get into it and I felt like I kept forcing myself to keep reading. I didn’t dislike it but I didn’t love it either.

The Celebrants had so many things I always want in a novel: friendship, hope, love, and connection. While the 5 friends meet under sad circumstances, it was great to see them interact and come back together in love. It was heartwarming and inspiring and a reminder to keep your friends close.

Steven Rowley does it again with another great book. The Celebrants is a nod to The Big Chill and Four Weddings and a Funeral in the best ways. We meet 5 college friends, who are well into adulthood and still trying to figure how who they are, with all of the challenges that life throws at us. This particular group: The Jordans, Naomi, Craig and Marielle have a friendship pact that has stood the test of time. As the story progresses, the author uses a mix of wit, humor and just really good writing to weave a tale of the pact. Each character has the ability to trigger their own funeral while they are still living, and the stories that follow are entertaining and poignant. As with every Rowley book, expect a twist, good writing and a message. Ultimately, this book is about friendship and love and how they save us, even from ourselves. I can definitely see this being adapted for tv or film.

This was brilliant. Six college friends become five when one of their bunch dies from an overdose - whether it was intentional or not, it made quite an impact on each of their lives and they made a pact to allow each of them an opportunity to request one living funeral each if and when they needed a reminder of why they are important in each others lives and to ensure nothing goes unsaid while they can still hear it. They are a mismatched group, serendipitously thrown together in college, and the friendships just stuck. Sure, they go on their separate ways, living their own lives with little to no contact, but through the pact they come together and it's as if nothing changed and no time has passed. And this is entirely true of your tribe. When you find them, they are your tribe for life. These friends don't seem like they should go together, and oftentimes they don't, sometimes even seeming like they don't really like each other. But the friendships always abide. This is at times heartbreaking and uplifting, but always a reminder of why we need our tribe, our ride or die, our unquestioning and unjudging friends.

This is a novel about college friends, years later, getting together to commemorate the faux death of one of the group members. His meeting is too real since one of them is actually dying. Although I like The Guncle, Rowley’s last novel, I found this difficult at initially confusing. Why would two of the main characters, a couple, be Jordy and Jordan? I must admit it took me a while to get it all straight.

So, this story is deeply sad, as we move toward the inevitable, it is simply not a great book for me. The inclusion of the eyeless kittens has been haunting my dreams since I read this. Rowley is a fine writer, but the subject matter is painful. I find so many books about college friends reunited before or after a significant life event derivative. This book didn’t entertain me.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Celebrants.

I enjoyed The Guncle so I was excited my request was approved.

The Celebrants is about a group of friends from college who began a pact after the sudden death of a friend in their group, very The Big Chill-like.

The pact is ignited to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—and living well when each of them find themselves struggling through difficult times.

This time, Jordan has called them all together and the news isn't good.

But, the point of their reunion is the point; that we only get one life and we need to make it a good one.

I enjoyed the premise but not the narrative, which I found pretty uninteresting.

The chapters are devoted to a member of the group when he or she invokes the pact and for what reason; what the group does to strengthen their bond and what they've learned from it.

Some secrets are revealed, truths are brought into light, and the group moves on.

I guess I didn't feel invested in the story because I didn't really connect with anyone.

I did like the Jordans, but I didn't really like anyone. I didn't dislike anyone, but I just felt meh about everyone.

The ending is sad, but thoughtful, loving, exactly what you expect from the author of The Guncle.

This is the second book that I read by Steven Rowley and I loved "The Celebrants" as much as "The Guncle"! The concept of throwing "living funerals" to make sure that friends know that they are loved and that they made a difference is so heartwarming and beautiful. This is a story of a group of friends who met in college and then made a pact to throw each other living funerals. They can enact the living funeral whenever they're feeling down or need assurance from their friends that they make a difference in each other's lives. I loved learning about each person in the group of friends. At times, I honestly wanted to be part of the group of friends. Even after growing up and going their own ways after college, they still remained as close as they were when they were younger. Such a good story and a wonderful way to end my reading in 2022. I can't wait to read the next book by Steven Rowley!

I wasn’t personally invested in the story but I can see this going over really well in our libraries. Great cover, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

This is a sweet story of college friends who band together after the very early death of their friend at age 22. The friends develop a tradition to hold an early funeral in order to celebrate one another and to stay in touch. It's been many years but the group has come together in all of the perfect imperfections. There are divorces, tragedy,true love, and even a jail sentence to deal with. On this anniversary of their friend death however, one of the group is facing a true trial.

As they work out what has happened in their adult lives to date there are tears and laughter some anger and lots of great flashbacks. Steven Rowley does a great job of creating interesting characters that are believable and while not always likeable, still people you root for. If you liked the Big Chill, like your books with a big side of emotion or are a fan of Guncle's author Steven Rowley, The Celebrants is for you!
#PenguinGroup