Grown Ups by Marie Grønborg Aubert — Review

3.5/5 stars

Ida is a woman in her early 40s who is a bit unmoored and unsure what she wants from her life, leading her to try and freeze her eggs in case she wants children. She’s unpredictable, wilder than her strait-laced sister, and craves the attention of her family even if it’s for the wrong reasons.

Marthe is her sister, the one who seems to have it more together. Ida joins Marthe, her husband, and Marthe’s a bright young step-daughter at their family’s cabin for their mother’s 65th birthday where tensions arise.

This is a short one but it packs a punch. Much of it focuses on the pressures around having children and the expected course of womanhood, especially now where women are meant to have it all. It explores how this impacts dysfunctional family dynamics through, especially when there’s someone like Ida who’s often willing to light the match. Secrets wind their way around family life in seemingly innocuous ways until the right thing comes along to bring them to the surface.

I found all of the characters in this frustrating but the way they pushed my buttons felt reminicent of how they were doing it to each other. Frustrating each other to boiling point, almost severing ties but then the thread of love pulls them back together. Hurting each other because they know just the right way to do it. The rush of thrill and shame that mingle together. It certainly makes for compelling read in this compact little page turner.

I didn’t feel quite like the target audience for this but I think for the right person, it’ll really speak to them. Whether you’re an Ida or a Marthe or something in between.

Thanks to Pushkin Press for the ARC through Netgalley. The English translation of the original Norwegian book is expected to be published in June 3rd 2021 by Pushkin Press.