YOU COULD BE HOME BY NOW

The setting is the only thing sleepy about Manaster’s debut.

Complex, interweaving stories tangle inside The Commons, a retirement community outside Tucson, Arizona, where Mona Rosko is caught raising her grandson, which is against the rules. The neighbors maintain a tenuous, casserole-bringing civility while they assess Mona’s situation, but her plight quickly becomes a prop for their personal dramas when the story goes viral online. Ben Thales hijacks a news segment about Mona to advocate for missing children after years of searching in vain for his runaway daughter. Lily Birnam, a teenage blogger whose vitriolic fashion reviews have earned her a visit to her grandmother's retirement home, where she can't access her electronic devices, rallies her readers to sympathize with Mona whenever she can sneak a moment on her grandmother's computer. As Mona’s fate hangs in the balance, her neighbors also struggle to keep up appearances. Distinct personalities create lasting impressions as each character tells his or her version of the same events, resulting in fully formed, compelling characters whose perspectives change over time. Bratty Lily misses her best friend at home, but she’s starting to see the cracks in their relationship when Sierra gets a new boyfriend. Creepy Ben enjoys flirting with Lily’s grandmother Sadie but shows his vulnerable side when his ex-wife comes to visit. The two new employees, Seth and Alison Collier, are only pretending to fit in to escape their grief after their baby dies. Alison copes with healthy pursuits like running but is hiding a secret. Seth is unhinged, railing against his friends who post pictures of their healthy babies on Facebook. Readers may need to reread entire passages to believe their eyes because the characters’ reactions are so startlingly candid and over-the-top.

 A scintillating drama that’s touching, funny and impossible to put down.