B&N Reads
3/16/2016
The irresistible story of a New York family whose four adult siblings are still struggling to grow up (as they await a watershed inheritance that may never materialize), The Nest is filled with humor, warmth, and dishy behind-the-scenes gossip on the machinations of the publishing world, a trifecta that makes it nearly impossible to put down. An insightful, beautifully drawn portrait of a family on the brink of crisis, The Nest also perfectly captures the legendary (if sometimes elusive) charm of New York City. Read More
The New York Times Book Review - Patricia Park
This story of first-world problems proves to be an enjoyable comedy of manners as Sweeney artfully skewers family dynamics, the publishing world and New York society at large…[A] lively first novel.
Publishers Weekly - Audio
07/04/2016
Sweeney’s entertaining saga of the financial and emotional ups and downs of one privileged New York family is performed well by Barron, a stage and television actress with many guest appearances to her credit. All four of the main characters—middle-aged siblings Leo, Jack, Bea, and Melody—are treated with sympathy, even as their joint fixation on their jeopardized family inheritance renders them unsympathetic. Using pitch-perfect comic timing, Barron thrives with Sweeney’s droll observations, bringing the novel’s wit to life. She also excels at a particular kind of “mean-girl” voice that is employed for several minor characters, from Melody’s status-obsessed cohorts in the suburbs to Bea’s fellow “Glitterary Girls” (former up-and-coming writers like Bea). Barron is less successful anytime a character requires a foreign accent, which is especially noticeable in the on-again/off-again British cadence she gives Leo’s former business partner. Overall, however, this is an enjoyable audiobook performance. An Ecco hardcover. (Mar.)
Publishers Weekly
01/04/2016
As four middle-aged Plumb siblings—Leo, Beatrice, Jack, and Melody—await the distribution of the trust fund their father had established for them as just an extra dividend in what he assumed would be their financially comfortable lives, they find themselves in dire economic straits. Unfortunately, the Nest (as they call the trust fund) had been used to settle the medical bills for a young woman who was badly injured when an inebriated Leo crashed his Porsche while they were inside it and getting intimate. Already a sadly dysfunctional family, the siblings plan to confront Leo. In a clever touch that reveals their hopes and desperation, each secretly has a drink in a different Manhattan bar before they convene to hear Leo swear he will get his act together and pay back the money. That Leo can’t be trusted is evident to the reader right away, but his segue into a meaningful domestic relationship with a literary agent seems hopeful. Meanwhile, his siblings try to avoid other financial crises, brought on by their own irresponsible behavior. Jack can’t repay the loans he has kept secret from his husband; Melody won’t be able to meet the mortgage payments on her home or forthcoming college tuition for her twin daughters; Bea has been forced to return the advance on the second novel she cannot write. In her debut, Sweeney spins a fast-moving, often-humorous narrative, and her portrait of each sibling is compassionate even as she reveals their foibles with emotional clarity. She sets scenes among iconic Manhattan watering places, capturing the tempo of various neighborhoods. Her writing is assured, energetic, and adroitly plotted, sweeping the reader along through an engrossing narrative that endears readers to the Plumb family for their essential humanity. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
The Nest ambles along so beautifully, what a pleasure to read! It’s a wise, funny, compassionate family drama, full of irresistible surprises, witty conversations, and necessary emotional truths.” — Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins
“A masterfully constructed, darkly comic, and immensely captivating tale...not only clever, but emotionally astute. Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is a real talent.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
“In her intoxicating first novel, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney has written an epic family story that unfolds in a deeply personal way. The Nest is a fast-moving train and Sweeney’s writing dares us to keep up. I couldn’t stop reading or caring about the juicy and dysfunctional Plumb family.” — Amy Poehler
“Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney delivers an acerbic satire of the leisure class while crafting an affecting human story that embroils us utterly in the fates of the Plumbs...This book keeps its blade sharp and its heart open.” — Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves
“The Nest is a trenchant, darkly funny, and beautiful novel.” — Bret Anthony Johnston
“Humor and delightful irony abound in this lively first novel.” — New York Times Book Review
In her debut, Sweeney spins a fast-moving, often-humorous narrative, and her portrait of each sibling is compassionate even as she reveals their foibles with emotional clarity...assured, energetic, and adroitly plotted...an engrossing narrative that endears readers to the Plumb family for their essential humanity.” — Publishers Weekly
“[A] generous, absorbing novel...Sweeney’s endearing characters are quirky New Yorkers all... [a] lively novel. A fetching debut from an author who knows her city, its people, and their heart.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
This dysfunctional family novel, arriving in March, has best-seller potential written all over it. Scenes in The Nest, which follows four adult siblings and the inheritance shared between them, play out cinematically... certainly every bit as entertaining as a movie, too, and impossibly witty to boot. — Elle
“As siblings struggle with money woes, their humble inheritance turns into a full-blown cash cow. There’s only one problem: the black sheep of the family.” — Cosmopolitan, Cosmo Reads
“Nothing makes your dysfunctional clan look good like another’s-meet the Plumb siblings, caught up in a trust fund battle, in Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest.” — Marie Claire
Largehearted and witty, The Nest is a tender portrait of a family who must face their past choices and the consequences of their expected inheritance on their relationships and one another.” — Buzzfeed
A compulsively readable novel that will keep you thinking about how expectations can shape our lives, and what happens when we can no longer rely on them.” — PopSugar
“In this hilarious family saga, a group of adult siblings find their futures uncertain when they realize the shared inheritance they’ve been counting on might have been drained by their reckless older brother.” — Entertainment Weekly, 9 Books You Have to Read in March
“A precise and deftly braided story...a breezier The Emperor’s Children, by turns winsome, biting, and addictive.” — New York magazine / Vulture
“All it will take is a few pages of this book’s strikingly hypnotic prologue, and you’ll be sucked in... Better than reality TV, you won’t be able to stop reading this until you’ve sucked out all the juicy drama.” — Bustle, 15 of the Best Books of March 2016
“Readers who devour quirky family dramas like Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Be Frank With Me won’t want to miss this anticipated debut about a dysfunctional New York City family.” — BookPage, 9 Women to Watch in 2016
“Fans of dark comedy are sure to appreciate the twisted humor and compassion found in this novel, which explores the ever-binding relationship between brothers and sisters. The Nest is gripping family drama at its best.” — Refinery 29, 5 Brand-New Books to Read in March
“The dynamics and foibles of family take center stage here, interweaving four characters’ tumultuous journeys to paint a rich picture of domestic drama.” — B&N Reads, The Best New Fiction of the Month
“[A] closely observed, charming novel.” — O, the Oprah Magazine
“[S]cenes both witty and tragic... that glow with the confidence of an experienced comic writer... [Sweeney] maintains a refreshing balance of tenderness. Rather than skewering the Plumbs to death, she pokes them, as though probing to find the humanity beneath their cynical crust.” — Washington Post
“The Nest is an addictive, poignant read with an enticing premise.” — Los Angeles Times
“Hilarious and big-hearted, The Nest is a stellar debut.” — People, Book of the Week
“Her writing is like really good dark chocolate: sharper and more bittersweet than the cheap stuff, but also too delicious not to finish in one sitting.” — Entertainment Weekly
“It’s rare to find a novel as guiltily entertaining as it is profound, but The Nest, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s engrossing debut, is one such book.” — Elle.com
“Fans of Salinger’s fictional Glass family will take to the Plumbs: Four wealthy Manhattan-born-and-bred siblings whose inheritance (aka “The Nest”) is threatened when one of them gets in a drunk driving accident and subsequently checks into rehab.” — InStyle, 8 Buzzy New Books to Read During Spring Break
“A witty, tender portrait of a very peculiar family, The Nest is a testament to the consequences of our past choices and the ways in which expected inheritance can intimately change relationships.” — Buzzfeed, 19 Incredible New Books You Need To Read This Spring
“It’s funny and it’s deep. And you’ll hate-love them all.” — The Skimm Reads
“Frequently funny, sometimes sad and highly relatable for anyone with a sibling or three, The Nest is a breeze to read and hugely entertaining.” — PureWow
“Sweeney’s family saga balances not only comedy and tragedy, but scandal and achievement, trust and betrayal, belonging and isolation and the complex nature of a family’s love, both at its harshest and most tender.” — Paste Magazine
“Few things are more compelling than looking into the interiors of other people’s lives-and finding a truth or two about our own. In Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s wickedly funny novel THE NEST, four midlife siblings squabble over their inheritance; universal questions about love, trust, ambition, and rivalry roil.” — More magazine
“D’Aprix gives each of the characters a distinct and true personality, and she has a flair for realistic and funny dialogue-readers will feel as though they’re sitting right next to the clan as they bicker and barter. Fans of Jonathan Tropper will adore D’Aprix’s debut.” — Booklist (starred review)
“[A] smartly executed tale of two brothers and two sisters in New York City who are trying hard to ruin what could have been comfortable lives.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“[I]mmensely enjoyable...The Nest is like a love letter to old New York, with scores of lush details that root the story in time and place.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“The Nest is all about families, how we let each other down, and more importantly, how we raise each other up.” — Bustle, 12 Spring Break Reads To Help You Escape Normal Life
“Sweeney writes like a pro.” — New York Times
“[A]promising start for this writer.” — Seattle Times
“When the playboy older brother of a grown fam lands himself in rehab, he puts the group trust fund at risk. Cue his dysfunctional siblings scheming to get it all back. You’ll hate-love them all.” — The Skimm
“[A] wry, irresistible debut” — Entertainment Weekly, Best Books of 2016...So Far
“Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s characters...come to life on the page. Fans of dark humor will get a kick out of this family drama.” — Real Simple, "Best Books of 2016"
New York Times Book Review
Humor and delightful irony abound in this lively first novel.
Elle
This dysfunctional family novel, arriving in March, has best-seller potential written all over it. Scenes in The Nest, which follows four adult siblings and the inheritance shared between them, play out cinematically... certainly every bit as entertaining as a movie, too, and impossibly witty to boot.
Bret Anthony Johnston
The Nest is a trenchant, darkly funny, and beautiful novel.
Elizabeth Gilbert
A masterfully constructed, darkly comic, and immensely captivating tale...not only clever, but emotionally astute. Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is a real talent.
Jami Attenberg
The Nest ambles along so beautifully, what a pleasure to read! It’s a wise, funny, compassionate family drama, full of irresistible surprises, witty conversations, and necessary emotional truths.
Amy Poehler
In her intoxicating first novel, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney has written an epic family story that unfolds in a deeply personal way. The Nest is a fast-moving train and Sweeney’s writing dares us to keep up. I couldn’t stop reading or caring about the juicy and dysfunctional Plumb family.
Matthew Thomas
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney delivers an acerbic satire of the leisure class while crafting an affecting human story that embroils us utterly in the fates of the Plumbs...This book keeps its blade sharp and its heart open.
Cosmo Reads Cosmopolitan
As siblings struggle with money woes, their humble inheritance turns into a full-blown cash cow. There’s only one problem: the black sheep of the family.
New York magazine / Vulture
A precise and deftly braided story...a breezier The Emperor’s Children, by turns winsome, biting, and addictive.
PureWow
Frequently funny, sometimes sad and highly relatable for anyone with a sibling or three, The Nest is a breeze to read and hugely entertaining.
|Los Angeles Times
The Nest is an addictive, poignant read with an enticing premise.
Real Simple
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s characters...come to life on the page. Fans of dark humor will get a kick out of this family drama.
15 of the Best Books of March 2016 Bustle
All it will take is a few pages of this book’s strikingly hypnotic prologue, and you’ll be sucked in... Better than reality TV, you won’t be able to stop reading this until you’ve sucked out all the juicy drama.
9 Women to Watch in 2016 BookPage
Readers who devour quirky family dramas like Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Be Frank With Me won’t want to miss this anticipated debut about a dysfunctional New York City family.
Marie Claire
Nothing makes your dysfunctional clan look good like another’s-meet the Plumb siblings, caught up in a trust fund battle, in Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest.
The Skimm
When the playboy older brother of a grown fam lands himself in rehab, he puts the group trust fund at risk. Cue his dysfunctional siblings scheming to get it all back. You’ll hate-love them all.
Entertainment Weekly
In this hilarious family saga, a group of adult siblings find their futures uncertain when they realize the shared inheritance they’ve been counting on might have been drained by their reckless older brother.
Buzzfeed
Largehearted and witty, The Nest is a tender portrait of a family who must face their past choices and the consequences of their expected inheritance on their relationships and one another.
San Francisco Chronicle
[I]mmensely enjoyable...The Nest is like a love letter to old New York, with scores of lush details that root the story in time and place.
12 Spring Break Reads To Help You Escape Normal Li Bustle
The Nest is all about families, how we let each other down, and more importantly, how we raise each other up.
New York Times
Sweeney writes like a pro.
Elle.com
It’s rare to find a novel as guiltily entertaining as it is profound, but The Nest, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s engrossing debut, is one such book.
19 Incredible New Books You Need To Read This Spri Buzzfeed
A witty, tender portrait of a very peculiar family, The Nest is a testament to the consequences of our past choices and the ways in which expected inheritance can intimately change relationships.
the Oprah Magazine O
[A] closely observed, charming novel.
PopSugar
A compulsively readable novel that will keep you thinking about how expectations can shape our lives, and what happens when we can no longer rely on them.
Book of the Week People
Hilarious and big-hearted, The Nest is a stellar debut.
More magazine
Few things are more compelling than looking into the interiors of other people’s lives-and finding a truth or two about our own. In Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s wickedly funny novel THE NEST, four midlife siblings squabble over their inheritance; universal questions about love, trust, ambition, and rivalry roil.
Washington Post
[S]cenes both witty and tragic... that glow with the confidence of an experienced comic writer... [Sweeney] maintains a refreshing balance of tenderness. Rather than skewering the Plumbs to death, she pokes them, as though probing to find the humanity beneath their cynical crust.
Booklist (starred review)
D’Aprix gives each of the characters a distinct and true personality, and she has a flair for realistic and funny dialogue-readers will feel as though they’re sitting right next to the clan as they bicker and barter. Fans of Jonathan Tropper will adore D’Aprix’s debut.
Paste Magazine
Sweeney’s family saga balances not only comedy and tragedy, but scandal and achievement, trust and betrayal, belonging and isolation and the complex nature of a family’s love, both at its harshest and most tender.
Seattle Times
[A]promising start for this writer.
8 Buzzy New Books to Read During Spring Break InStyle
Fans of Salinger’s fictional Glass family will take to the Plumbs: Four wealthy Manhattan-born-and-bred siblings whose inheritance (aka “The Nest”) is threatened when one of them gets in a drunk driving accident and subsequently checks into rehab.
The Skimm Reads
It’s funny and it’s deep. And you’ll hate-love them all.
Refinery 29
Fans of dark comedy are sure to appreciate the twisted humor and compassion found in this novel, which explores the ever-binding relationship between brothers and sisters. The Nest is gripping family drama at its best.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
[A] smartly executed tale of two brothers and two sisters in New York City who are trying hard to ruin what could have been comfortable lives.
Los Angeles Times
The Nest is an addictive, poignant read with an enticing premise.
San Francisco Chronicle
[I]mmensely enjoyable...The Nest is like a love letter to old New York, with scores of lush details that root the story in time and place.
Washington Post
[S]cenes both witty and tragic... that glow with the confidence of an experienced comic writer... [Sweeney] maintains a refreshing balance of tenderness. Rather than skewering the Plumbs to death, she pokes them, as though probing to find the humanity beneath their cynical crust.
Kelly Oxford
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney has undoubtedly given us the best summer read of the year.
12 Spring Break Reads to Help You Escape Normal Li Bustle
The Nest is all about families, how we let each other down, and more importantly, how we raise each other up.
New York magazine
A precise and deftly braided story...a breezier The Emperor’s Children, by turns winsome, biting, and addictive.
O: the Oprah Magazine
[A] closely observed, charming novel.
Huffington Post
In prose that employs a variety of British dialects, Broun composes a story that’s engaging not only for its strange plot, but for its inventive use of language, too.
Library Journal
02/15/2016
This anticipated debut novel from Sweeney typifies the Internet meme "white people problems" even more than most current New York City-based literary fiction. It concerns the Plumb siblings, four middle-class New Yorkers, and their upcoming inheritance. The Plumb patriarch set aside a sum to become available to the four of them when the youngest, Melody, turned 40, in order to teach them a lesson about independence. The story opens with Leo Plumb high on cocaine and getting into a car wreck as he seduces a 19-year-old waitress, a scandal that puts the now hefty inheritance at risk. The story moves along briskly, shifting perspectives between the Plumbs and those associated with them. There is Melody, the youngest, and her teenage daughter's sexual awakening; Jack, an antique dealer, and his secret husband; Leo and publisher girlfriend Stephanie, who owns a brownstone in Brooklyn and rents the lower floor to a man who lost his wife in 9/11; and finally, Bea, the failed novelist. These stories are seamlessly combined as predictable tragedies and triumphs befall everyone. VERDICT Anyone with siblings will appreciate the character dynamics at play here, although they may not care much for each character individually. A fun, quick read recommended for fans of Emma Straub and Meg Wolitzer. [See Prepub Alert, 9/28/15.]—Kate Gray, Boston P.L., MA
School Library Journal
06/01/2016
The four Plumb siblings are waiting for their inheritance (affectionately called the nest) to be dispersed once the youngest sister turns 40. The nest has been growing exponentially since their father's untimely death when they were all adolescents, and each one of the Plumbs has been making poor financial decisions in the hopes of being bailed out by the nest. Instead, the oldest brother is allowed to withdraw the majority of the money early to be used as a payoff for an unfortunate accident he causes. The story develops as the remaining siblings begin to navigate life and the consequences of their decisions without a safety net, but the plot is much more complex than a look at four dysfunctional and often selfish siblings. Teens will initially be pulled into the story by the shocking events in the prologue, but they will connect with the siblings as they recognize aspects of themselves in each of them. The epilogue goes beyond a typical happy ending, illustrating how the siblings have changed and learned more about themselves. YA readers will enjoy immersing themselves in the trendy side of life in New York, as well as coming to understand how adult life may not be all it seems on a well-crafted surface. VERDICT A strong choice for demonstrating how adulthood is as much of a discovering process as adolescence. Purchase where coming-of-age tales are needed.—April Sanders, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL
APRIL 2016 - AudioFile
Mia Barron takes a playful approach in narrating this humorous family saga. The four 40-something Plumb siblings are waiting to finally come into the inheritance their father set aside for them. The black sheep, Leo, however, places their collective windfall in jeopardy. Barron's quick pace makes the bickering between the siblings believable and amplifies the tension of a family in conflict. She maximizes the contrasts between the main characters, two female and two male, drawing out the irony of bickering adult siblings. For those in search of drama bordering on melodrama, this is a story with many enjoyable moments. Set against the background of contemporary New York, the story is considerably enhanced by its narration. M.R. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2015-12-23
Dysfunctional siblings in New York wig out when the eldest blows their shared inheritance. In an arresting prologue to this generous, absorbing novel, Leo Plumb leaves his cousin's wedding early, drunk and high, with one of the waitresses and has a car accident whose exact consequences are withheld for quite some time. To make his troubles go away, Leo pillages a $2 million account known as "The Nest," left by his father for the four children to share after the youngest of them turns 40, though in a sweet running joke, everyone keeps forgetting exactly when that is. Leo's siblings have been counting heavily on this money to resolve their financial troubles and are horrified to learn that their mother has let Leo burn almost all of it. A meeting is called at Grand Central Oyster Bar—one of many sharply observed New York settings—to discuss Leo's plans to pay them back. Will Leo even show? Three days out of rehab, he barely makes it through Central Park. But he does appear and promises to make good, and despite his history of unreliability, the others remain enough under the spell of their charismatic brother to fall for it. The rest of the book is a wise, affectionate study of how expectations play out in our lives—not just financial ones, but those that control our closest relationships. Sweeney's endearing characters are quirky New Yorkers all: Bea Plumb is a widowed writer who tanked after three stories that made her briefly one of "New York's Newest Voices: Who You Should Be Reading." Jack Plumb, known as "Leo Lite" in high school to his vast irritation, is a gay antiques dealer married to a lawyer; truly desperate for cash, he becomes involved in a shady deal involving a work of art stolen from the ruins of the World Trade Center. Melody, the youngest, lives in the suburbs in a house she's about to lose and is obsessed with tracking her teenage twins using an app called Stalkerville. The insouciance with which they thwart her is another metaphor for the theme of this lively novel. A fetching debut from an author who knows her city, its people, and their hearts.
