When I was younger, I watched what was probably the most depressing movie I’ve ever seen. It was called “A Home of Our Own,” I believe, and I think it starred Kathy Bates. It was about this family who lost their home to a fire, I believe, and ended up living in their car, traveling from place to place to try to make ends meet. The whole movie was one bad thing right after the other. I kept watching, in hopes that something positive would come out of this absolute dumpster fire, but nothing did.
Sadly, my opinion of Many Are Invited felt similar. I described the book to a coworker as “weirdly engrossing,” because I honestly couldn’t figure out why I was so invested in the story. That said, I finished it in 2 days. It obviously wasn’t difficult to read, I’m just not sure what was so great about it. Hopefully, as I write this review, it will become clear to me, and I can put my thoughts into words.
Please excuse if this review turns out to be a little “rambly.”
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Synopsis
Steve works at a phone company. In 1994, a man in the company calls a meeting and tells everyone about the year 2000 issue. This is the same issue that would become Y2K in later years. Instead of failing in his attempts to freak everyone out, like Steve hopes, John succeeds in his bid to create his own team. This one act, especially when Steve is assigned to John’s “year 2000 problem” team, evolves into a competition between the men, beginning with Steve going after a woman John likes, among other things.
Over the years, Steve and John have become really good friends, or even best friends if you like. The entire book revolves around the various competitions between the men. These seem to be one-sided on Steve’s part, since he seems to have this idea that John always wins at everything, and he’d love to put him in his place.
Many are Invited is the story of Steve’s ruminations on the past, and on his friendship with John, years after the events of a housewarming party at John’s house. Using flashback after flashback, we see how their friendship developed, and how it culminated in what happened at the party in December of 1999.
Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of Many Are Invited, in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
My Thoughts
Many Are Invited was a weirdly engrossing book. I read it in 2 days. It was one of those books that even though it seemed depressing, I needed to figure out what was going on, and I needed to know what was going to happen. The housewarming party was foreshadowed several times throughout the book, so I had to find out what was so important about a party.
I’m not sure if I was disappointed or not.
The ending was satisfying in that I felt like I got closure, but it was anticlimactic in that I’m still, weeks later, not sure why I invested 2 days reading this book. Many Are Invited was character-driven, so most of the story was based around the dynamics between the 4 main characters.
Not gonna lie… if I had a friend like Steve, I’d probably move.
Characters
The story is told from Steve’s point of view but features 3 other important characters. Each one has issues, foibles, and habits that take the story from “omg this is boring” to “holy crap, what’s going ON!?!?”
Like I said, weirdly engrossing.
Steve
Steve is the main character, and the person through whose eyes we’re watching everything unfold. His inner dialogue was focused around this competition with his boss/friend John, that felt pretty one-sided. Not much happened in the story to change my opinion about this.
John
John is the weird boss we’ve all had at one job or another. The one who has a weird idea, will choose to die on the hill that he’s right and everyone else is wrong, but then it comes out that he was right to begin with, so we all want to hate him. In 1994, John has this idea that the year 2000 is going to be bad for all technology, if something isn’t done right away. This is years before Y2K was even a term. It doesn’t matter that he was right, and that other companies jumped on the bandwagon behind him. What matters, for the sake of this book, is that he took a promotion from Steve. Steve then starts competing with John, in weird ways. John eventually moves onto another job, leaving Steve at the phone company, but the competition between the friends never really goes away.
Mary
I never could really decide if I liked Mary or not. She seemed like a character that was thrown into the story, simply to create more conflict between Steve and John. I got the impression that John truly cared about her, and was willing to do what he could to make her happy, but she also seemed like a throwaway character that we wouldn’t miss if she were gone.
Lauren
The night John met Mary, was the night he was supposed to meet Lauren. They both worked in the same store, and Steve had challenged John to go inside and introduce himself to Lauren. This weird dynamic creates another source of weird conflict, since Lauren and Mary are also roommates. Lauren has an attitude that seems to fit her, but at the same time, she seems one-dimensional, and we don’t see much out of her except for attitude. She has no evolution or growth. When the end of the story came, Lauren was another character I wouldn’t have missed.
The Title
When I opened the book, I saw a bible verse that said, “Many are invited, but few are chosen,” from Matthew 22:14. Somehow, this bible verse was supposed to explain the book title and give the reader an idea of how it connected to the story.
I never figured it out, you guys.
I honestly think the author threw it in there randomly, without any idea of how to connect it to the book. Many Are Invited cannot be classified as a Christian book, either, since religion is rarely mentioned, and I don’t believe either Steve or John are Christians. I’m proud of the author for wanting to display his beliefs, but I think it could have been done in a more cohesive manner, rather than a random bible verse.
Overall Opinion
Like I said above, this book was weirdly engrossing. Is it one I’d read again? Probably not. Was it worth the one read-through? Yeah, I guess so. I spoke to my boss a couple times during my read, and the one description that keeps coming to mind is, “weirdly engrossing.” I honestly couldn’t tell him why I couldn’t put the book down, but I also couldn’t tell him that I hated it. I doubt I’ll read anything else by this author, because I don’t want to put myself through that level of limbo again, but I can’t tell you not to read Many Are Invited, either.
I guess it reads like a soap opera. Maybe that’s it. Most people watch soap operas every day, but at the end of each episode, only 25% or so of them can actually tell you what’s happened and what’s going on.
Recommendation
If you enjoy soap operas, or books with weirdly engrossing characters, I think you should give Many Are Invited a chance. I may not be able to tell you precisely why I enjoyed it so much, but it was an easy read, and I gotta say it was a nice break from the huge, chunky fantasy books that I’m used to reading. It was a change of pace, and worth at least one read.
I was hoping that as I wrote this review, my thought would merge into a cohesive thought, and I’d have a better idea of why I found the story so engrossing, but sadly that was not in fate’s cards. I do think you should read it, at least once, but I doubt many people would come back for a re-read.
Many Are Invited is on Amazon!
Conclusion
Do you think you’ll read Many Are Invited? Let me know in the comments! Also, if you have any other “weirdly engrossing” books you think I’d like, tell me about them! If you have a link to a review, leave that too. I’d love to check it out. I absolutely love comments, so I reply to each one personally. I tell people that comments for bloggers are like reviews for authors. They let the algorithms know we’re worth reading.
P.S. Yeah, I know I used the term “weirdly engrossing” a bunch of times, but it was honestly the only term I could use to get my point across.
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Until Next Time, Friends!
