This is Gonna End in Tears

I loved this book. From the first words to the last I lost myself in the story. But is was the writing that shone out: poetic, muscular , unafraid and often joyous.
The story of friendships , first loves, hope , promise, life, betrayal, forgiveness, sex, music, art, yearning and hopelessness, add a backdrop of the burgeoning music scene in California in the Sixties, and moving through to the final scenes you are taken up in the lives of the protagonists and the life of the island of Wonderland. Intertwining the story of Moby Dick , of how we all search for self and in the end sometimes we get lucky sometimes we fail

I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I loved the author's debut Tigers in Red Weather so was thrilled to get the opportunity to read this. I'm not quite sure how to do justice to this stunning novel, I loved it so much. Ash, Miller and Olly are childhood friends who grew up in an East Coast town in the 1950s. 40 years later in 1984 their relationships are falling apart and this novel moves backwards and forwards across the decades to tell the story of their lives. Liza Klaussmann's writing is beautiful. It has a gorgeous dreamy quality to it and reading this over the course of a hot and sunny 24 hours I was completely immersed in the characters and their world. I loved the 1980s setting, the soundtrack and the period detail and felt that the characters were beautifully drawn. I absolutely adored this and would highly recommend if , like me, you are a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this stunning novel.

This focuses on a group of three friends, and the people they are closest too, who grew up on a small island with Quaker roots, over a 30 year period. The author successfully jumps timelines and jumps characters in a way that kept me interested and moved the story forward. I really loved this book. I was emotionally connected to the characters and couldn’t wait to see what happened to them. I’d definitely recommend!

It reminded me of the Big Chill even if there's just three main characters: there's a strong relationship that mixes love, friendship, and memories.
The three MCs are so involved in their relationship to forget the other people and what is going on.
Liza Klaussman delivers a strong story written in a fascinating way, mixing music and events.
I loved the characters and loved the atmosphere.
It's an excellent story, highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Olly, Ash and Miller have grown up together. In their community, they have always been perceived as a unit which nobody could intrude. In their small East Coast town, life is easy in the 1950s and dream are big. Forty years later, things are different. None is left of their friendship, Olly is on his own, now also without a job and Ash and Miller are negotiating their separation. It is Olly’s aunt Tassie that cannot stay any longer in her care home that brings them together again. It is not easy to confront the past, especially while watching a young threesome bunch repeating their mistakes.

I totally adored Liza Klaussmann’s novel “Tigers in Red Weather” and thus was eager to read her latest novel “This is Gonna End in Tears”. She did not disappoint, quite the contrary, the story is the perfect read for a hot summer where you sense that it needs some escalation to be able to breathe again. Full of suspense even though it is not a mystery, you read on to find out how all the tension between the characters will finally dissolve.

“Well, that was the point, what he’d only recently realized: there is no point; everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own story, when actually there’s no story at all. Just an outline that gets filled in with nonsense and accidents and happenstance and luck. And the, well... and then nothing.”

What I appreciated most was how the author detailed the characters. They are all unique in their disappointments of life, in their mixed emotions and inability to actually speak about what goes on in their mind. The atmosphere profits from this, you feel that something must happen, that they cannot just go on like this.

It is a novel about friendship and dreams and expectations of life, about creative minds and everyday chore, about bonds that are strong and bonds that can feel like handcuffs. An intoxicating read from the first page which I could hardly put down.