Cake 0.5

ALC gifted by author

Author: J. Bengtsson

Narrators: M.K. Blackwood and Victor Clarke

Thanks, @j._bengtsson for the gift! 

I want to say all the things about this but I still don’t want to spoil anyone who hasn’t (what are you doing??) listened to the Cake series. 

We finally get to see how THE McKallisters came to be: from their adorable meet-cute in a gas station, to their evocatively nostalgic budding romance in the 80s, to Michelle’s very Rachel from Friends ‘she got off the plane’ moment, to getting together, to going through a parents’ worst nightmare, to surviving all this… together. I love how they are flawed. No one here is picture perfect – Michelle has to shake her ‘heiress’ demeanor pretty fast and was conditioned from the cradle to be ‘stoic’ and ‘appropriate’. Scott is the epitome of the penniless garage band metal head musician/California surfer. A Jake Ryan with a good dash of Spicoli (IYKYK). They screw up, they stumble through stuff, but they LOVE. 

I already basically knew everything major that was going to happen in their lives but I was knocked upside the head by the PHENOMENAL performances of MK Blackwood and Victor Clarke. Sweet mother of pearl!  I knew every pivotal moment  in their lives and these two had me snot crying! Dual narration at its best! 11/10

I loved being taken back to my youth (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am basically their age) and to learn all the details that made this family that we learned to love and how they came to be. I loved ‘catching up’ with beloved characters and I’m already sad this series is now over… or is it, Jill? Wink wink. We can dream!

Again, pick the audiobook. It’s absolutely flawless. Kudos to everyone involved! 

Content notes( including but not limited to): the book mentions several traumatic events that happen throughout the series – toxic relationship with family members, estrangement from family members, drug addiction, unexpected pregnancy, talks of abortion, car accident on page, kidnapping, abuse of minor, PTSD, depression, self harm

Story

Narration