The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits is another quick and enjoyable read by Jennifer Weiner. The characters are relatable and keep the story interesting Before you know it, the book is over. The ending feels like it may lend itself to a sequel. We can all hope...
I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

A worthy read about two sisters who, in the early 2000s, with one successful album and tour in the books, disappear from the limelight. The book is told by multiple characters and goes back and forth between past and present. It's an ambitious book that was enjoyable, but at first I wasn't in the right mindset to enjoy it because it is a big departure from Weiner's other books. It eventually grew on me.

This was my first Jennifer Weiner book and I absolutely loved it and love the way she writes, I will need to dig into her backlog. The Griffin Sisters' follows two sister who, while growing up in the same household have very different childhoods and experiences. And yet they both end up as part of a ultra famous band.

The story is set across multiple timelines and POVs, which is definitely my favorite way to read lately. I think Weiner does a great job of rounding out each of the main characters and giving them depth, complexity and nuance. The plot also unfolds in such a lovely way as well, you know something happens but you are never quite sure what, who and how.

All the Philly references are fun as well, as someone who lives in the area.

Definitely pick this up!

I breezed through this book after a bit of a rut. I can always count on Jennifer Weiner for compelling and highly readable storytelling. I can also count on her for an extra dose of fatphobia too… and this one was dripping with it. Maybe this was intentional since so much of it took place during the early ‘00s when we didn’t know better.

But. It’s 2025. We all know better.

I wish the editors had helped her tone this aspect down. It was highly triggering and disappointing— and it definitely took away from an otherwise great storyline.

3.5 stars rounded up

Two sisters born one year apart to Sam and Janice Grossberg. Zoe is the beautiful one, she charming, thin and popular – the extrovert. Her desire is to be famous and aches to be a music super star. But does she have the talent? Cassie, she is the introvert, the sister that is always bullied, uncomfortable with her size and looks, she just wants to stay hidden from the world. But it is Cassie that has the talent .. a musical prodigy. Zoe knows who the talented sister is in the family, she also know that she can get Cassie to follow her lead to pursue the fame that she desires. In one tumultuous year these two sisters will experience a journey into fame like no other – sold out concerts, SNL appearances, Rolling Stone photo shoots and an album gone gold. They will embark on road of love, jealousy and deceit with one man that stands between them .. one that wants him and one that loves him. And one day everything will come to abrupt halt with the band banishing, Zoe returning to New Jersey and Cassie disappearing.

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is told over two timelines: early 2000 and twenty years later. In 2024, the next Grossberg musical prodigy, Cherry is on mission to find her aunt, unite her mother Zoe and Aunt Cassie, and claim fame and musical stardom for herself. Will these three women forgive and embrace each other for who there are and their individual talent? Will they be able to make music together again?

As Zoe and Cassie tell their story, we get to look at their childhood, teen years and time as young adults growing up in a very adult industry – often with want and desire to envy, jealousy and maliciousness only to hurt the other person. This novel had such great prospect and there were many aspects that much of the book enjoyable. While the backstory of the novel is needed in order for the current day story to work, I felt it was overdone and at times repetitive. I did not think Zoe was a nice person she was deceitful, shellfish and jealous of her sister’s talent and relationships especially with her daughter Cherry. Cassie broke my heart.

Thank you, Jennifer Weiner, Wiliam Morrow and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jennifer Weiner is a must read for me. I love her books, and this was no exception. Multiple POVs and timelines. Excellent characters. Reminded me a bit of Daisy Jones & The Six. Fingers crossed for a sequel!!

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love a book about sisters, especially one set in the music scene of the early 2000's. As with many books about siblings, The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits has themes of rivalry and jealously and betrayal and forgiveness and love, overall.

I have been reading Jennifer Weiner's books for a long time and my favourite book of hers to date is Mrs, Everything, a story about two very different sisters which spans decades. I felt the Griffin Sisters' had a lot of similarities to Mrs. Everything. The story of Cassie, Zoe and Cherry had so much breadth and depth and the characters jumped off the page.

I connected so much with quiet, underdog Cassie, whose talent was so big it was as if her body needed to be large enough to contain it. In contrast to her pretty, skinny sister Zoe, the world is much harder for Cassie to navigate. If anyone remembers the early 2000s, diet culture was practically the religion and the everyday uniform was low-rise jeans and crop tops or baby tees. You can throw a stone a hit a millennial who got an eating disorder from watching Tyra Banks body shame young girls on America's Next Too Model.

Such is the milieu Cassie grows up in. Cassie's shining light, or her gift, is her innate prodigy like music ability, her voice and her songs about being lonely and an outsider that impact so many of her fans. In a world of Britney Spears, I think awkward teenage me would have clung to a Cassie as well. Unfortunately, the world shows Cassie she deserves nothing and Cassie felt she deserved nothing in return.

Zoe- the pretty, skinny one- has her own insecurities. She wants desperately to be famous and to be accepted, but is shocked to find that her expected place is in Cassie's shadow. Zoe loves her sister, but her green-eyed jealousy makes her do very ugly and desperate things. I was very frustrated with Zoe's actions, and she felt like a very selfish, self-serving character who learned her lesson a little too late.

It's hard to hold their choices against them though as the book does a good job of reminding us just how young Cassie and Zoe were when this all transpired, and we all know how young people- especially young people in the spotlight without proper guidance- don't always make the best choices. Again, see Britney Spears (her Vegas marriage stage, not her wrongfully placed in conservatorship stage). I wouldn't want my decisions in my early twenties to guide the trajectory of the rest of my life...

Unlike Zoe, her daughter Cherry is a rebel without cause, a bright shining star who, like most us, wants to be the exact opposite of her mother. I liked the contrast of her punk rock description versus her mother's pop star turned picket fence PTA mom. I really liked the scenes where she reconnected with her aunt Cassie and how her storyline, and the end of the book, wasn't neatly wrapped in a bow.

Overall, I really really enjoyed this read. I found it emotional and compelling and I couldn't put it down. Another great read from Weiner! Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for my earc.

The Griffin Sisters' started off strong but ultimately ended up being mediocre for me. The plot got to be too repetitive with most of the focus being on Zoe and Cassie's differences and Cassie's "size". Very predictable outcome and I was wishing for more shock value. A few subplots that felt unnecessary to the overall story.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy. The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits will hit shelves on April 8, 2025.

I thought this was a really cool idea/concept. I think this will be heavily compared to Daisy Jones and the Six. Many fans of Daisy Jones would probably like this! For me, it wasn't quite as good as Daisy Jones.

Sisters Zoe and Cassie are thrust into the limelight during high school in the early 2000's, with their band The Griffin Sisters. Cassie is the musical prodigy with the angelic voice. She is also overweight and extremely shy. Zoe is the one who yearns for stardom. She is less talented, but is stereotypically pretty and very confident. Each sister wants what the other one has. This causes them both to act in ways that are rather mean to each other, especially in the realm of men. The band breaks up after one album, despite the high success.

I just.... hated everyone? Zoe is easily in my Top 10 least favorite characters of all time. I don't think there is anything she could do that could change my mind about her. What she did is completely unforgivable. Russell was weak and spineless. And Cassie's lack of confidence was understandable to a point, but it just seemed to be unrealistic for how famous and well-liked she was. And Cherry was okay, but I did not enjoy her side story about issues with her homelife. It felt very off-putting to me, and made me dislike Zoe even more.

I think the entertainment factor for this book is there, though!

Sisters Zoe and Cassie are only one year apart, but could not be more different. When everyone quickly realizes Cassie’s musical talent, they pushed the girls into the spotlight. While Zoe was meant to be on stage, but didn’t have the same talent, Cassie loves the shadows, and hates all eyes on her. The band took off, but after a year of fame, sadly they broke up, and Cassie hasn’t been seen in the public since. Now Zoe has a family of her own, but no sister to speak of…

Oh man this book was fun but had so many heavy topics. I have seen some reviews unhappy about the fat shaming toward Cassie, and while I agree, I think it really helped make the story. During the early 2000’s music scene, that would 100% have happened, and I enjoyed that Cassie helped show young girls that weren’t perfect little size 2 beauties that they could be famous, and helped build their confidence. That said, the fat shaming did give me gut punch every time it happened. This is one of those books where there should be a clear “villain.” However, throughout the story, you see how both sisters were jealous of the other, and how they were pitted against each other to hurt them by the people in charge. It really shows how, especially in the early 2000’s, women weren’t supposed to, and didn’t, support each other. Everything was a competition and about proving you “won,” which really just led to nobody actually “winning.” This one brought back all the nostalgia, both good and bad and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to @williammorrowbooks for my gifted copy of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Zoe and Cassie Grossberg (AKA The Griffin Sisters) could not be more different. Zoe is glamourous, outgoing and popular. Cassie is shy, withdrawn and a musical prodigy. So when Zoe persuades Cassie to enter a local talent show with her, neither thinks much of it.

But in the audience is the nephew of a talent scout who is anxiously looking for his next big find. And the Griffin sisters fit that bill. He gets them signed by a major record company and the company takes over from there. They find a promising young guitarist to work with Cassie to write original songs for the group and the band takes off. They tour the country going from radio station to radio station to small venue until finally one of their songs makes the radio. And the rocket ship is not what anyone expected, but they hang on and enjoy the ride. They put out an album and it goes gold and then platinum. But the glitzy whirlwind only lasts about a year until the guitarist/songwriter is killed in an auto accident.

Now Zoe's daughter Cherry has discovered her mother's past life and being a singer/songwriter on her own, wants to find out what happened and where is that OTHER Griffin sister? The story of what led up to that night in 2004 and what has happened to the two sisters in the intervening two decades makes for a great read. One that you won't want to put down.

At the heart of this novel is a great story—an early-aughts band that skyrockets to fame only to fall apart just as quickly, leaving a string of broken hearts and unanswered questions. Unfortunately, I felt it was bogged down by the author trying to say and do too much.

First of all, this book felt so much longer than it needed to be, while also somehow not moving the plot forward or giving the characters quite enough development. Second, there is a lot of side commentary on how awful the music industry was to young women back then, but that actually had very little to do with the events that unfolded in this story, and it left me feeling like Weiner was trying to write two different stories that were never quite tied together. So many of the characters were unlikeable, and, at least in my opinion, the one character who you truly want to root for doesn't ever get the justice she deserves, which made the ending a bit disappointing.

If you're looking for a great story about an ultra-famous band that famously falls apart, obviously Daisy Jones and the Six is the one. If you're looking for a story of early-aughts fame gone horribly wrong, I'd recommend The Daydreams by Laura Hankin. Sorry to say I'd tell everyone to skip this one. Also, major trigger warnings for fat-phobia and fat-shaming. (Again, I realize this was par for the course at that time, but I felt the autism angle would have been so much more interesting and impactful than her being overweight.)

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC! I freaking loved this book! The Griffin sisters stole my heart! Cassie and Zoe both went through so much heart break. And I loved how it makes people realize the music industry is not always to easy there are a lot of things happening behind closed doors. I understand why Zoe didn't want her daughter Cherry going through these, she was protecting her daughter. I hated that these two sisters went 20 years without talking and missed out on so much family time. I am glad Cherry found Cassie.

Jennifer Weiner's The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits is a must read! She delivers an amazing story about sisters, Zoe and Cassie and their brief life of rock stars. While telling this story, we meet Cherry and follow her dream of making music in the current day, while she uncovers who her mother and aunt are to the rest of the world.
Weiner brings such a believable story to her readers. So believable that I found myself wanting to hop on Google to learn more for that brief second before remembering that this is a fiction book! I was sorry to see it end and wish that we could have read more about the future of this family.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner is a third person mutli-POV dual-timeline contemporary following a The Griffin Sisters band and later Zoe’s daughter. In the early 2000s, Zoe is determined to be a star but isn’t really getting anywhere. When she sees that her younger sister, Cassie, not only has prodigious piano skills but also an incredible voice, she finds a way to get stardom. In 2024, Cherry is also determined to be a star, but her mother, Zoe, refuses to support her dreams or talk about The Griffin Sisters or her estranged sister.

There is a lot of fatphobia in the book but it all felt very purposeful. Most of it takes place in the early 2000s, but it does come through in Zoe (her fatphobia towards her sister) and Cassie’s (internalized fatphobia) POVs as well as what is happening in society at that moment as well as the way Cassie has been treated in the past. The fatphobia definitely speaks to where we were as a culture, and still are if social media is anything to go by, and you do feel a lot for Cassie, who was originally hidden as possible despite her incredible talent. It’s not comfortable, but it is honest. Zoe is more palpable to basically everyone because she’s thin and pretty and only one person really speaks up for Cassie.

I love mess. I love messy women. Zoe is teetering a line between ‘messy’ and ‘irredeemable’ for me. Her purposefully getting Russell drunk so she could sleep with him not only because she wanted him, but to solidify her place in the band as she slowly comes to terms with her lack of skill or talent for music, was sexual assault in my mind. That they dated after doesn’t absolve her because it was the 2000s and the conversations were different and if he had known she did that on purpose, would he have even entertained dating her despite how much management seemed to be into the idea for publicity? I don’t think he would have. At the very least, it would have been way more of a publicity stunt. But it’s more than that; it’s the way she continuously trapped him which led to the unhappiness of both of them and Cassie and that it was calculated all so she could achieve fame and keep it…it’s a lot. It’s so much. And I think it’s really important to have narratives like this because men can also be survivors of being used and having their ability to consent being taken away and just because a woman did it to a man doesn’t mean it’s OK.

I originally expected the major themes to be sisterhood and reconciliation and I walked away finding the major themes to really be about body image vs society, the price of fame, and expectations vs reality. I found the book that I got to be far more interesting than the book I expected. I was expecting a feel good possibly romcom-ish exploration that would leave the reader feeling cozy. That’s not what this is, because the book is actually raw, honest, full of yearning and grief and the struggles to reconcile with how little society valued you for your body until it learns your actual talents plus anxiety and fear of being seen and known. There’s so much depth here that is handled wonderfully. This is, quite possibly, my favorite contemporary of the year. It’s possibly my favorite contemporary in a while.

Content warning for depictions of fat phobia and sexual assault

I would recommend this to fans of contemporary fiction exploring fatphobia and self image and readers of adult fiction who want complex relationships between sisters and romantic interests

Jennifer Weiner was one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager! I just turned 30 and she has done it again.
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is a story of family, fame, and past mistakes. The Griffin Sisters rose to fame in the early 2000s and took the music world by storm. There’s Zoe, the pretty one with zero talent, and Cassie, the heavy one with an incredible voice and who was classically trained on piano. They couldn’t be more different…. Zoe wants the spotlight and Cassie is quite literally running from it. What they do have in common is their interest in fellow bandmate, Russell. Tragedy strikes and the Griffin Sisters are no more.
This book jumps between the band’s early days and the present, exploring the heartbreaking story of Zoe and Cassie, how they fell apart, and if they can ever come back together. Although a bit slow during the present chapters, this is a beautiful story of the power of family and how fame can ruin everything.
I definitely recommend this book to anybody who likes fiction, music, romance, and/or drama. Happy reading!

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars.

This held my attention but at the same time, I felt like it wasn’t particularly original. I have several recent books about angsty musicians or bands currently sitting on my shelves, and the fact that there are even a few similar books makes me not really interested in reading any of them. I’ll have to really space them out if they have any chance of holding my interest.

What I think was done well with this one was the complicated relationship between the sisters. It seemed to capture how you can both love and hate your sister, feel both jealousy and awe for their gifts and strengths and need them both close and far away at various points in your life. The character development was realistic and mostly believable.

I was somewhat bored by the details of the music industry and touring, like I usually am in these books set in the entertainment industry. I just don’t find it interesting. I’m sure others will like the insider perspective of what it could be like to be a nobody who suddenly becomes famous.

Not my favorite Jennifer Weiner book. It was a bit slow in some parts and it was hard to care about any of the characters too much given how the story was told in 3rd person.

This book will have its fans, those who love the author and those who love this writing style. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me as much as I hoped.

I am a huge Jennifer Weiner fan and am grateful to have been able to read this book as an ARC. It is very different than her normal work, in that there isn't a traditional will they/won't they love story, but I still really loved it.
This book centers on, no surprise, the Griffin Sisters, Zoe and Cassie, who were famous musicians during the early 2000's. The timeframe goes back and forth from then to now, when they haven't talked for 20 years, and Zoe's daughter, Cherry, tries to bridge the gap between them. This book is a character study of two deeply-flawed women with a music backdrop. Both women tend to take on too much guilt, as many of us do, so I found the characters relatable.
While the plot differs from Weiner's "typical" work, the relatable characters and beautiful storytelling are still here. Pick this up if you're a fan of Weiner, music, or complicated sister relationships.
Thank you to the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

**5-Star Review: *The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hit***

An absolute knockout! *The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hit* is a dazzling, emotionally rich novel that perfectly blends heart, ambition, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood. From the first page, the story pulls you into the world of music, fame, and the personal struggles that come with chasing a dream.

The Griffin sisters are unforgettable—each with their own strengths, flaws, and desires that make them feel incredibly real. Their journey through success, setbacks, and self-discovery is both inspiring and deeply moving. The writing is vibrant and immersive, bringing every lyric, performance, and backstage moment to life.

With impeccable storytelling and characters that stay with you long after the final chapter, *The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hit* is a must-read for anyone who loves music, family dramas, and stories about finding your true voice. A breathtaking, five-star triumph!