Kier Scrivener's Reviews > Hello Beautiful

I wept. Such a beautiful, intimate, messy retelling of the March sisters set in 1980s Chicago. The Padavano sisters are as close as bones weaved together, with their strong willed mother and their poetry quoting often drunk father, they make up a chaotic household that argues over which one of them is Jo March and says they are Beth when they are sick or devastated.

William Waters grew up with parents who not only didn't love him, but didn't look at him. He grows up making himself smaller and properer while dribbling on the court. His life collides with Julia Padavano is freshman year of college and she scopes him out by introducing him to her three younger sisters.

This book is full of friendship and art, looking at stars and considering the world, small acts of kindness and community and the distance that comes between those who were once inseperable. It also kindly and with compassion looks at mental health.

I say a retelling of the March sisters and not of Little Women because it doesn't follow the story arc of the novel but it does embody the dynamics, love and adventure of the sisters. If you watched the 2019 movie and thought I want more sisters talking over each other, cuddling and having deep longings and desires that don't always allign with the others' view of how their lives should be than this is your book.

This is my second of Napolitano's books and the second that stole my heart both with misery and joy. She has a real gift of capturing full embodied characters and their mental health, grief and connections. Both ptotagionists also use their suffering to better understand those around them and this one with the basketball teams just flanking William as he went through big moments, sitting with him and showing up. I just loved how people showed up for people in this novel.