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All the Words We Know
By Bruce Nash
Atria, July 1, 2025, 240pp

The Short of It:

Dark with humor.

The Rest of It:

Rose may be in her eighties and suffering from dementia, but she’s not done with life just yet. Alternately sharp as a tack and spectacularly forgetful, she spends her days roaming the corridors of her assisted living facility, musing on the staff and residents, and enduring visits form her emotionally distant children and granddaughters. But when her friend is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, Rose embarks on an eccentric and determined investigation to discover the truth and uncover all manner of secrets…even some from her own past. ~ publisher

All the Words We Know surprised me. Rose is this sweet, charming lady whose grasp of the English language is slipping ever so slightly. Words like “elevator” become “relevator” and her interactions with the other residents are one-sided at best, and sometimes not even with the living!

But, she’s sharp. Very sharp, so when strange things begin to happen at the assisted living facility, she finds herself conducting her own investigation into what is going on. She befriends a trans employee who provides warnings, but are they REAL warnings or Rose’s imagination at work again?

I was intrigued by this story. Rose’s observations are colored by dementia but as the story comes together, I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to know what the heck was going on and what was up with hat facility?

All of the players, the “angry” nurse, the “scare/care” manager, the nice boy with a mop, provide ways for the story to move forward without giving the entire plot away. Overall, I liked the story. Mostly I appreciated how unique it was. Getting used to Rose’s way of speaking took a bit of time but once I got used to it, the story flowed effortlessly.

Source: Review copy sent to me by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

The Homemade God
By Rachel Joyce
The Dial Press, July 2025, 336pp.

The Short of It:

Complex families always hold my attention.

The Rest of It:

There is a heatwave across Europe, and four siblings have gathered at their family’s lake house to seek answers about their father, a famous artist, who recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his long-awaited masterpiece.

Now he is dead. And there is no sign of his final painting. ~ the publisher

Rachel Joyce. I’ve enjoyed every book she’s ever written and this one was no exception. The story unfurled. I like that word. It started off kind of funny and silly and then got real serious.

These siblings believe that their father has lost his mind. Marrying a woman much younger, losing weight, being even more eccentric that usual, which is saying a lot. And what about his last big painting? His work of art that he keeps bellowing about? Where is it? What’s happened to it?

The new love interest calls all the shots. No wedding. Siblings not included. They just head to the family lake house in Italy and the siblings decide it’s time to meet this new woman. I mean, she is their stepmother after all.

This is where the story gets interesting because this woman who has taken over their father’s life, doesn’t seem to be all that bad. As the siblings get to know her, all in different ways, they begin to question her motives and frankly his. But then he’s found dead.

At the house, the siblings all have their own theories as to what happened. There’s no way their father drowned in a lake that he literally grew up on. He was a fine swimmer. What gives?

This story is built on sibling interaction. They agree, they disagree, they argue over motive and all the logistical stuff like the house, the remains, the investigation. But Netta, the eldest, is convinced that her father was murdered. So much so that they all just throw up their hands and become even more divided.

This is not a predictable story. I want to say that upfront. Many times I thought I knew where the story was going and then was pleasantly re-directed. I really enjoyed this story and this family. If you like Joyce’s writing, you will enjoy this new one as well.

Recommend.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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