Journalist Dawn’s personal and professional ghosts show up to haunt her in Leslie Gray Streeter’s modern family drama, Family and Other Calamities. Here’s a look at this upcoming tale of grief, betrayal, and determination.
The Summary
Three years after the death of her husband, Dale, Dawn Roberts is returning home to Baltimore to inter his ashes in his family’s mausoleum. If the emotions of such a journey weren’t enough on their own, on her flight she bumps into Joe Perkins, her former friend turned professional nemesis.
As it turns out, Joe is heading back to Baltimore to announce the movie adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize–winning story—a story he stole from Dawn thirty years ago. And what’s more, the script includes a scathing representation of Dawn, a character named “Fawn” who tries to take the story from Joe.
With help from her sister, a budding journalist named Bria James, and her estranged brother-in-law, Dawn embarks on a quest to save her reputation while also reckoning with her decision to flee Baltimore after the incident with Joe, and laying her husband to rest.
My Review
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this book. The plot is pretty unique, and it was enjoyable to follow a character in their middle age who is well-established in their career (even if Dawn doesn’t always act “professional”). Despite her flaws, I found Dawn to be likeable and I was rooting for her to win her conflict with Joe.
In fact, I would say that all of the characters are pretty well developed. Dawn’s slightly erratic but well meaning sister, Tonya, brought liveliness to each page where she appeared. Studious and serious Bria James was both annoying and endearing. Polished Joe Perkins brought the bad-guy energy, and Dawn’s lawyer brother-in-law, Brent, was both stuffy and sympathetic.
This cast of characters lends itself to a fun, fast-paced reading experience. Gray Streeter’s highly consistent and voice-driven writing style also helps in this regard. You’re very much in Dawn’s head throughout the entire novel, and I don’t think there was a single moment where the voice broke and I was taken out of the story.
Gray Streeter does a good job of balancing the different conflicts in the book, too. A fair amount of the narrative is Dawn’s hasty search for proof that she was the original reporter of the story that won Joe the Pulitzer, but time is also given to reflect on her career trajectory, her relationships with her family, her relationships with her in-laws, and her grief for her husband. There wasn’t any unnecessary fluff.
That being said, I felt like I wanted everything to go another layer or two deeper. There’s a lot going on in this book, but it’s fairly short, coming in under 300 pages. I think if it had been a bit longer, we could have gotten a closer look at Dawn’s relationships with each of the secondary characters. There are some flashbacks that help provide backstory and context, but there’s also a fair amount of summarizing that tells the reader how to feel about certain characters. I would have liked to spend a little more time with them instead, and have the opportunity to draw my own conclusions.
Also, the ending felt a little rushed and tied everything up in a very nice, neat bow. It was a tad cheesy, like the end of a Scooby-Doo episode where the villain is unmasked and the gang explains everything in painstaking detail. Again, I think this is a side effect of the book being on the shorter side. The plot could have been drawn out a bit more so that the pieces fell into place one at a time, instead of all being thrown together right at the end.
All in all, I very much enjoyed Family and Other Calamities and gave it three stars.
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- Review: Family and Other Calamities by Leslie Gray Streeter - May 15, 2025
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