Greta & Valdin

A Novel

By: Rebecca K Reilly

Narrated by: Natalie Beran, Jackson Bliss, Eilidh Beaton, Nico Evers-Swindell, Gary Furlong

A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

“A heartfelt portrait of a complex family.” —People • “Laugh-out-loud-funny.” —Harper’s Bazaar • “Quintessential rom-com meets the delicious family sprawl of a Russian classic.” —Vanity Fair

The “brilliant” (Daily Mail, London) bestseller that follows a brother and sister as they navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and family drama, all while flailing their way to love—for fans of Schitt’s Creek and Sally Rooney’s Normal People.

It’s been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine. He has a good flat with his sister Greta, a good career where his colleagues only occasionally remind him that he is the sole Maaori person in the office, and a good friend who he only sleeps with when he’s sad. But when work sends him to Argentina and he’s thrown back in his former lover’s orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he’s been trying to ignore—and the future he wants.

Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush (or her possibly pointless master’s thesis, or her pathetic academic salary...) get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won’t stop intruding: her mother is keeping secrets, her nephew is having a gay crisis, and her brother has suddenly flown to South America without a word.

Filled with “kernels of humor and truth” (Elle) and with an undeniable emotional momentum that builds to an exuberant conclusion, Greta & Valdin careens us through the siblings’ misadventures and the messy dramas of their sprawling, eccentric Maaori-Russian-Catalonian family. An acclaimed bestseller in New Zealand, Greta & Valdin is fresh, joyful, and alive with the possibility of love in its many mystifying forms.

strange narrating choices

I listened to the audio version of “Greta & Valdin” narrated by Natalie Beran, Jackson Bliss, Eilidh Beaton, Nico Evers-Swindell, and Gary Furlong. From the start I just wanted to listen to these two ridiculously self-involved, insecure, lonely, searching siblings. To add to the fun, both are queer and in search of love. Each chapter is narrated by one of the siblings, and I loved them both. Valdin’s parts were snarky and cleverly written. Greta tries to write some formulaic gauge of the compatibility of her lovers. It was fun listening to these 20-somethings.

They live in Auckland, New Zealand, and the accents are all the same. One narrator gave a shot at a quasi-Eastern European accent. One tried a Scottish. But seriously, I had no idea that there were that many narrators. I thought there was one male and one female, and they had no former Eastern-European Accent. I think Greta was in her teens when they moved, but I would still expect some sort of an accent.

Once I got over the Aussie/British accents, and just listened, I started to really care about these insecure siblings. Their whole family is eccentric, almost all gay. The family drama is like a soap opera, one that is irresistible!

This is billed as a great book for “fans of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’.” Author Rebecca K. Reilly used the silliness of “Schitt’s Creek” and Rooney’s brooding outlook of young adults. She upped the “Schitt’s Creek” antics with her international flair of characters.

I recommend this as a palate cleanser, because it defies genres and is just plain fun.

Comfort read

I can see myself listening to this again in a couple years, it's very comforting. It reminded me that parents are their own people, and that my own troubles and joys can be personally felt, as well as shared, without me losing anything - I may even gain something by taking risks like being vulnerable, in love, in anger, even in confusion.

Chaotic

Respectfully it feels as though more than half the characters are queer, making this story feel inauthentic. The romantic relationships are not just complex but a little unsettling when it comes to age differences. Overall the voicing is alright but the accents become un pleasant and over done. There is no clear plot and is rather a slice of life kind of story. The family is very complex and can be hard to keep track of who is who unless you are reading the book with the character sheet in the front. Not my favorite book but if you are looking for Māori representation as well as queer representation then you might enjoy it.

Kind of pointless

It felt like there was never really much to the plot. I kept waiting to figure out what it was about. But I guess it’s just about people and their lives. It was fine to listen to, but not very memorable. Also not sure why it was billed as “for fans of Schitt’s Creek” other than the fact that there are gay characters.

Clever and complicated.

I am giving this 3.5 stars rounded up as I suspect I would have enjoyed this more as a written book than as audio. There were many clever passages where I might have wanted to savor the phrasing, and it would have been much easier to keep track of the many, many characters and their intertwined relationships. The narration was a bit uneven and I had to adjust the speed as Valdin’s narrator spoke much more slowly than Greta’s, making the packing a bit jarring.
The characterizations of these contemporary 20-somethings feels very real. The book is chock-full of complicated relationships, evolving identities, and chronic anxieties, and I enjoyed spinning through them all, even if I did get a little lost along the way.