The Weekenders

By: Mary Kay Andrews

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney

Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Some people stay all summer long on the idyllic island of Belle Isle, North Carolina. Some people come only for the weekends - and it's something they look forward to all week long. When Riley Griggs is waiting for her husband to arrive at the ferry one Friday afternoon, she is instead served with papers informing her that her island home is being foreclosed. To make matters worse, her husband is nowhere to be found.

She turns to her island friends for help and support, but all of them have their own secrets, and the clock is ticking as the mystery deepens. Cocktail parties and crab boil aside, Riley must find a way to investigate the secrets of Belle Island, the husband she might not really know, and the summer that could change everything.

©2016 Whodunnit, Inc. (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Don't waste your weekend

A book marketed as "a great summer read" should be somewhat enjoyable. This was almost unbearable. My ears are still ringing from the bratty 12 year old (completely unbelievable character) and her nagging, doormat mother. By the time you find out who-done-it...you don't care (you will have figured it out anyway). Nothing about this book was believable or enjoyable.

Kathleen McInerney...next time your agent gives you a book with a whiny teenager and old women, say no. You're a fave, but this was a bust!

Unbearably boring.

I really disliked this book. It was so insanely boring. Nothing ever happens until the last 15 mins or so. It's just a woman complaining about her life for 60+ chapters. Definitely would not recommend.

Very Disappointing!

What about Kathleen McInerney’s performance did you like?

I really liked the narrator. It was the only reason that I finished the book.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment! I have read every one of Mary Kay Andrew's books and have really enjoyed them. However, this book was terrible! Mary Kay: please bring back your old style of writing with less cursing and characters that are enjoyable!

Mary Kay Andrews, always good, but....

I really have only one complaint -- and I mostly got over that half-way through the book. But is it possible for a narrator to be TOO good?

In the first half of this book, Riley's 12 year old daughter comes off as absolutely insufferable. Whiny, demanding, needy, arrogant, nasty, vicious, disobedient -- you name it. It was so bad I actually considered ending my listen -- I just couldn't stand being in the company (so to speak) of a child who so desperately needed a few swipes across her butt, or at least being locked into her room for some significant period. Seriously, it was hard to listen to. And Riley -- the mother -- didn't help any, as she constantly gave in to the spoiled little brat, accommodating her every whim, doing everything possible to please the tyrant. I was sick and tired of both of them.

At some point, it got better. For one thing, the daughter moved off-stage, so to speak, for awhile, and for another, she had a few moments of sanity, where her conduct improved enough to tolerate.

I haven't seen the paper version of this book, and I'm wondering, if in the printed word, the little monster would seem equally insufferable, or whether it was just a case of a narrator really pouring it on, as my father used to say.

Other than that, "The Weekenders" was vintage Mary Kay Andrews, which is a good book by any standard, although none of these other characters of hers will ever equal Weezie and Bebe, whom I miss, and wish there were more books about them.

Is Mary Kay using a ghost writer? Her early books

Her early books were entertaining and funny. I couldn't wait for each new one. Her last 3 books have been mediocre at best and no humor at all. I am a very disappointed listener.

Really?

I know I’m old school, and I make no apologies for that, but the daughter character in this book made me crazy, as did the mom. The little witch could call names, cuss, say anything she wanted with no reprimand whatsoever from the mom. The unreality of that situation took me totally out of the story several times. What a shame, as the storyline was interesting, but the character interaction was not realistic.

Our kids are not royalty, they're kids.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Weekenders to be better than the print version?

I

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the story, but the way the girl (12 yrs old or so) talked to her mother and the way the author had the mother respond to this type of talk drove me up a wall. I am so tired of society spoiling our children and allowing them to talk to adults the way they do, and this book had classic examples of the disrespect and non response that I see every day out there in our real world.
I liked the story, and frankly, it was typical of many of the types of people I have around me in my world. For that reason, and based on the world I live in, it was quite believable, all the way around.

Not MKA's best. Not even her 20th best....

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD (relationship only, not the murder): The book takes all the fun out of dysfunctional. The narration is very good, but the story is depressing, and not in any redeemable way. There is a murder mystery, which is not the worst ever written but is nothing remarkable. There is the trademark dose of MKA snark with some clever putdown quips. There is a romance, but the story provides no reason for a happy relationship ending other than a couple of evenings in bed. Riley, our heroine, seems to have few admirable qualities. She supposedly had a highly successful career at one point, but when we meet her she is a bullied doormat, subservient to her 12-year-old daughter, overbearing mother, drunken brother, and even her murdered husband. I never understood how she could forgive and accept the most heinous offenses of her family members but still hold a grudge against her college ball date, Nate, for getting drunk and throwing up. She kept revisiting his youthful offense in spite of overwhelming evidence of his currently excellent character and his unwavering mature devotion. The only reason for the eventual happy ending was Nate's long-standing obsession with the girl he loved years ago and her eventual grudging acceptance of him. This story has such a hastily concluded and unresolved happy ending that I can only see a bad future for Nate. He ends up with a spoiled and bratty step-daughter, an alcoholic brother-in-law, a snobby mother-in-law, and a wife who sides with her dysfunctional family over the one truly good person in her life.

Terrible

No redeeming quality here. Both the story and the narrator are boring and cliched. Simply painful.

Entertaining

The plot kept me intrigued, and the author presented a good storyline. I narrator was easily understandable.

Tepid

Cliched characters, none of whom were in the slightest likable. The story line was predictable from the outset. Utter drivel!