Member Reviews
Content Warnings: Rape, homophobia, death, illness, suicidal thoughts
Representation: Gay, mlm, wlw, questioning
Favorite Quote: “She knew she’s found something good when she knew she couldn’t stand to lose it.”
Evenings and Weekends is a “quintessentially British” and quintessentially Millennial novel that regularly alternates between a large ensemble of characters. These characters make up an interconnected social web—connected through romantic, platonic, and familial ties—with the backdrop of London 2019 amidst a particularly hot summer where the news everyone is talking about is a whale stuck in the Thames. The main characters have their own news to share, however, as their lives fundamentally change over the course of this sweltering summer.
On the verge of a big move out of London, back to her rural hometown, Maggie struggles to share the news of this move, spurred on by her pregnancy, to her best friend Phil. Likewise, Phil has doubts about Maggie’s boyfriend Ed that he is unsure how to share with Maggie. All the while Phil is navigating a budding relationship with his roommate who is in an open relationship with his longtime boyfriend.
On top of these focal points, the novel also follows Phil’s mother, who has just been diagnosed with cancer, Ed’s mother, who is grieving the loss of her husband, Phil’s brother Callum, a drug dealer set to be married before the end of the summer, and a marine biologist covering the story of the stuck whale in the Thames and gaining fame from her uncanny resemblance to the late Princess Diana.
These alternating perspectives present readers with the challenge of keeping track of who is who. Midway through the novel, I felt I had gained a grasp on the many characters’ stories and their relation to one another, but by then I had spent half the novel piecing these storylines together and had only a surface-level sense of any particular character. This dilemma was not resolved by the end of my reading experience as I hoped.
Though I can appreciate a slice-of-life story that doesn’t dwell too much on every detail being extremely impactful, this book took its non-commitment to a plot to a point where I was questioning why I was following these characters. None were developed enough for a reader to become invested in their lives and most of the plotlines’ resolutions were exactly what they had clearly been leading up to for the entire book.
3.5⭐️
Beached In London
Oisin McKenna’s debut novel “Evenings and Weekends” is loaded with remarkable characters. Early on I had to jot down a roster, a family tree of sorts, as these people came on the scene. It was worth it. The cast here is amazing, populated by fascinating three-dimensional players. Strikingly, there are no bad guys here, just souls figuring out who they are and what they need for their lives.
London. Cities or locales are usually integral to the story– here London is a big player. The city charges and feeds those here. We feel the promise, the excitement, everyone’s expectations pumped up. The intensity is magnified by the sensation over a whale trapped in the Thames, an event drawing most of these players in.
There are couples scrambling to determine the futures of their relationships. Maggie is pregnant with Ed’s child, and they are planning on raising the baby outside of London. Ed is afraid Maggie is going to find out secrets in his past. Maggie’s close friend, Phil, has had a sexual experience with Ed and may tell Maggie. Phil is in love with his housemate, Keith– who also has a boyfriend, Louis (who may be harboring feelings for Phil!).
So, there are a lot of characters and interweaving relationships going on here… a little reminiscent of a movie like “Love, Actually.” My favorite is Rosaleen– Phil’s mom. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has to find the right way to let Phil know. She has to make sense of her life’s journey. She also has to embrace Pauline, her close friend whose death years ago has haunted her.
Yes, it was a little difficult to keep track of these people as they first appeared. With so many different threads going, it would seem likely to be the stuff of a soap opera. Somehow, the pages kept turning rapidly and I bought into each character’s struggle to navigate a future. An inspired novel by a new voice.
Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #EveningsandWeekends #NetGalley
This book was full of interesting characters that took several chapters to get straight but once the connections were clear, the book became hard to put down. The stories all interweave around one weekend in London a few years ago on a hot weekend. They are characters I don't often see in books but want to read more about. I loved reading this book. Give it time to come to build and it will be well worth it!
I would highly recommend Evenings and Weekends to fans of Love Actually, "All This Could Be Different," and La La Land. This was one of the best novels I read this year, and the ensemble-style setting really enhanced the story. The timing of the novel over the course of one weekend featuring characters from all walks of life works so well, and the ending was heartfelt and caught me off guard. This is one I have thought about every day since I read it.
If Adele’s Hometown Glory was a book, I feel like it would be THIS book…
Following a group of interconnected people in a London heat wave, we see the good, the bad, and the ugly. These people are all fabulously flawed, in real and tangible, relatable ways. Some of their problems vary in intensity, comparably, but the way they all converge in one way or another, how they each affect one another, I found was written really well.
Read this if you have ever questioned if you’re where you’re supposed to be in life.
Ugh!! The way McKenna captures life in your late twenties/early thirties perfectly!! So many times I wanted to highlight an entire page because it was exactly how I’ve felt before. An affirming, loving story of a group of friends trying to figure out how to grow older and how they’d like to live. Gorgeous, beautifully and honestly written, and doesn’t away from hard moments.
Really captivating characters and stories told with propulsive style that conveys just how hot and sweaty this weekend in London is. The balance between all the stories was effortless.
Thank you to NetGalley, author Oisín McKenna, and Mariner Books for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
I've been excited to read Evenings and Weekends after seeing so much buzz surrounding it on my side of litfic BookTok. It lived up to the hype for me, and it was refreshing to read a literary novel I enjoyed once more, as I've been in a slump. There are a LOT of characters here, and my one note was that I wish as the reader we could have spent some more time with several of the characters, such as Rosaleen, Holly, and even Callum. There is a lot of queerness in the novel and a lot of intersections of rumination and living. Each character felt very alive with very real thoughts and worries. I liked the pacing of the events unfolding during the heat of summer with the peak coming at night during a rainstorm, as that narrative imaging worked well for this particular story. I do think it is one I would have to revisit in the future to truly enjoy and get all the details of, but for the time being, it was a nice, deeper summertime read that I enjoyed as a whole.
Evenings and Weekends is a remarkable exploration of identity and human connection. McKenna's ability to weave together intricate narratives with raw emotional depth is impressive. The collection of stories delves into the lives of characters grappling with their sense of self amidst the backdrop of everyday challenges. Each story is a glimpse of human experience, capturing moments of joy, sorrow, and everything in between. McKenna's prose is both lyrical and evocative, painting vivid pictures of each character's inner struggles and triumphs. What struck me most about Evenings and Weekends is its ability to tackle complex themes such as relationships and personal growth with sensitivity and honesty. McKenna's narrative style is refreshingly unique, blending humor and melancholy in a way that keeps you engaged from start to finish. The pacing is perfect, allowing each story to unfold naturally while leaving a lasting impact. Overall, Evenings and Weekends is a collection that invites readers to reflect on their own lives and relationships. It's a testament to McKenna's talent as a storyteller and his deep understanding of the human condition. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for thought-provoking literature that stays with you long after the last page is turned.
4.5 stars. I went into this hoping it would be both highly readable and insightful, and it was! We follow a handful of interconnected characters over the course of one sweltering summer weekend in London. From the first page, I felt McKenna’s observations resonating deeply with me. He captured the feeling of living in a big city and the constant sense that your next big break might be right around the corner; the feeling of summer weekends and wanting to make the most of them and so you can feel like you are living life to its fullest; the phase of early adulthood when lives diverge as some friends get married and have kids at different times. Even his description of internet trends felt spot on. The characters, many of them queer, felt real and fleshed out. If you’re familiar with London, you’ll love this even more. It was a bit hard to keep track of all the characters at first, but you eventually get to know them each well enough that it’s not an issue.
Another win from an Irish author! This was an incredible debut and I can’t wait to see what McKenna writes next.
Thank you NetGalley and Mariner Books for the free copy in exchange for my honest review!
First, thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I'll start by saying that this book seems to be literally *everywhere* in LitFic circles. Everyone is talking about and recommending this book, and comparing it to Sally Rooney stylistically. It makes complete sense to me. Despite being a reasonably tight 350 pages, Oisín McKenna's Evenings and Weekends balances an expansive cast of Londoners and follows them primarily over the course of a single eventful weekend in June 2019 (notably before the pandemic, so the characters and we as readers are spared the discussion of COVID restrictions, masks, distancing, etc.). This is very much a character-driven novel, and one with a lot of nuance and insight into human interactions. I love a book that accurately depicts the awkwardness of friendships, parent-child relationships, and romantic relationships and really digs into their messiness. On that front, this book felt very visceral and truthful. I think the comparison to Rooney, in terms of style, is apt and I would 100% read whatever McKenna writes next.
In terms of the characters that we follow, there are:
Maggie, who is pregnant, and her boyfriend Ed, who may not be completely straight
Maggie's gay best friend, Phil, who is in love with his housemate Keith (who is in an open relationship)
Phil's unsteady brother, Callum
Phil's mum, Rosaleen - newly diagnosed with cancer
(as well as a few other characters along the way)
Though as I mentioned above, this is primarily a character-driven novel, what tension arises is primarily driven by what is unsaid which the characters desperately *want* to say.
Though the novel's focus was tipped toward the younger characters, I really enjoyed the character of Rosaleen, Phil's mum, especially learning more about her back story (to describe it would spoil the revelation), and I liked that McKenna chose to make her story a significant part of the book's resolution. As I'm thinking back on the book, I'm considering the ways in which the book highlights how the secrets that we keep and the choices that we make affect future generations. In each subsequent generation, we hope that we are making better or wiser choices than our parents - but in spite of our best efforts, are we really? Or is it human nature for us to fumble, to reach for better communication, and yet, sometimes, to fail?
As you can probably tell from reading this review so far, I really enjoyed this novel as a whole. I was engaged by the characters throughout, and finished the book within about 3 days because I was interested to see how each character's sections would resolve. The only reason I'm deducting a star is that I felt McKenna struggled a bit at the start of the book to efficiently and memorably lay out the characters whose through lines would eventually be so intertwined. Because there was such a multitude of rather prominent characters, I found myself struggling during the first third of the book to remember their relationships to one another. Once I found the groove of the book, it was off to the races, but that took a bit of acclimating that I thought McKenna could have alleviated by adding in more distinct characteristics for his cast of characters from the jump. In spite of the bumpy start, I thought Evenings and Weekends was well worth reading, and a good literary summer book to tide readers over until the new Rooney, Intermezzo, drops in September.
"Evenings and Weekends" by Oisin McKenna is an intriguing debut novel that tracks an ensemble of characters in London over a life-changing weekend. This highly character-driven narrative interweaves the lives of various individuals, with Phil and Maggie’s storylines standing out. The deep exploration of characters' pasts and personalities adds depth to the story. However, the whale subplot felt out of place, and the frequent switches between characters were sometimes confusing. This book definitely captured my attention and I recommend it to folks who enjoy literary fiction with LGBTQIA+ themes.
Ok, I really loved this book. when I got a copy of it I was very intrigued by the storyline. Boy meets boy, sleeps with boy, boy then meet girls gets her pregnant and then boy still likes to go to train stations and pick up men! It all takes place in one hot steamy summer in London. The three manin cahracters are Ed, Maggie, and Phil. All best friends and all trying to find there way in life. This book is very relatable to people who are gay or had freinds that were your besties and understood who your were as a gay person. There were scenes that really hit home. Men hitting on you and then saying they have to go home to their girlfriends. That is kind of the main storyline. Maggie who is marrying Ed and having a baby with her still likes men and we only know that because Phil saw him trying to pick up a guy at the train station. Does Phil tell Maggie or does he leave it alone and let her firnd out for herself. What would you do? It's a very timely novel since gay rights are starting to be threatened and will it force gay people to go back into the closet or deny who they are and marry women that they arent really in love with for the sake of what society thinks of them. It's a very provocative novel and is filled with intriguing opinions. I absolutely loved it! Great pick for a book club and even a LGTBQ book club. So much to discuss in this novel and I can't believe it's the author's debut. He is a huge talent and I can't wait to see what he writes next! Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner books for the read.
evenings & weekends is a story of interwoven characters set over the course of a weekend in London during an intense heatwave.
i throughly enjoyed this as a character driven plot lover. much like sally rooney, mckenna sets you within the mind of the characters within the story. allowing you to see how human and flawed each character is.
so much of this book showcases the idea that no one is thinking about you as much as you’re thinking about you. each character comes with there own fears, secrets, anxiety, and desires.
as things heat up over the course of the weekend, both figuratively and literally, tensions rise and everyone reaches a tipping point where life changing decisions must be made.
i thoroughly enjoyed this read and feel like this is one i’m going to need to come back to.
London is sweltering, a dying whale is stuck in the Thames, and Ed and Maggie are leaving the city to move back to their hometown and have a baby they cannot afford. After Maggie's best friend Phil sees Ed cruising in a public bathroom, he's torn between his loyalty to Maggie and desire to not out Ed. As the weekend reaches a boiling point, Ed, Maggie, Phil, and their families must reckon with who they are and what they really want.
I absolutely loved this book and how it treated sexuality, gender, trauma, and class. The prose is beautiful and the characters felt complex and real. It broke my heart without veering into melodrama. It's a gorgeous debut and I cannot recommend it enough.
It's about a million degrees in New York right now, so reading about a sweltering London was easy to do. Set over a weekend in 2019, Evenings and Weekends. is a tight story about people at changing points.
Ed and Maggie are a couple who are expecting a child soon. Maggie secretly dreams of a life as a full-time artist, while Ed is questioning his past and his sexuality.
Phil is Maggie's best friend, and in a weird relationship or "Situationship" (as the kids say) with one of his roommates, Carl. Carl is in a non-monogamous relationship with Louis.
Phil's mother, Rosaleen, has been diagnosed with cancer. She is worried about both of her sons, while also being haunted by her past. Her other son, Callum, is a drug dealer and about to marry his girlfriend, Holly.
There's ALSO a beached whale on a beach that has been rescued by a Princess Diana lookalike and newly crowned queer icon.
While there are many, many characters, and a tight-timeline for these stories, this book is full of humor, love, growth and heartache. It captures that time period that everything happens all at once, and you think you'll never be able to move forward.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.
A very honest, sometimes painfully honest, book about sexuality and growing up. I always found the characters relatable, even when I didn’t particularly like them. This book will meet with anyone who knows what it is to be young, and those of us remember.
Delicious, sexy, and truly compelling, this is the type of summer novel that makes a person feel alive.
This made a great literary summer read. It was fast-paced and was full of drama! I think this is a great choice for Sally Rooney fans to pick up while they are eagerly awaiting her next novel; it was full of some of the same emotional intensity in her books.
Evenings and Weekends is a heartfelt, sexually charged, and darkly comic exploration of young adulthood in the city. It’s a mesmerizing dive into the soul of London, examining the hurdles faced by young people trying to build their lives in a rapidly changing world.