Oh boy. Get ready everybody, for I have a lot to say about this one. I recently read Our Little Racket by Angelica Baker and, long story short, I was not a fan.

 

To describe this book in three words would be messy, indecisive and boring. The majority of this book does not have anything happening in it! None of the characters are making any decisions to make their lives easier, and it will just make you shout in frustration as they simply accept the circumstances they find themselves to be in rather than attempting to change anything. 

 

This book is over 500 pages long and it could have been much much much improved by cutting about half of that. The big event that really sets everything in motion in this book is the stock market crash of 2008. Sets up for a fairly dramatic and eventful premise right? I am sorry to say that is wrong. 

 

When the D’Amico’s, a wealthy family in Greenwich, find themselves villainized during the crash you will spend 450 pages reading about them moping, isolating themselves and making ridiculous decisions that are in no way helpful to anyone. 

 

I do not know how, but by the end of this book I was both angry and bored. I simply cannot wrap my head around the fact that the characters all seemed to say “Well, I guess this is life now” rather than trying to improve anything. 

 

As a reader, I am very plot driven, which this book definitely did not deliver. It seemed as though the market crashed on page 50, and the remaining 450 pages was watching the main characters sulk about everything. This may have been more of a character study or a comment on the stockbroker lifestyle, and maybe I just don’t understand it, but I definitely do not get the point of this book. 

 

It seemed as though there was no beginning, middle and end to this book. It just seemed like 5% of beginning, and the other 95% was end. The majority of this book felt like the stock market crash was the climax of the book, and the rest was simply falling action and conclusion (if you can call it that).

 

By the end of this book, the characters did not grow at all, no new relationships were really formed, no big revelations really happened and we may as well have been back at the start of the book for how much things had changed. 

 

I really do wish this book gave more time to the beginning events that occurred before the crash. We are told later on that Bob and Isabel are supposed to be good parents, but there is no previous evidence to support this. The beginning of this book shows a family who does not get along, and maybe I would have had more sympathy for them had I seen them in any way acting like a loving and caring family. 

 

Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone. It was boring, slow and incredibly frustrating. ⅕ stars for Our Little Racket by Angelica Baker.