The Unwedding
Reese's Book Club Pick (A Novel)
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3.4 • 597 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK
“Our June Reese’s Book Club pick is the perfect summer read!!! The Unwedding by Ally Condie opens with a wedding at a gorgeous resort in Big Sur... but everything begins to fall apart when the main character Ellery discovers a dead body the morning of the ceremony.”
– Reese Witherspoon
The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie in this bold novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling author, “a knife’s-edge whodunit that’s as much a thriller as it is an exquisite meditation on grief and loss.” (Nicola Yoon)
Ellery Wainwright is alone at the edge of the world.
She and her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their twentieth wedding anniversary together at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California. Where better to celebrate a marriage, a family, and a life together than at one of the most stunning places on earth?
But now she’s traveling solo.
To add insult to injury, there’s a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now, she isn’t certain of anything except for her love for her kids and her growing realization that this place, though beautiful, is unsettling.
When Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool in the rain, she realizes that she is not the only one whose future is no longer guaranteed. Before the police can reach Broken Point, a mudslide takes out the road to the resort, leaving the guests trapped. When another guest dies, it’s clear something horrible is brewing.
Everyone at Broken Point has a secret. And everyone has a shadow. Including Ellery.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Best-selling YA fantasy star Ally Condie (Matched) makes an assured, stylish shift in her first adult mystery. Happily married mom Ellery had booked a luxurious Big Sur vacation for her 20th wedding anniversary—before her cheating husband left her to take the trip alone. She also hadn’t expected the resort to be hosting an enormous wedding…where the bride would get stood up at the altar. Or that the next morning, Ellery would find the groom’s lifeless body in the pool. Or that a sudden storm would trap everyone at the resort, leaving her and two other nonwedding guests to figure out if there’s a killer among them. Condie has constructed both a clever locked-room mystery and a very relatable portrait of a middle-aged woman in crisis as everything she thought she knew about love, marriage, and family is suddenly called into question.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A divorcée discovers a corpse during her California vacation in the formulaic adult debut from YA bestseller Condie (after The Only Girl in Town). Forty-something Ellery Wainwright initially booked her stay at the luxurious Resort in Big Sur to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary. After her husband left her for another woman, she decided to keep the reservation and indulge in a solo getaway. When Ellery arrives at the resort, she learns a wedding is being held there, and she'll be one of the few guests who's not involved. The next morning, she heads out for a swim and is stunned to discover the groom's lifeless body floating in the infinity pool. A sudden storm hits, isolating the staff and vacationers from the outside world and impeding the arrival of the police. Ellery teams up with two other nonwedding guests, Nina and Ravi, to do a little detecting. They soon discover that the wedding party has darker secrets than appearances suggest, and race to find the killer before the body count rises. Unfortunately, Condie's characters are paper-thin, and she resolves the mystery with a series of implausible contrivances. This misses the mark.
Customer Reviews
Meh.
I read this since it was placed in Big Sur (a town nearby)
I read 70% of the way and I was about done. I did finish and the ending. It seemed to be a bit jumbled and rushed towards the end. We get the murderer, assumptions of his background & more added info to what I felt an already crowded plot🤷🏽♀️
But I liked that we get into Ellery’s head with her family life and how she’s still ‘healing’ over the bus accident.
Reese Book Club Flop #2000
it’s okay. it feels like there was no character mapping prior to writing - like when you’re a kid on the play ground and make up things about your pretend character on the spot that don’t really advance the plot but you want that to be a part of them.
slow never ending read
Book club read… Reading this made me feel like I was listening to teenage girls tell me about their Clue game. There are so many irrelevant parts in every chapter. The main character, Ellery, is suffocating with her “if I die will anyone notice” type attitude. Especially the comments about being “so thirsty, probably from all the crying.”
Maybe a junior high student might enjoy the read for some AR points?