Caroline Hulse’s The Adults... [is] a wry and often hilarious novel about a thoroughly imperfect blended family ... The Adults is a perfect Christmas novel to pack for holiday family travels as a reminder that, no matter how imperfect our family situations might be, it definitely could be worse.
The best takeaway from this book is in the form of new entries for your British slang dictionary, particularly the evocative 'bell end.' Hulse, in her U.S. debut, manages to insert the full Google definition in the text, exactly the one we had just looked up on our phone ... A bit too heavily staged, but with good dialogue and some nice farcical moments.
Stellar ... Hulse does an excellent job building her characters, consistently increasing tension by placing them in close quarters and letting their different personalities clash. This debut is the whole package: realistic, flawed characters placed in an increasingly tense situation, resulting in a surprising, suspenseful novel.
