Husbands

4 Stars – Binge-worthy and engaging, but…

Thank you to NetGalley and Spring Street Books for providing me with an ARC of “Husbands: Love and Lies in La-La Land” by Mo Fanning in exchange for an honest review.

I had a really hard time rating this one.

You’d think a book you binge through the night into the early morning hours would be an easy 5 stars, right? And I certainly did. Binge it, that is. It was past 2am and my eyes were stinging from staring at the screen too long when I finally reached the last words of Husbands and could go to sleep without my mind whirring in anticipation of whether Kyle was careening towards a train wreck of an ending or if the ridiculous man would find his way out of all the trouble he’d gotten himself into.

That alone should be testament to what Fanning has achieved here.

That being said, I still had some issues with it. The biggest being that if I were browsing the shelves at a bookstore and this one caught my eye, I’d have put it back down after reading the prologue and missed out on a wonderfully entertaining narrative.

The writing in the prologue is brusque and choppy. It does a fair job at emulating the kind of lack of focus that can come with inebriation, but the execution is off somehow; which is to say that as a point of first contact with the book, I had no idea if this was just the way Fanning writes.

Those first few pages are critical for me in choosing what to invest my time in. More often than not I can get a feel for whether something will work for me in the first couple paragraphs. In this respect, "Husbands" fails spectacularly.

Even into the first chapter I was on the fence about continuing. It does start strong, don’t get me wrong. The opening lines are punchy, full of personality, and just do a wonderful job at establishing the narrative voice. The character work here is certainly one of the book’s best selling points. Even the supporting characters feel distinct.

But there was something about the pacing and the section breaks that just didn’t work for me in the first chapter. Too fast maybe? It has that quality of writing where you just know there are things you have to write to get to the stuff you actually want to write.

It wasn’t until chapter 2 that I really felt sold on the story and settled in for the ride. And don’t ask me why, but this is the moment that really caught me:

“You’re going to abandon our friendship like this? The next time you see me, I might be on stage at an awards show, thanking Jesus and everyone who believed in me. Thanking you.”
She stares straight ahead, pretending not to hear.
“What if I agree to buy coffee and doughnuts?”
Milly groans and climbs out of the cab while I mutter thanks to the God of sugar-coated, deep-fried dough.

It’s just the perfect combination of petulance and humor. I could practically see the eye-roll and sigh. And it had the feeling of being the kind of thing that’s happened between these two numerous times over the course of their friendship, serving to flesh out their characters and history beyond what the scope of the text would otherwise have allowed. It’s a great example of writing that effectively shows more than it tells.

From there I was pretty much flipping pages (or scrolling in this case). The narrative really finds its stride and I was hooked right until the end.

There are a lot of other things I could say about "Husbands," nitpicky things about the speed and way that the relationship develops, or the kinds of drama unfolding with how utterly idiotic Kyle seems as he puts his trust in complete strangers. Situational bonding is always hit or miss with me, and based on Kyle’s characterisation it makes perfect sense for him to bend under pressure or to really want to believe that not everyone is going to betray him. I think those sorts of things could easily work for other readers as they, at times, didn’t for me.

Still, Fanning achieves a lot with "Husbands," managing to deal with the sensitive issue of exploitation of minors in the film industry with a deft hand. <spoiler> Noah’s feelings are complicated and messy and both make a whole lot of sense and don’t at the same time. I truly appreciate that he isn’t just reduced to the role of “victim” and that the issue is given the gravity it deserves. </spoiler>

Overall, I enjoyed Husbands and would recommend it to anyone looking for an engaging read with riveting characters and a wild ride of ups and downs and deception galore!

This was a good book. I really love the world building and the characters. The pacing was really good and it kept the story moving and I was engaged the entire time as a reader