Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

OMG I loved this. So much. I read it in a day (which is not saying a ton, because since the pandemic I have been reading at an astounding rate, more than is really sustainable, but I couldn't put it down). I think that it is not the best thing that I have read this year, or maybe not even this month, but I liked it the most. This is openly spoken of as a homage to Louise May Alcott's Little Women, but it is more about the relationship of four sisters than a retelling of that story. In fact it starts without them in it. William Waters grows up in a home where he is unloved. His elder sister died and his parents never recovered from the grief of it. He was ignored, and grew up much like an orphan, without intimacy or much of a capacity for it. He did have basketball, which sustained him on several levels, but he lacked a lot. So when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it's as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, Her Whitman quoting father, her warm and generous mother, and her three sisters: Sylvie, the family's dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos. But Julia has a future planned for them that doesn't quite suit William, and so the darkness from his past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia's carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters' relationship to one another. The characters are richly drawn, believable and recognizable, and altogether wonderful. I wish there was more attention to why William is the way he ends up, but that might be asking too much.