I really enjoyed Jennifer Weiner's latest novel. It was told from multiple view points and jumped back and forth in time to tell the story of two sisters who were part of a hit band.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an audio-ARC of The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner.
The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits portrays a typical Jennifer Weiner theme; fat girl vs. pretty girl. At times this theme was overused albeit understood. The story is told in alternating view points and timelines and Weiner does a great job keeping the story is to follow. Overall, this is a solid story about the music industry and the cost of being famous.

The Griffin Sisters: Greatest Hits is an absolute gem. I loved every page of it. The characters felt real and sharp, the sister dynamics were messy in all the right ways, and the humor hit perfectly. It had heart, chaos, and so many moments that made me pause just to enjoy the writing. Easily a 10 out of 10 for me. I didn’t want it to end.

I loved this audiobook. It’s packed with 2000s pop nostalgia, complicated sister dynamics, and that bittersweet magic of second chances. Dakota Fanning’s narration is chef’s kiss—emotional, pitch-perfect, and totally immersive. You really feel like you're living inside the rise and fall of a pop duo that defined a generation.

Cassie and Zoe are so real—flawed, fierce, and full of history. One chased fame, the other hid from it, and watching their past and present collide through the eyes of Zoe’s daughter, Cherry, gave it this fresh, emotional twist. Plus, the original song in the audio version? Such a cool bonus—it ties the whole story together beautifully.

If you’re into music-centered fiction, messy family stories, or just want a great bingeable listen, this one absolutely hits the right notes.

Great setting, good characters, loved the complicated family dynamics. You really want them all to heal, move forward, and really enjoy what they make of it.

Yet another phenomenal read from Jennifer Weiner. I love an author whose every story is completely distinct and unique. The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits is not just another story of a band, its a lifelong back and forth that spans for decades. Truly beautifully done!

I have read a number of Jennifer Weiner's books over the years and enjoyed them, mostly as lighter reads. The last one of hers that I read, The Summer Place, I found to be much deeper and quite moving. The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits continues that progression into deeply nuanced and layered fiction that explores profound questions of ambition, forgiveness, and the way society deals with women and the vulnerable.

I was simply blown away by this story. I feel that Weiner has written the book she was always meant to write in that it carries through on many of the themes of her earlier works.

Highly recommended.

Specific to the audio version, I very much enjoyed the narrator; thought her tone was pitch perfect (no pun intended).

This is a book about family sacrifice and the power of talent. It's about two sisters, one wildly pretty and the other wildly talented. They start a musical group as teenagers at the urging of the pretty one. They become overnight sensations thanks largely to the talents of the other. Then, one night on tour, things come crumbling down. The group disbands. One of the sisters disappears and over a decade later, they haven't spoken to each other. Worlds, however, have a way of colliding and eventually, the past comes calling. I am a huge fan of Jennifer Weiner and while this one wasn't my favorite of hers I've read, I still very much enjoyed it.

Really enjoyable, but with characters you don't particularly like all that much. A lot of putting themselves first, especially Cherry. and her Mom.

I was initially intrigued by "The Giffin Sisters' Greatest Hits", especially given its comparisons to Daisy Jones & The Six. I went in hoping for a similarly immersive, emotionally charged, music-driven story—but unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit the same notes for me.

When viewed on its own, the book felt flat. The characters lacked the depth and spark I was hoping for, and the storytelling didn’t quite pull me in the way I’d expected. Even as I tried to separate it from the comparison, I still struggled to stay fully engaged.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dakota Fanning, and her narration didn’t help matters. She doesn’t differentiate the voices of the characters much, which made it hard to follow who was speaking at times and contributed to the overall flatness of the experience.

It wasn’t a bad read, just not a standout for me. I wouldn’t call it a favorite, but it might still appeal to readers who enjoy a quieter story with a nostalgic musical backdrop.

Thank you to Jennifer Weiner, Dakota Fanning, Harper Audio, and NetGalley for sending me the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Jennifer Weiner is so widely regarded as the queen of summery stories, and generally I agree! I'm not sure if it was the audio or the story itself, but sadly, I just couldn't get invested in this one.

3.5!

3.5 Stars

Teenage Cherry is an aspiring music star. She knows her mom was once part of a famous Pop/Rock Band, but has no idea why her mom doesn't want to talk about it, and strongly desires Cherry to run fast and far from all things music.
Zoe, Cherry's mom, rose to fast fame alongside her sister Cassie. She left the music behind her long ago and no longer has any communication whatsoever with her sister. She has fully embraced her new role as PTA mom to Cherry and her two younger brothers.
Cassie is living alone in Alaska and feels like she must punish herself with isolation for some act she committed along the rise to fame of her and Zoe's band, The Griffin Sisters. What we find out through the story is why she feels so terrible, and what happened to the band.

This book had a lot going right for it: a fresh storyline, multiple perspectives, dual timelines, intrigue, beautiful writing and a fun basis for a book. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect at all with either Zoe or Cassie, and I found the decisions they made to be entirely unbelievable (and sometimes unforgivable). The author spends SO MUCH time writing about Cassie's larger body size and calling her fat that it was honestly uncomfortable to read. I don't find this to be body-positive or affirming, it just felt mean and insulting. I love the idea of including larger sized women in stories, and exposing the prejudice they might face and the difficulties of living in a culture obsessed with being thin, but there has to be a better way.

I kept with the book through the end because I wanted to see how the story played out, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone.
I read this book via audiobook, and found the narration to be very well done. It would have been cool to hear the music dispersed throughout the story, but I understand that's not often done.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book was a lot deeper than I ever thought it would be. There were many twists and turns, and I loved how well the characters were written.

This book started off pretty bleak, with the hardships their mother dealt with and Cassie's sad situation, but I really fell in love with the characters and enjoyed their journey. And Dakota Fanning's narration was wonderful!

This was a beautiful story by Jennifer Weiner! It is a tale of the complicated relationship of two sisters, and one of them is neurodivergent in a period of time where that was not fully understood. I really enjoyed this book.

I have to start by saying that Weiner’s book GOOD IN BED is the book that turned me into a reader. So to say I am a big fan does not quite capture how I feel about her writing. So, when I say this book may be my new favorite by Weiner says A LOT! This book has everything…the story, the characters, the excitement, the emotions (highs and lows), the tension, the heartbreak…everything was pure gold! I could not stop reading/listening!!! It was brilliantly done. I was invested immediately. It all came together beautifully…but it was not without love, loss, struggles and triumphs. Such an emotionally charged read that will leave you wanting more!!! I highly recommend this amazing story.

I enjoyed the narrator’s voice but the book was too long and could have benefited with being edited down a bit. I never felt invested in the story or the characters.

Thank you so much to Harper Audio for the gifted audiobook!

I was so excited for this one! I am always a sucker for family drama, especially sister drama as I have two sisters of my own! I also love books surrounding all this music!

While the premise sounded so promising, I did struggle to keep interested throughout this one. There were things I liked, but overall, I kept wanting to put off picking it up.

I still think it will be a big hit with many though!

This is out now!

I have mixed feelings about this book! On one hand, I've never met a music industry book I didn't try to like, but on the other, this book was WAY TOO LONG. I was definitely interested in the story and in the conflicts between the sisters, but why did the story have to be dragged out so much? It felt like this book needed one more round of edits to fully flesh it out.

I was also put off by the sheer number of times this book mentioned Cassie's weight. I get it - it was the early 2000's and all of the pop-stars were skinny, but why did it need to be mentioned so often? It felt like overkill and the need to mention it so much started to grate on me and feel lowkey fatphobic after a while. We get it! She's fat but talented!

Overall I will say the story gripped me and I was definitely interested enough to keep reading, but the characters felt a little one dimensional and it felt like the story was too long and trying to do too much. Also, Dakota Fanning did a great job, but why not hire a Jewish narrator for a book so laden with Jewish culture?

I’ve read several of Jennifer Weiner’s books, and one thing I’ve noticed that’s true in most (all?) of her stories is there’s always a big girl. Now, don’t get me wrong - I have nothing whatsoever against that. I’m a big girl myself, and so I really appreciate when an author includes a plus-sized heroine in their book. The problem, for me, starts when the author focuses TOO MUCH negative attention on the heroine’s size, which was the case with this book. Every other sentence is either Cassie (the character in question) thinking horribly about herself because of her weight or some other character saying horrible things about her weight. Believe me, I can truly understand Cassie’s lack of self-esteem and self-confidence about her body, but the negativity in this book was too over the top for my liking. Neither of the sisters, Cassie and Zoe, have any redeeming qualities. Cassie lets people walk all over her because she thinks she deserves it, for some strange reason, and Zoe is the entitled one who’s gorgeous and uses that to manipulate everyone around her. Those are my main gripes with The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits. It had the potential to be a wonderful story, but it leans heavily toward Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six. The way the characters talk and dress feel like it should be set in the late 70s or early 80s and not 2003 and 2024. (And Cassie resembles the late singer Mama Cass so much in this story it’s hard to differentiate the two). I wanted to stop listening halfway through this audiobook, and the only thing that kept me going was Dakota Fanning, who is a great narrator. If you enjoy books with a bunch of family dynamics and the love/hate relationship between sisters, then you will probably love this book, but it was, unfortunately, a big miss for me. Fingers crossed Weiner’s next book will be a bit more uplifting and positive.