By: Angelica Baker
Narrator: Imani Jade Powers
ISBN: 9781250381521
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Flatiron Books
Publication Date: 2/25/2025
Format: Audio
My Rating: 3 Stars (ALC)
For fans of Fleishman is in Trouble and Such a Fun Age, an electrifying novel about six longtime friends whose tropical vacation is interrupted by an unexpected crisis, forcing them to ask how strong their bonds really are
Clare is supposed to be the grown-up one. Married to the love of her life, with a major deal for her first novel, she has everything she thought she wanted. So then why does it all feel so wrong? When she agrees to a weeklong vacation with five of her oldest friends, she is hoping for an escape with the people who know her best. There is Jessie, who won’t stop talking about her new boyfriend; Mac, trying to pretend he hasn’t outgrown the group; Kyle, the eternal peacemaker; and Renzo, who brought them all together but keeps picking fights. And then, of course, there’s Liam, the guy Clare has barely seen since high school but somehow can’t get out of her head—or her bed.
But when a terrifying news alert shatters their peace, it becomes harder to ignore how much the world has changed since they were teenagers. As the resentments and tensions that have always simmered just beneath the surface begin to boil, Clare must ask if their shared history is enough to sustain their friendships, or if growing up might mean letting go.
With crackling wit and emotional fearlessness, When We Grow Up is a provocative portrait of friendship in a world that feels ever more unrecognizable and a searing exploration of what it means to be a good person.
My Review
Angelica Baker's WHEN WE GROWN UP is a moody-like tale of six 30s long-time friends united in Hawaii when an unexpected crisis occurs, forcing them to explore their friendship.
About...
Clare is married with a significant deal for her first novel. She agrees to a weeklong vacation in Hawaii with five of her oldest friends as they all are approaching 30.
Jessie has a new boyfriend; Mac pretends he has not outgrown the group; Kyle is the peacemaker, and Renzo is the one who brought them together but stirs up trouble. Liam is one Clare who has been unable to get out of her head (and more) since high school.
Then, there is a news alert, both terrifying and alarming. This group's world has changed since they were teens. Have they grown up, grown apart, or have nothing in common? Have they had enough life experience to learn and gain wisdom?
My thoughts...
While WHEN WE GROW UP was not for me, I think a younger generation might enjoy it more. I am not in this age group or have a mindset like any of these characters. There is a lot of drinking, complaining, and partying, with conversations of complex racism, sexism, homophobia, and other social and political issues.
A cast of unlikable characters did not help or allow you to be invested in them. The author highlights good vs evil, and her writing is good, but the characters detract from the enjoyment.
As some other reviewers mentioned, I'm unsure how I would classify this novel, but I think it would have been better as a short story. Maybe friendship, family, coming of age, but it did not strike me as literary, which I enjoy.
Audiobook...
I listened to the audiobook, and while I enjoyed the narrator, Imani Jade Powers gave an outstanding performance; however, the constant complaining ruined the experience. Often, it got confusing with one narrator and multiple characters.
I cannot even imagine being friends or having anything in common with anyone from high school. I left my hometown early on and have had great life experiences traveling independently, seeing the world, working, creating, owning a business, and living in numerous places and states that all help you grow and flourish.
I would read other books by this author on different topics, and she proposes some thought-provoking questions. I wish this group could have enjoyed Hawaii as such a beautiful place and got outside themselves.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced listening copy for an honest review. #MacAudio2025.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pub Date: Feb 25, 2025
Praise
“Will appeal to readers who gravitate toward dramatic relationship fiction, a sort of cross between Hanya Yanihariga’s A Little Life and the 1985 Brat Pack movie St. Elmo’s Fire.”
―Library Journal
“Sharply observed, sardonic, engaging, intimate, and evocative, When We Grow Up delves into the ways we try and fail to form and foster friendships, both before and after we know how to love well or thoughtfully. It confronts the damage that we cause, the violences we miss, as we bumble through discovering who we are. An exploration of how impossible it can feel, in the face of a world that seems so often invested in our imminent destruction, to want and know how to be good.”
―Lynn Steger Strong, author of Flight
“When We Grow Up is novel as anthropological investigation, a study of the class of people for whom adulthood begins at thirty. I laughed, I winced, and I saw much I recognized in Baker’s exploration of how the self is forged not only by the circumstances of our birth and family and education but by our peers and friends.”
―Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Entitlement and Leave the World Behind
Praise for Our Little Racket
“Baker is wildly talented and this debut is her gorgeous opening note.”
―Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, bestselling author of The Nest
“I read [Our Little Racket] greedily, in one dizzying weekend, unable to put it down. . . . The book gets beyond moneymaking hubris to a more basic kind of desire―the fretful, shapeless longing of those who are sidelined to be seen somehow as indispensable.”
―The Atlantic
“Never less than gripping . . . It’s impossible not to be swept up in the hard universal truths uncovered within its pages.”
―Nylon
“A classic page-turner . . . Elegant writing and razor-sharp analysis.”
―Connecticut Post
About the Author
Photo Credit: CALDER MULLER
Angelica Baker is the author of the novels Our Little Racket and When We Grow Up. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Vogue, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Literary Hub. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her husband and two sons. WEBSITE
