I received an electronic ARC from Random House Publishing Group - Random House through NetGalley.
This is a departure from Joyce's past style (which I love). It's always good to see an author stretch and grow but this one fell flat for me. The characters were closer to stereotypes than any I've seen from her books.
Readers meet four siblings - Netta, Susan, Goose, Iris, as they grapple with their father's remarriage after decades of being single. They're upset and don't cope well with their emotions. It's an overdone plot point but he is in his seventies and marrying a woman in her twenties. For most of the story, we only "meet" Bella-Mae through the descriptions provided by the siblings. Even when she is present, she remains a non-character until late in the book when Joyce shares a chapter from a different perspective and reveals Bella-Mae's real motivations. This plot twist does not land well as it comes far to late in the book.
The one character who is only shown through memories for most of the book is their father. Sadly, he died shortly after this marriage/early in the story, and they all arrive at the villa in Italy to sort out what happened. We do see how each child was stunted by having a self-focused father who did not support nor encourage their growth. His influence remains throughout the story and causes the long separations and so much anger.
The title comes from the final chapter where readers see Bella-Mae's art on display. This sculpture represents all the man was and how his influence continued.
Please do read other reviews as others enjoyed this story more than I did.

Looking for a good beach read, then The Homemade God is the one for you. Told in the beautiful prose that Rachel Joyce is know for you will discover a well written mystery full of authentic complex characters that you will fall in love with.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for my ARC in exchange for my opinion.

This is the story of a family; four adult children and their famous father. All are extremely flawed and broken in their own way.

I found the story tedious. It held my interest at times but just went on and on and on. I also had a great deal of trouble getting into it. While the settings of England and a gorgeous island in Italy were intriguing, the constant family intrigue was just too disturbing. I just can't recommend this book.

I must confess that I'm not normally drawn to Rachel Joyce's cosy and sentimental novels but, being a lover of family sagas and the setting of an Italian villa during a blazing summer, I was eager to pick this one up. I'm sorry for dismissing Rachel because I thought this was a brilliant, mature and accomplished novel. I loved learning more about each sibling's backstory, I questioned Bella-Mae's intentions and Vic's past at multiple points and Rachel kept me guessing up to the very end. A must for your summer holiday reading this year. Thank you to Net Galley for the review copy!

The Homemade God follows the Kemp family -- self-taught painter Vic and his four adult children -- in the wake of Vic's announcement that he's marrying a much younger woman he's only recently met and his subsequent drowning near the family's vacation home in Italy. As the children deal with the sudden loss of their father, their only parent for much of their lives after their mother died when they were all young, they also confront the meaning their lives have taken on in the shadow of their father's huge personality, their relationships with one another, and the validity of their self-identities. Then there's their father's widow, an enigmatic artist who they've never met until now, and the mystery of what happened to their father's final painting, a piece he claimed would be his best work ever. The characters are beautifully and sometimes painfully written, and you might say that how this family fractures and frays is a piece of art in and of itself. If great writing and interesting characters aren't enough to convince you, there's also a fabulous Italian setting in a dilapidated estate and delicious food.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/The Dial Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published July 8, 2025.

The Homemade God was a very well-written novel. However, I didn’t love the story. The siblings characters were weird with so much baggage. I was more interested in the mysterious young wife and what happened to the father. I think most people will probably like the book, but it was not my favorite.

As a card-carrying member of the Dead Dad Club, I figured I’d lean into the grief spiral this year and crank the dial to 11 by reading Rachel Joyce’s The Homemade God just in time for Father’s Day. Call it masochism. Call it catharsis. Either way, it hit like a glass of red wine thrown at a family dinner—messy, emotional, and weirdly satisfying.

Vic Kemp is a world-famous painter, no, not the edgy, avant-garde type, but the sort whose work ends up laminated on placemats and postcards in tourist shops. He’s recognizable, even if he’s not exactly revered. Vic raised four kids—Netta, Susan, Goose (short for Gustav, naturally), and Iris—on his own after his wife died giving birth to the youngest. And somehow, despite the trauma, the egos, and the lingering scent of turpentine, the family has survived. Kind of.

At 76, Vic is still living like a charming, selfish hurricane. When he invites all four children to a dinner with “big news,” they brace for drama. And boy, does he deliver: he’s in love. She’s 27. They met online. And they’re getting married. Congrats?

The kids, predictably, spiral. They ghost him. Assume it’ll blow over like his last impulsive stunt or last affair. Except this time, Vic vanishes to the family’s villa in Italy… and then dies. Found in the reeds of a lake like a Renaissance tragedy... John Everett Millais "Ophelia"....as a 76-year-old man.

Cue the sibling trip to Italy, equal parts grief, suspicion, and passive-aggressive wine-fueled resentment. They're not just recovering Vic’s body; they’re confronting Bella-Mae, the mysterious widow. And also? Each other. Because when the homemade god falls, what happens to the fragile altars his kids built around him?

This was my first time reading Rachel Joyce’s writing, and honestly? I devoured it. Every petty, poignant, hilarious, heartbreaking moment. This isn’t just a mystery, it’s a full-on family reckoning wrapped in sun-scorched prose and garnished with grief, bitterness, and a splash of limoncello. The characters are messy. Netta plays the martyr-mother. Susan bristles in her shadow. Goose cracks under the weight of artistic legacy. Iris, forever the baby, drifts through it all like a half-formed memory.

And Vic? The absent-present father, worshipped and resented in equal measure. The man. The myth. The mess.

In the end, The Homemade God painfully and beautifully reminds us that even our gods were just people, messy, flawed, sometimes infuriating people, just like us.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Homemade God focuses on 4 adult siblings and their artist father, Vic. When 76 year old Vic tells his kids he is getting married to 27 year old Bella-Mae, they are understandably skeptical. Vic and Bella-Mae run off to the family's villa in Italy to get married, and shortly after, Vic is found dead in the lake. The siblings gather to put the pieces of his death together, while unintentionally tearing their relationships with each other apart.

3.5 stars. This book was a great exploration of complex family dynamics, and the way grief tears us apart. It seemed at first like it was going to be more of a mystery/thriller, but it turned out to be much more of a character exploration.

The highlight of this book was definitely the setting. The writing was super atmospheric and this house on the lake almost felt like its own character. I also really enjoyed Goose's character.

The beginning of the book dragged a little bit and I found it hard to keep all the different characters straight. Once I got a little further in though, things started to click a bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for the ARC.

Great read for the summer! This book was everything I love in a story: layered characters, vivid storytelling, and a narrative that includes humor, beauty, and redemption. At times, the book read like a suspense novel that gave it a unique momentum for a book that is essentially about family.
The novel revolves around the four Kemp siblings and their impossible-to-ignore father, all navigating a web of love, grief, and old wounds that haven’t quite healed. The author created an emotionally complex story that’s both heartbreaking and hopeful. I could feel the tension and affection between the characters so strongly. I’m still thinking about all the deeply flawed human personalities that became characters I wanted to root for.

This book doesn't publish until July, but I couldn't resist diving into this summer-set literary mystery on the plane ride home last week. I'm a sucker for sibling novels, and this one, about four siblings who convene at their family villa on an Italian lake following the mysterious death of their father, was captivating. I have some money on it being a big book this summer and if you liked Blue Sisters or Broken Country I think you will enjoy this one!

4.5 stars 🌟

"There were somethings you never got over. No amount of thinking or talking would make them right: the best you could do was find a way to live alongside them."

This book follows four siblings who lose their father in suspicious circumstances. They travel to Italy to find out what really happened to him and to meet his 27 year old widow...

I loved this book. Joyce's writing was phenomenal and the story was well-paced. I connected with all four siblings immensely, to the point that I felt like I was a part of the family. I'm not normally drawn into stories with family drama and grief, but I found myself really enjoying my reading experience with this one. The way the four of them came together and fell apart felt realistic and true. (My favorite sibling was Netta; I could relate to the responsibility she felt she carried on her shoulders as the eldest. She's also a bit insane and I loved it. "She moved through life like a hurricane. If only she slowed down, she might see what was staring her in the face.")

I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy stories with tight-knight families, toxic behavior, drama, and a bit of a twist! Looking forward to reading more Rachel Joyce in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 💕

Rachel Joyce is a staggeringly talented author, several of whose books have rated very high with me (The Music Shop and the Harold Fry books). But I had a mixed reaction to her latest, The Homemade God. On one hand, Joyce's writing style is as beautiful as ever, featuring expressive language and memorable characters. But in this case, the family that is center stage is so dysfunctional that I found it almost unbearable to read about them at their lowest depths.

Each of the four adult children, all in their thirties as the story unfolds, has a different--and often unhealthy--relationship with their artist father, who at age 76 declares gleefully that he is about to marry a 27-year-old that none of his family has met. He begs his children to visit him and his new bride in the family's vacation home in Italy, but before they can do so, their father tragically dies, leaving them to wonder what's happened to his final painting and how his estate will be divided

. The relationships between the adult children also become fraught and damaging. There is some redemption for a few of them much later in the book. but it wasn't soon enough for me. Other readers, however, may well find this a satisfying and provocative book.

My thanks to Random House/The Dial Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Rachel Joyce has written a wonderful family saga. Four children of a fairly famous artist father who is truly a force of nature must figure out who they are without a mother to help them. Though he is a very difficult person, they adore him.

After practically raising themselves and still close to each other, they find out their father has been seeing a woman younger than three of the siblings. Worse yet, he suddenly marries this stranger and a few weeks later is found dead. What follows is the heart of the story: how these interesting siblings come together, fall apart and then years later come together again.

Bella Mae, the young stepmother, is a puzzling counterpoint to the siblings’ rivalry until author Joyce ends their story and opens it from the stepmother’s point of view. The finale is very apt and rounds off a very interesting read.

This is a wonderful book. While the sibling reunion genre is ubiquitous these days, the Homemade God takes it to a different level.
The lives of the 3 sisters and 1 brother of the Kemp family center around their artist father, Vic. They ensure that he is free to pursue his art without needing to worry about them. They grow up free-range. After their mother dies, they spend much time at their beloved Villa Carlotta in Italy and are as close as siblings can be. They worship their father and believe that the adoration is mutual.
That is, until 27 year old Bella-Mae comes along and much older Vic finds himself in thrall. The children don’t know what to make of this turn of events and therein lies the tale.
When tragedy strikes, all hell breaks loose.
While some of this may sound familiar, in Rachel Joyce’s deft hands the story takes unexpected twists and turns. There is a surprise in every chapter thus making it impossible to put this book down. There is even a chapter that asks the reader to look at the story from an alternate point of view. Who was actually the villain in this story (if there was one)?
The characters of Netta, Susan, Goose, Iris, Vic, Bella-Mae, and Laszlo leap off the page. We know them in all their complexities. And we root for each of them even when they are at their nastiest.
The Homemade God is an exploration of family in all its beauty and heartbreak.

Something I am coming to terms with about myself is that I am absolutely lost over a good family saga. Seriously send me all of your recommendations because I will gorge myself until my dying day. I can't get enough of them, and The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce was no exception.

Vic Kemp, world-renowned artist, is dead, leaving his four (grown) children orphaned. Their upbringing was quite unusual with no mother and such an eccentric man as their patriarch, but they had one another. His death was unexpected, and his behavior in the weeks leading to the disaster leave the siblings with reasonable doubt as to the truth of what really happened to him. They all set off for the villa at Lake Ora where he drowned to await the autopsy results and to meet his very new, very young, very mysterious, wife for the first time.

Here is a direct quote from my reading journal as I neared the end of the book:: "Wow. What a study of human behavior. A complex web of emotion and the histories we hold about ourselves and those we know or love."

And that right there sums up my love of the great family sagas I have read. Families are complicated. So many personalities cooped up into one household to be raised in, each reacting differently to events that happen, each revealing a deep knowing of yourself to the others around you (even things you may not want them to know about you), at least, theoretically. There is also a part of us that no one can understand, not even ourselves. And all of it is messy.

Susan, Iris, Netta, and Goose (Gustavo) are each affected differently by the death of their father. As they process what it is to have lost him, and to come to terms with the man he was, it changes them, and even forces them to realize and accept things about themselves that they have denied or repressed for far too long.

I could probably write a dozen essays on the different threads of this novel I find fascinating, but for the purposes of a book review, I hate to spoil a single moment of the discovery of this story. The magic of it is meant to be experienced in the pages. But if it isn't obvious enough by now, I cannot recommend it highly enough for readers who are equally as fascinated by detailed character studies and families in crisis.

Drama, drama, drama.

I love it.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was not for me, the writing was okay but the characters and plot did not keep me intrigued.

I was so thrilled to see that Rachel Joyce had a new book coming out. She is a skilled writer in that her subject, settings, and characters are so varied from book to book. The common thread is that they all have a depth that pulls me in as a reader every time.

This book was no exception. I love a family drama with lots of siblings, and this one struck a chord. My family of origin has three girls and a boy, and this family had the same. The similarities ended here, as this family is very different from mine. I had a hard time finding any common ground with any of the main characters, but I was still intrigued.

The book starts very strong with a bit of a mystery. Vic Kemp is a 76-year-old, famous artist and the father of these four siblings. The mother passed many years ago, and Vic is dating and then marries a mysterious 27-year-old woman, Bella-Mae. Vic takes off to Italy with Bella-Mae, they get married, and soon after, Vic drowns. Is it an accident, or was there foul play at work?

The four siblings all congregate in Italy and their lake house to figure out what to do and how to live without their father. The grief, sibling dynamics, and relationship with Bella-Mae make for a compelling read. The unraveling of the siblings that caused a rift surprised me.

Joyce always delights me with her endings, and I loved this one as well!

A huge thank you to Random House/The Dial Press for providing me a digital copy in exchange for my honest review via NetGalley.

The Homemade God is a poignant and layered exploration of grief, family dynamics, and the complicated legacy of a larger-than-life parent. Rachel Joyce masterfully captures the emotional landscape of four adult siblings grappling with the sudden death of their famous, difficult father and the unsettling presence of his much-younger new wife. Set against the idyllic backdrop of Lake Orta, the novel unfolds with both wit and tenderness as the siblings wrestle with old rivalries, childhood wounds, and the truth behind their father’s final days. The mystery of the missing will and unfinished painting adds intrigue, but it's the emotional unraveling—and reconnection—of the family that truly captivates.
Awarded four stars, The Homemade God is a beautifully written meditation on the power of memory, the weight of familial expectations, and the struggle to redefine oneself in the wake of loss. While some plot points feel a bit familiar in the genre of literary family drama, the novel stands out for its nuanced character work and moments of unexpected humor and grace. Joyce brings warmth and insight to a story that ultimately reminds us that healing is rarely linear—and love, in all its imperfect forms, is worth fighting for.

I found The Homemade God extremely sad. Full of family drama, alcoholism and dysfunction, it follows 3 adult children on a journey of self awareness.

I had to DNF this book at 40%. I couldn't get engaged. I tried, but the emotionally stunted, almost cartoon characters of the siblings had me simultaneously yawning and rolling my eyes. Sadly the "mystery" of Bella-Mae and the demise of Vic was not enough to keep me reading. Combine the character development with the repetition and bloated descriptions of things and...I just couldn't anymore.