The Adults

August 13, 2025 /

The Adults ~ Alison Espach

At the beginning of The Adults, we meet Emily Vidal, a teenaged girl from a wealthy Connecticut suburb. The setting is a 50th birthday party for Emily’s father, Victor, and the entire neighborhood is there. Emily is a wry sort, making all sorts of internal observations about how absolutely dull it must be to be an adult. Then she and her best friend Mark spy her father embracing Mark’s mother, Mrs. Resnick. Later that night, Emily’s parents tell her that they are divorcing, as Mr. Vidal’s job is taking him to Prague, and Mrs. Vidal doesn’t want to go. Also, the affair.

A few weeks later, Emily is looking out her kitchen window, and witnesses Mr. Resnick, his wrists dripping with blood, hang himself from a tree. Perhaps the shock of this event, tied with the divorce of her parents, pushes Emily to some pretty untoward and risky behavior with a young teacher at her high school, nicknamed Mr. Basketball.

The first part of this book was really good, I loved the writing and I loved Emily’s observations. She’s a thoughtful, though naive and somewhat lost, character. I wasn’t as fond of the later parts, where we jump ahead and meet the characters several years later.

The Adults is Espach’s first novel, published in 2011. I really liked the two other books of hers that I have read, The Wedding People and Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance. If you like Espach’s writing, you may enjoy The Adults, though I didn’t like it as much as the other two.

18 Comments

    • J

      August 13, 2025 at 8:21 am

      Ugh, yeah. Sorry Maya, I should have included a trigger warning at the beginning for you. But the warning would have probably been just as bad. I would advise against this book for you.

    • J

      August 14, 2025 at 4:41 am

      I’m not sorry I read it, if that counts. I like her writing, and I liked this hot mess of a character sometimes…

  • Daria

    August 14, 2025 at 12:24 am

    Hi Julie! Thanks for the review. I think I may be the very last person on this planet that have NOT read the Wedding People… I’ve been making my way through 400+ pages of Judy Bloom.
    Completely unrelated but Lyra and I went to Le Train Bleu restaurant yesterday. I think it was you who recommended it to us. What a gorgeous space- it’s like eating in a museum! Our food was good, too. No A/C so they sat us by a fan, very considerate.

  • Jenny

    August 14, 2025 at 5:41 am

    Hmm! This sounds pretty interesting. I did read The Wedding People and liked it. Not sure if I’ll read this one, although I do like Espach’s writing. We’ll see!

  • Ernie

    August 14, 2025 at 10:57 am

    I’ve heard so many people who read and like Wedding People. I think this one sounds interesting, but I think it might be too difficult for me to read.

  • K @ TS

    August 27, 2025 at 9:31 pm

    I liked her other two books also so will probably give this one a try, although I see it also has a much lower rating on Goodreads than her other two. Sometimes I want to go out while I am ahead but on the other hand, I wouldn’t NOT read it just in case I may not like it as much! So I will probably give it a go.