Review: So It Goes

Isis Molina, So It Goes  (2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60150520-so-it-goes?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=GZy2WpLOK2&rank=5

The good life in suburbia, two men’s love for their children and for each other

Aaron Santos, Karen and 5 year old Danny move into their new dream house in Oklahoma and become acquainted with the neighbours, Lucas, his pregnant artist wife Angelica and their dog Daisy. Aaron and Lucas hit it off right away. Lucas is a writer of ‘comedy horror’ novels, and the two men enjoy a shared love of bad horror films. Aaron shares with Lucas that he’s bisexual and that he is not Danny’s biological dad, a painful subject.
Aaron loves Danny with a passion and wants to be a good dad, unlike his own deadbeat father, and there are other strains within the Santos family dynamic.
It’s very long, 833 pages. And a lot of the story is really ordinary stuff, people unpacking boxes, watching Scooby-doo, fixing lunch, taking the dog for walks, having BBQs and handing each other beers. Lucas helps Aaron pick up a swingset he’s bought off Craigslist. They swim in the pool, have potlucks with Ophelia and her wife Rosa. I don’t really need to know how everybody takes their coffee or when people take bathroom breaks.
Finally, in Part 3 a bombshell is dropped into Aaron’s life, and as he recovers, another bombshell falls on Lucas, but their friendship sees them though. In Part 6 Aaron has to make a heart-wrenching decision.
The Craigslist adventure was not as horrible as we expected (hoped?) it would be. The characters are lively enough to sustain interest, but I did find myself wishing for some vampires or a dead body or something, and I certainly wanted Aaron and Lucas to go ahead and bonk already.
This is a character-driven contemporary novel, maybe a romance, with some sexually explicit scenes. It is beautifully written in a distinct fluent style with a colloquial feel and a strong voice, and it’s perfectly edited.
The strength of this novel is the characters. They are sparkling, well-rounded and interesting from page one, with complex relationships, and I really cared how they all get on. The dialogue is natural and true to each character’s personality.
I was given an ARC by the author.