Ann Napolitano’s latest book, Hello Beautiful is poignantly written and stirred up a lot of complicated emotions for me — so much so that I originally ranked this book lower than I now consider it to be. Upon reflection, it’s a good one, and the hype and the book club stickers all make sense.

Hello Beautiful is a family saga that points out life’s tender and tragic moments with such precision that it’s frustrating. I found myself disliking the plot so much that I almost didn’t finish it. The book centers around the Padavano family, primarily four sisters who are reminiscent of the March sisters in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women — I caught the similarities before Napolitano mentioned it. The Padavano sisters, much like Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, are a tight-knit group, and welcome the character William Waters, Napolitano’s Laurie, into their family without a hitch.

Without spoiling too much, this book is all about the familial struggle … and a little bit of basketball? The basketball is done in a way that is so real and interesting, speaking to the impact that a team can have on one’s life and what a sport can do to a person’s livelihood and belonging. This book is mainly about a tight-knit family who doesn’t always have each other’s backs like they say they do. It’s about broken relationships and heartbreak and death and betrayal. It’s … what families are really like.

I think that’s why I didn’t like the book upon first finishing. It ended … like real life. I am so used to fantasy books that contemporary fiction just misses the mark with me sometimes. My own experiences make me want to escape when I read. Napolitano captures family life and relationships so well that I rejected the book at first. I saw myself in all of the sisters and their choices, much like I see myself in all of the beloved March sisters. Hello Beautiful is a true homage to how, even 300+ years after Alcott wrote about the family struggle, we haven’t really changed all that much.