The Vacationers by Emma Straub | Rating: ★★★★★Emma Straub has a way with words that makes her stories pleasant and intriguing; anyone who has read anything by her knows this. In her latest release, The Vacationers (out May 29th, 2014!), she proves all of this and more by opening up the pages of a family as they embark on a needed vacation in celebration of their youngest child’s graduation before they see her off to college.
The Posts are an incredibly believable family who bring more than just their materialistic baggage upon their travels. In each person lay an array of thoughts and troubles that make each of them come to life in their narratives. Sylvia is the youngest, having just graduated high school, and with her she brings a list of things she wishes to accomplish before heading off to university. Bobby is the oldest child and doesn’t spend a great deal with his family due to him living at quite the distance.
Tying up the Posts are Franny and Jim, who have recently hit a rocky patch in their relationship in recent months and Franny is determined to keep this a secret from most people, it seems. We’re left wondering what the fate of their marriage will be by the end of the novel and can’t help but to root for them, in spite of one major mistake one half of this relationship made before the evens of the novel.
Featured guests during this family trip include family friends Charles and Lawrence, an incredibly lovely married couple who are awaiting an adoption to start their own family, and the eldest Posts child’s girlfriend, Carmen.
