Very enjoyable YA book with plenty to hold your interest - also some object lessons in the men not to become attached too. Great summer reading

A family summer by the sea. The same every year, except this year they are joined by the Godden brothers and events happen that change everyone. As I read this, I couldn't help but be reminded of 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith, something to do with the tone of the narrator and the quirkiness of the characters. I loved the feeling of summer that it conjured. I found this book totally absorbing. Highly recommend.

The Great Godden is a beautifully written novel, one that can be devoured within a few hours.
The storyline is somewhat gripping, and the concept and twists are interesting enough to keep you from putting the book down. However, I can't help but think of it as some weirdly poetic episode of the Jeremy Kyle show. I'm not really sure whether the point is to show how horrendous yet easy it is to fall in love with someone so toxic, or whether it's actually romanticizing it.
However bizarre the storyline, I do believe that this will be a gossip loving beach read for years to come.

Imagine having a summer home on the beach, which you visit every summer, for weeks at a time, with your family. Imagine the serenity, the freedom to do whatever you like, no work, no responsibilities, the sun beating down, nature all around. This story is of a family in such a peaceful situation, who soon discover their summer is not going to be like any of the others.

One of the siblings acts as our narrator, and seems to be an omnipresent reporter of chaos and calm. They describe the long family summer which is usurped by two American brothers descending on their party. Describing everything, the family quirks, the rituals, the new strangers, the melancholy, the heartbreak, the narrator remains the one constant. We don’t ever learn their name, nor gender, and this lends delicious feelings of doubt and curiosity to each of their words.

The Godden brothers, the strangers, the deposers, present as two opposites - one, golden and gleaming, possessing charm and good looks, the other darker and brooding, a quiet thinker who prefers solitude and silence. As the elder begins to rip apart the serenity of the summer, the younger tries to overcome his familiar aloof persona to try and limit the damage.

Rosoff’s writing is beautifully light, and she masters her setting, making sure those dreamy summer days amongst nature and the coast seem idyllic to us. And they really did. A summer house on the beach, with nothing to do but swim, sail, ramble, eat, talk. Her prose had the perfect balance of bliss and nostalgia, making me long for a place I’d never been.

I also felt Rosoff did well here with her commentary on toxic masculinity, particularly for a young adult novel. It’s important to highlight the small ways someone can be abused, even gaslit, and despite Rosoff’s other subtleties, I think this message was delivered with skill.

My only criticism would be how short this felt. I wanted to explore more deeply into the characters, wanted a slower and more tantalising build-up to the finale. I felt as though I was just beginning to settle into the novel when it was all over. This didn’t take away from my enjoyment - I just wanted more.

It’s just a wonderful, summery and dreamy read; I was swept away. It felt as though a snake had been thrown into a basket of kittens as I watched, completely unable to anything but watch what unfolded.

Summer in Devon and the family have returned to their holiday home. Mum and Dad, Mattie 16, Tamsin 14 and Alex younger still – and the unnamed narrator of this story who is the oldest child. A cottage nearby is where Dad’s cousin Hope and her partner of 12 years Mal, an actor, summer. It is expected that the holidays will run to their usual summer routines and activities, relaxation, summer activities of swimming, sailing or riding, but with paid work for others. Both families will bring their usual relationship issues, sibling rivalries, differences of interests and opinion. This will be increasingly complicated as the children move towards their lives as adults. In retrospect our young narrator will also describe this as the year marked by “falling in love”, a lot of teenagers are gathering.
The year is unusual in two respects – Hope and Mal are making arrangements for their wedding in the last week of the holiday, although this is complicated by Mal needing to prepare for a new play run. The wedding lays a new summer timetable – and a highpoint to be aimed to. To complicate matters Hope and Mal are persuaded to host the two teenage sons of a well known glamorous actress who will be “filming in Czechoslovakia”. Kit (19) described as “glorious” is supposedly preparing for RADA entrance tests, Hugo (17) his half brother is by comparison seen as withdrawn, anti-social and distant to the point of rudeness. The families have not met before, the half –brothers rarely meet but the expectation is that they will all meld happily for weeks, with mother (a freelance designer) ensuring that all practicalities, meals etc run like clockwork.
A quiet holiday? It is already patently obvious that things may not be that simple. Rosoff quietly lays down the day to day activities, building the reader’s awareness of these. But deepening this, the individual characters will start to emerge – their histories, anxieties, desires and quiet (or not so) annoyances. But this is a family holiday so they also have to be seen together as a group, or constantly re-building groups. Adding the two new Godden boys not just changes the established mix, but the family’s view of them grows and changes with experience – rather as the reader’s does. Alex – the “great” – or golden brother, with beauty, manners, chat and charm immediately makes an impact – Mattie just sixteen rapidly falls for him and he starts an affair with her. But it becomes clear that he is a “player” who tinkers with the feelings and actions of all those around him. Inevitably this causes rifts and difficulties between the others – the scale of which will only become apparent in retrospect. He knows what he is doing, but is bored and unscrupulous and takes advantage of others not really knowing his history, playing on their weaknesses.
Hugh will gradually emerge as fully aware but embittered by his brother’s behaviour. Seeing himself as of secondary importance in relation to people’s different responses to this other seemingly “wonderful” person. He is lonely, lacks the unspoken family support that the others there take for granted; he can only slowly emerge and allow the others to see him as he is. The family will have to reconsider their views of him, but how they fell so easily into the negative ones in the first place. Dazzled by a person of lesser kindness.
Looking but not seeing - even with the excuse of maybe being young, expecting reasonable behaviour from others, or giving another the benefit of the doubt - becomes another great theme of this novel. The public face is not necessarily the heart of the matter. When one is “being played”, even by an “expert”, how much responsibility do you have for your actions when they hurt others? In a family situation an outsider can walk away, you have to live with the results – the scale of the damage will often depend on the level of love and support you always had, but guilt can always remain.
Godden is a brilliant writer, with absolutely convincing portrayals of people and families recognising the importance of both big and small things and how they interact. Here she shows that the frictions, difficulties and quiet compromises that do not fade just because one is on holiday. Heightening that is the placement of just a few weeks in what are seminal years for some of the characters. She creates the retrospective feel of a hot beach summer past so viscerally it interweaves with the readers own memories making it feel more real and immediate. But holiday “time” as she clearly shows here runs to a different clock, both from day to day and week to week – giving time for people to grow or be seriously damaged. But life will return to “normal”. This is a very fine novel.

Narrated by a nameless teenage girl, this is the story of her and her family who depart to the coast for their annual summer holiday. Six weeks of beach, sea swimming, sailing, tennis and family games. Except this particular summer, those weeks will change lives forever, with the arrival of the Godden brothers from LA.

Meg Rosoff is one of my favourite young adult authors. She is most famous for 'How I Live Now', which was made into a film, but my personal favourites are 'Picture Me Gone', 'Just In Case', and What I Was'. I wasn't sure about this new one though. It's very short, and very readable, but the story didn't have as much depth as her others. It felt in some way that Meg may have rushed this one out in a couple of weeks because she had to. It was also a little bit formulaic - rich family with large beach house as second home, passed down through the generations; arrival of 2 brothers, one golden haired, confident and handsome, the other a quiet angry type. Hmm, I wonder what's going to happen here? Anyway, it was a good enough read to while away a couple of days during lockdown, and I'm sure the teens will love it.

This is a perfect summer, coming of age read. A family that spends their summer in a holiday home have their equilibrium disturbed by a visiting pair of brothers.

I got partway through the book before I realised that the author had deliberately not made the gender or first name of the narrator clear. This gave a nod to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and added to the unsettling feeling caused by the brothers.

This has the feel of other books, I Capture the Castle, The Go-Between and others that makes the family and setting feel familiar and provides excellent foreshadowing for Kit's actions.

A brilliant read, I wish I could live in it!

A short but sweet coming of age story.

Every year a British family spends their summer at their family home by the beach, this summer they’re joined by two teenage Americans. One of these boys, Kit, charms themes all while the other, Hugo, is regarded as sullen and unlikeable. Over the course of the summer events unfold that suggest first impressions aren’t all that.

This book is beautifully written and I was drawn in from the first page. Rosoff captures the feelings of a typical British summer holiday as well as teenage angst, jealousy and sibling rivalry perfectly. Events unfold in a realistic way yet maintains just enough tension and drama as you’d want.

The one area I did feel let the story down a bit were the characters. I never really felt I truly knew or could fully invest in them. This began with the narrator who is purposefully not named or given an age or gender but to me this wasn’t the factor that kept me from connecting with them. I easily filled out that missing information but it was the rest of their personality that was lacking, I found them to be not the most likeable character which only amplified the feeling that something was missing. You get a bit more information on the other characters but there’s a whole host of them which could be difficult to keep up with and meant that, with a few exceptions, they never really reach their full potential either. I wanted just a little bit more of an emotional pull to match what was certainly beautiful writing.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book - it brought back memories of spending parts of my childhood summers by the sea. It's only from reading other people's reviews that I realise the main character and narrator is never named, nor do we know their gender or age. I had assumed they were female, not sure what that says about me. Now that I know this is not necessarily right, different parts of the book make more (less) sense. Overall, it's a good story, and well-written.

A bittersweet coming of age tale set at the beautiful summer house by the sea with long lazy hot days and summer traditions. We are not told if the narrator is male or female so the reader is left to come to their own conclusions. The author makes you feel as if you are there watching the summer unfold.

The same people are there every year and this year they will be celebrating Hope and Mal's marriage. Distant relatives of hers arrive from LA - the glorious Godden boys. Kit mesmerises the narrator and so it seems a few of the others. He's just. so gorgeous and attractive while Hugo seems angry and sullen. Kit changes everyone's lives that summer....

The narrator silently watches Kit who toys with their emotions and that of sister Mattie. It feels afterwards that Kit thought he could take what he wanted regardless of who he hurt along the way.

I really enjoyed the story which flowed easily as well as the characters. Would recommend.

Meg Rosoff is a genius as always. This was such a brilliant book about first love and betrayal and what family means and I will be earnestly pressing copies into the hands of teenagers I know because it so aptly captures the emotions.

Meg Rosoff's beautifully written, irresistible, coming of age and lyrical novella has echoes of particular pieces of classic literature, a family's every year joyful ritual of spending the summer holidays in their home on the beach, a paradise into which a serpent is set loose. Enter two American teen brothers from LA, Kit and Hugo, sons of a minor actress whose life has no room for her offspring. The brothers are opposites, Kit is the beautiful, golden, good looking brother, around whom others swarm, like bees to honey, whilst Hugo is glowering, silent, resisting all overtures with his talent for selective invisibility. Ostensibly the light and dark, the brothers are to have a unforgettable impact on the family as something fragile breaks in a summer of fun, teenage angst, intrigue, treachery, deception and sex, marked by planning for the wedding of Hope and actor Malcolm, preparing for Hamlet, and the traditions of the male bonding sail and the tennis tournament.

The narrator is never identified in terms of name or gender, a dynamic that adds mystery and ambiguity, although I chose to see him as male, who despite his better instincts, cannot stop himself helplessly desiring and longing for Kit. Sibling brother, Alex, is the most uncomplicated character, attuned to the natural world, driven by his obsession for bats. Sister Tamsin is self obsessed, a life revolving around horses, and other sister, the beautiful, attention seeking Mattie, a flirt into shoes, boys and sex, and like a heat seeking missile, entwining herself tightly around Kit. Amidst the blue skies and summer heat laden with undercurrents of anxiety and creeping claustrophobia, Hugo begins to slowly reveal himself, whilst almost everyone finds themselves drawn into the web that Kit weaves.

This scintillating and captivating read from Rosoff lures in the reader with ease in its character studies of the Godden brothers, the narrator and the family. The examination of emotional damage is riveting here, how it results in toxic male behaviour, the gaslighting, machinations that take no account of the feelings of others, and a driven need to be loved by everyone, bar no-one, the creation of a world of smoke and mirrors, a spider commanding and jerking the strings of others. A brilliantly entertaining, insightful and memorable read that I totally adored. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

So before I start I think it is worth mentioning that Meg Rosoff has an amazing way with words. Her writing style is so light and so easy to get through and a perfect story to get you out of a reading slump! I thoroughly enjoyed reading her poetic and melodic writing.

However, I felt incredibly distant from this book. I feel like the book lacked plot and was fairly confusing at times. I didn't really find any of the characters that likeable and really struggled to understand everyone's awe of Kit as well as Hugo's 'I'm not like other boys' demeanour.
I can see why many people really enjoyed this book and I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a light hearted, summery romance with complicated family dynamics.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an early review copy in exchange for a fair assessment of the title.

'The Great Godden' does a brilliant job of evoking the lazy, dreamy summer existence of a happy, well-off family from London who decamp to the seaside of every year. They have a picturesque home, family friends nearby who wander in and out of each others houses, wafting glasses of wine and plates of food. Each family member apart from the narrator is clearly described and defined (horsey younger sister, pesky younger brother, artistic mum), and the happy picture is set for a cuckoo in the nest to do serious damage.

This is, in many ways, a classic coming-of-age story like 'I Capture the Castle' or 'The Dud Avocado', describing both the headiness of first love and sex and the inevitable bump to reality. Meg Rosoff's skill is in making the reader genuinely like the family and worry when the two Godden brothers arrive to shake things up. The reader can see what's about to happen, but Rosoff is skilful in leading us to the inevitable outcome.

The only real weakness to the novel, in my opinion, was the narrative voice. While the book is engaging and beautifully atmospheric, the narrator himself/herself is the least developed character. Apart from observing and offering judgement on what they are observing, there's no sense of the kind of person telling us the story and a kind of emotional detachment that, at times, is as concerning as the narcissistic machinations of Kit Godden.

I suspect this book would resonate more with teenagers and look forward to seeing if any of my students are reading it this autumn.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication, and I’m curious to see what people make of this.
The Great Godden is a story about a turning point in someone’s life, where they foresee something will happen but feel powerless to resist it even though it will cause discomfort.
What stood out to me after finishing this was the ambiguity of the book. I read this as if the narrator was female, but I don’t think we’re ever actually explicitly told this. It doesn’t make any difference as the book really focuses on the reactions to events. What we do know, though, is the narrator comes from one of those families that seems to be bursting with life, setting up experiences but perhaps overlooking the damage caused by their lifestyle.
Our time span is a summer, a summer where everything shifts. Every year the family have gone to their beach home and effectively lived wild. There’s a fondness and whimsical quality to the writing. We focus on this specific year as this is the year that their cast is joined by Kit and Hugo, the Godden brothers.
Our first sighting of Kit reveals the depths of adoration he seems to inspire in others. He toys with those around him, and our narrator is warned about him by Hugo but to no avail. We watch as one by one those present fall under Kit’s spell, unaware of the chaos he will wreak.
While I loved the idea and style of writing there was a detached quality to this that made it hard to really engage with the story or characters.

So beautifully written and so realistic- it would take any reader back to their teenage years and the feeling of falling in love. Each sentence is so carefully constructed that it creates a brilliant picture of the scene in which the story is set (by the sea), however I found the characters lacking and particularly the main character, quite unlikable. I am not the target audience though and so perhaps a teenager would disagree with me on that.

This is my first Net Galley book and I was so excited to see a Meg Rodoff book, I pressed request so fast! Sadly, the book didn't live up to my expectations. It's beautifully written, naturally, and is quite atmospheric in terms of the setting but I just didn't connect with any of the characters. With my analytic head on I know that there's lots of heartbreak, betrayal, manipulation and apathy shown by the characters but they didn't engage my emotions. I wasn't rooting for one or despising another and that surprised me.

Not sure what else to say and that about sums the book up

Oh, to be able to craft a sentence like Meg Rosoff! The Great Godden is stunningly written, and such a joy to read that I devoured it in less than 24 hours. Funny, heart-wrenching, allows the reader to use their imagination to fill in the blanks without it ever feeling like something is missing - I loved everything about it. Just wonderful.

A must for teenagers,l, as well as adults. I want my 15 year old Granddaughter to read it, to enjoy the feeling of being in love but to be very aware of heartbreak and manipulation.
I could have read this in one sitting preferably on a quiet beach.
This book transported me to teenage years, the wonder and discovery of desire unfulfilled or fulfilled, both feelings filled with angst and joy. The absorption in another person, at a cost to rational thought.
I will not spoil the story but it is in a beautiful setting and progressives at a good pace. Each character is well described and unique. Some amazing moments, particularly the tennis match.
Thank you meg and netgalley

I thought this was a really enjoyable and well written book. It is told from the point of view of the narrator whose name & gender are not revealed. The seaside holiday setting initially portrays a family relaxing on holiday but then the Godden brothers arrive and everything changes. It was very easy to get engrossed in this book, the writing style is easy to read and just makes you want to keep reading and reading. The plot twist at the end was a surprise as I thought it would be a different person involved. All in all a very good book & well worth a read.