The ninth stand-alone novel by award-winning author Marian Keyes, Grown Ups is a emotive insight into a sprawling, complicated family setup – something that many of us can relate to in some way, shape or form.

The story follows the Casey brothers – Johnny, Ed, and Liam – and their intertwined families; from birthdays and celebrations to holidays. Everything’s going just swimmingly, or as well as it can on the surface of a large family, until Ed’s wife, Cara, gets a concussion – and decides to start outing some of the family’s secrets. 

This outpouring of gripes leads to a chain of events that forces the family to confront a whole host of complex issues, something Keyes is notoriously good at, including debating quite how ‘grown up’ each of them, and indeed any of us, actually are. 

Irish-born Marian Keyes is well known for her women’s literature works, with more than 20 million copies of her novels sold worldwide, and books translated into more than 30 languages. She’s built a reputation in this time for fun and frothy fiction that still depicts difficult and controversial issues – often touching on her own personal experiences. 

Rachel’s Holiday talked about addiction, 2006’s Anybody Out There dissects grief as a topic, and This Charming Man touches on domestic abuse. For Grown Ups, the particular difficult issue in question is addiction; coming in the form of status, eating disorders, spending, and more. Addiction is particularly familiar for Keyes, who has been open about her battles with alcoholism, previously stating that there was a point where alcohol was “the only thing I cared about eventually”. 

Perhaps this close understanding of addiction is what allows Keyes to portray the topic with such a deft hand; bringing readers along with the struggles the characters are experiencing, the frustrations and emotions that come along with it, and the nonlinear nature recovery often takes. Focusing largely on the addictions stereotypically associated with women – such as eating disorders and shopping – is a brave, unglamorous choice from Keyes, and helps to give a real-feel to the narrative in the novel. 

While some have commented on the book being too lengthy – at 672 pages, it is one of Keyes’ longer novels – the easy flow of the narrative and the character development still allows the reader to devour the novel in the space of mere days. 

Starting at the very end, before chapter two skips back to “six months earlier”, each subsequent chapter takes us on a tale closer and closer back to the ending that we already know is coming. A surefire way to keep the audience engaged, and take them on a journey where the destination is already clear. 

It’s evident from the style and clarity of Grown Ups that Marian Keyes is an accomplished writer, and someone who knows exactly how to tackle real-world topics without sacrificing a few laughs. While arguably a tad less funny than the classic Keyes favourites, Grown Ups is impossible to put down – and the perfect way to spend a wintery weekend.