Bug Hollow

A Novel

By: Michelle Huneven

Narrated by: Emily Rankin

“Perfectly captures the unpredictability of life . . . Right down to its final moments, Huneven casually offers up little revelations that crunch as sweet and tart as pomegranate seeds.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post

“Instantly seduces even the most news-addled reader with its lovely, lucid prose, its spot-on period details and superb gift for description . . . Huneven remains a compassionate guide through the secrets and lies, betrayals and chance encounters, losses and disappointments that buffet this broken and remade family over time." —Helen Schulman, New York Times Book Review

Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus and Oprah Daily

A decades-spanning family saga featuring the messy but loving Samuelson clan trying to make sense of the world after one event changes their lives forever

When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother, Ellis, went missing the summer he graduated from high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture of the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but died in a freak accident weeks later.

From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep. Each Samuelson has sought their own solace: Sybil Samuelson pours herself into teaching and numbing her pain after the loss of her beloved son; her husband, Phil, had found respite in a love that developed while he was working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia; Katie, the high-achieving middle Samuelson, comes home to try and make peace with her mother after a cancer diagnosis. And Sally has become the de facto caretaker to Eva, the child Ellis never knew.

Michelle Huneven is “known for five enthralling novels, which chronicle the lives of middle-class Americans in her lushly conjured native California, as her characters struggle with addiction, excruciating romances, and resounding losses as they continue to seek meaning and a way to be good” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). She captures the Samuelson clan with glorious precision and the deepest empathy as they fracture and rebuild again and again.

Beach read without romance

Starts off well but then becomes a Hallmark movie. The characters grow but rarely show much emotional depth. As a reader I just didn’t empathise. (Or care).
The exception and best writing of the book was around the character JD.

Family is Everything?

3.5 Stars. Interesting story of an Ordinary family living their lives and eventually coming full circle, back to each other and themselves

Breezy but not deep

For me, the characters didn’t grab me much, nor have they stayed with me. I want there to be more of an emotional catch with a story. This was a bit vanilla and flat for me. It’s as if none of the characters grew, they just became older versions of themselves.

Well written, but didn't hang together

I enjoyed listening to this book but there were too many threads that never got followed. I was left a bit dissatisfied at the end.

A good steady book.

I enjoyed the story and narration. It held my interest until the end. It was a pleasant surprise.