Destination Funeral by Paige Harbison

About the Book:

When Babe―the complicated, magnetic matriarch of their teenage summers―dies, four estranged friends return to sleepy Mercy Island, a storm-swept stretch of coastal Georgia, summoned by the reading of her will.

Didion arrives at the timeworn pink house to find the friends she never thought she’d see again―along with the tensions, attractions, and unfinished business that once bound them together and broke them apart.

What should be a brief weekend of small talk quickly unravels when they wake up and discover...it’s Saturday. Again. And again. And again.

Trapped in a time loop with no end and no instructions, they’re forced to confront the betrayals, breakups, and buried truths that shattered them all those years ago. Because maybe, just maybe, an endless weekend is exactly what they all need to save their own lives.

My Review:

This is an enjoyable novel that explores life and what one can do, how we experience grief. The characters are drawn lifelike. There is magical realism included as time repeats, like Groundhog Day. That provided time for contemplation of life and actions and the rebuilding of relationships. This book is a new twist on an old theme. It's entertaining but not spectacular.

St Martin's Press, 352 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-An exceptional book, 4-Better than average, relevant and liked by me, 3-It is average, 2-It is below average and not liked by me, 1-It is practically unreadable.)