The Christmas Orphans Club | Becca Freeman
"in order to keep living, you need to move on."
Following Hannah, Finn, Priya, and Theo over a span of
years, The Christmas Orphans Club is about four best friends who don't
have family to spend Christmas with, so they spend it with each other. After a
tumultuous few years, Hannah finally feels settled with her friendships until
Finn drops a bomb: he's moving to LA. Now Hannah feels the need to make this
Christmas better than ever, but there's still some cracks in her personal life
that are starting to grow larger. This book is a love letter to friendship, to
New York, and to growing up.
The premise is that Hannah and Finn became college friends
over one Christmas they spent together on campus because, for different
reasons, they weren't with family that day. Hannah is an actual orphan, with a
sister who is not interested in having a relationship, and Finn was disowned by
his parents when he came out. Thus, after that holiday in sophomore year, began
a holiday tradition. Along the way, these Christmas orphans added two more
members to their club - Theo, the forgotten son of a billionaire, and Priya, a
fashionista from India who isn’t used to celebrating the holiday.
It's mostly about friendship and found family, but it's also
a very layered story that's also about love (including LGBTQIA+ romance),
biological family drama, and growing up. Hannah is terrified of losing the
family she's built for herself, even as her seemingly perfect boyfriend nudges
her toward commitment. Meanwhile, Finn struggles with the things he's about to
leave behind--namely, his unexpressed feelings for Theo. They all need to take
stock of their lives and grow up, but who says they can’t have some fun while
doing it?
Something that did not work for me in this novel was Priya.
Her character was underdeveloped and one-dimensional, and she came off completely
unlikable. I kept wondering throughout the book why Hannah, Finn, and Theo were
even friends with her because she didn’t seem to enjoy the holidays, or even
their group, as much as they did. Her sarcasm and negative attitude grated my
nerves, and I kept wishing that the Orphans Club would just kick her to the
curb.
Christmas is a hard time for a lot of people, and I love
that this book celebrated the season while also acknowledging the complicated
feelings many of those celebrants may have. It’s very much a modern,
non-traditional Christmas story and I think even those that aren’t seasonal
book readers will eat this right up!
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