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Same As It Ever Was

Claire Lombardo

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5 stars
3,743 (33%)
4 stars
4,557 (40%)
3 stars
2,151 (19%)
2 stars
503 (4%)
1 star
177 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,768 reviews
Profile Image for Nilufer Ozmekik.
Nilufer Ozmekik
2,638 reviews53.5k followers
August 17, 2024
I was eagerly anticipating one of the year's most highly anticipated literary fiction releases from the author of “The Most Fun We Ever Had”: a novel delving into the complexities of a dysfunctional family and the introspective journey of a middle-aged woman reconsidering her life choices during her husband's thirtieth birthday, marked by surprising announcements from her children.

The narrative takes us on a journey to meet Julia Ames, a 57-year-old librarian and mother of two: Ben, a 24-year-old, and Alma, a rebellious teenage daughter. Despite appearing to have the life she always dreamed of, Julia's chance encounter with an estranged friend, Helen Russo, at a luxury grocery store sets off a chain of events that unravels hidden secrets from their pasts.

As we delve deeper into Julia's world, we witness Alma's struggle to find her identity through various rebellious acts, while Ben's decision to marry his pregnant girlfriend at a young age prompts Julia to confront her own memories of youth. Throughout the story, Julia grapples with self-sabotage, mental health issues, and the challenges of balancing her roles as a mother and wife.

Like the author's previous works, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the unconventional yet realistic dynamics of this family and the well-developed characters that feel like genuine individuals. The detailed and vivid descriptions add depth to the narrative, although the book's length and some slower-paced chapters prevented me from giving it a full five-star rating. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most finely crafted literary works of the year, deserving a spot on your reading list.

I extend my sincere gratitude to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing me with the opportunity to read and review an ARC copy of this highly anticipated literary fiction book.

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Profile Image for Liz Hein.
Liz Hein
355 reviews170 followers
April 3, 2024
Andddd I’m sobbing

Lombardo has absolutely done it again. Same as it Ever Was is another breathtakingly observant family drama centering on a marriage ripe with years together, children to care for into adulthood, and secrets. Not thriller-esque secrets, but rather the ones that permeate most suburbs yet are very rarely explored nor revealed.

I’m not saying every family will relate to the exact situations/secrets in this book, but I’m certain most will relate to something here. Lombardo has a very specific way of exposing the universality of imperfections and takes us deeper into the motivations of characters than most. So much so I didn’t want to leave these characters even after 500 pages. I’m absolutely bereft.
Profile Image for Bookaddictpnw.
Bookaddictpnw
460 reviews11 followers
June 12, 2024
Things that Bothered Me:
▪️long, slow, boring
▪️didn’t love the female lead character, actually heartily disliked her and her insipid husband
▪️so tired of “surprise” pregnancy trope - I’d love to see a fiction writer brave enough to use the word ‘abortion’ (thank you, Ann Patchett)
▪️constant switching of time lines was frustrating, and abrupt at times
▪️wealthy privileged white people story, got tiresome, wish she’d dug harder, deeper, and earlier in book into lead’s childhood
▪️no plot, thin characters, for 500 PAGES
▪️ending did NOT redeem book for me
Profile Image for Ron Charles.
Ron Charles
1,090 reviews49.6k followers
June 12, 2024
Don’t be misled by the weary tone of the title “Same As It Ever Was.” This is a big novel, engaging enough to entertain you through the summer and thoughtful enough to justify its considerable heft. While many novels are too long, “Same As It Ever Was” takes full advantage of its 500 pages to traverse the whole life of Julia Ames, a woman who makes peace with motherhood slowly and haphazardly.

The story comes to us in two twisted strands, a double helix of past and present. As the wife of an adoring husband and the mother of a bright preschooler, Julia should be enjoying languid days of maternal bliss. But instead, Lombardo writes, “she felt entirely unmoored, brooding, usually while staring pensively into the middle distance like a disenfranchised Victorian nursemaid.” There’s no use complaining, of course, not when her husband, Mark, has to work so hard. “Mark was more vocally allowed to rue his responsibilities; that was just the way the world worked.” Julia, meanwhile, must uncomplainingly endure “the loneliness of motherhood; the deadly ennui of the day-in-day-out.”

This is, indeed, the same as it ever was, but Lombardo’s witty, sympathetic take on motherhood exudes the sharp scent of fermented apple juice and a full diaper. “It was a cliché to be this person,” Julia realizes, which only makes her self-pity sting more. “She got. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Profile Image for Nedra N Conrad.
Nedra N Conrad
1 review
June 20, 2024
did not enjoy

I disliked the central character Julia so much that I never enjoyed the book. I tried—I soldiered through the book because I did enjoy The Most Fun We Ever Had by this author—but for me it was so depressing and frustrating to read about Julia that for only the second time in my life I cannot leave a positive review.
Profile Image for Lisa Burgos.
Lisa Burgos
430 reviews25 followers
August 8, 2024
Middle aged Julia shares her struggles with her mother,marriage, and being a mother. It describes the joys, doubts, loneliness, and mistakes that can come with this area.
Val
77 reviews
May 10, 2024
Ugh! Stopped reading this book at page 139. Just couldn't read this book anymore. Hated the main character Julia and just didn't care at all about the story.
Profile Image for Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader.
Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader
2,429 reviews31.6k followers
August 21, 2024
Thank you, @doubledaybooks, for the gifted book. Thank you, as well, @bibliobeth, for buddy reading one of my favorite books this year.

Wow…za… Julia Ames has to be one of the unique characters I’ve ever experienced, and I loved her for that. I knew she had a story, one that was truly novel. Claire Lombardo’s writing absorbs the reader. Nothing is boring. Everything has purpose, even with a chunky almost 500 pages. The chapters alternate between past and present, and I adored every facet, every nuance.

At heart of it all is its realness. Julia simply has to be real. Someone experiencing an almost empty nest, the trials of marriage, the scars from an unusual early life; all while seeking understanding and connection, and at the same time, holding herself back. Julia’s friendship with Helen captivated me. Helen captivated me. Mark, Julia’s husband, was equally phenomenal; just so good, understanding, even-keeled, constant. Julia’s children - love how they were explored. How Julia found some healing with her connection to Sunny, Ben’s fiancé.

While very different from me in most ways, the way the story is told makes aspects of Julia so entirely relatable. It became easier to step inside her shoes once I knew her, and with such an intimate portrait, how could you now know her, in the end? There’s so much to love here, so many shifting dynamics, including long marriages, mother-daughter relationships, mothers and sons, mothering of adult children, and the role of Suzanne in the story deserves mention, too. It’s just all so very, very good. And smart. So emotionally smart and resonant.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Profile Image for Jana.
Jana
486 reviews
July 24, 2024
This book was so long and so slow. The first 80% was (to me) basically about a whiny housewife and mother. Every one has hardship, good and bad days, but most people get past it and move on. This woman has a lovely home, a loving and VERY understanding husband and two healthy children! I could not connect with this character at all!

It wasn’t until the last 20% that the story picked up. I could finally appreciate the good writing (and the writing is good) because I wasn’t falling asleep. I actually enjoyed it a little. I am obviously in the minority on this one but I gave it my best shot and I finished it.
Profile Image for Jayne Evangelista.
Jayne Evangelista
208 reviews8 followers
February 19, 2024
Messy, beautiful family that feels like real life. If I didn’t know better I’d think Claire Lombardo was eavesdropping on my own life. I felt so seen as a wife and mother. This book is a saga at over 500 pages but it’s so real, painful and funny that you won’t be able to put it down.
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Katy O.
2,637 reviews711 followers
May 26, 2024
(free review copy) ETA: I came back and rated this five stars because I just can't stop thinking about it. Lombardo worms her way into my heart and brain and simply settles in, and for that, she deserves the highest rating from me.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

Please don't mind this very very meandering and incoherent review in the immediate aftermath of reading this book. I hope to clean it up in the future? Maybe?

Whew. I'm going to hold off on rating this one for a bit because I have spent such a long (relative) amount of time in the pages of this book and feeling so many complicated feelings about the main character Julia that I'm a bit muddled about how to come to a final verdict. Does the fact that I won't be able to stop thinking about the story and the relationships for a long time mean it's stellar? Or does the fact that I wanted to scream at Julia a million times, despite understanding that her childhood trauma impacted her adult choices, mean that it's not a favorite? This isn't an easy book to love, in my opinion, because it's so very messy. Julia is a mother and daughter and wife who has absolutely none of it figured out and who is very much trying and often feeling like she's failing and to some, HAS objectively failed. But who gets to call a marriage and mother a failure? I posit that it's only the spouse and child that gets to make that verdict.



If book clubs can agree to read such a tome of a meandering (and winding and time-hopping) story, I think this could make for amazing discussion. If you want easily understandable and loveable characters, I think this might be a tough one for you. If you want to wade through and revel in the quagmire of a traumatic childhood and how it impacts a woman for her entire life, THIS is the book for you. As the mother of teens and married for 19 years, I definitely connected with parts of this book, but had to draw on my understanding as an educator of trauma response to have empathy for many parts. It's not that I didn't LIKE Julia, it's just that it hurt me to read about her for so very much of the book. I feel like parts of me ARE Julia while other parts of me want to scream at Julia and parts of Julia are so many of the children I know and so I kind of want to mother Julia?? Confusing.

Also, I think Mark could have totally written How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told, DAMN.

And yes this review is a hot mess.

Source: digital review copy via Edelweiss
Profile Image for Kelly (and the Book Boar).
Kelly (and the Book Boar)
2,664 reviews9,094 followers
August 8, 2024


I immediately put my hold in at the library for this one after loving The Most Fun We Ever Had (the multitude of houses on the cover was just a bonus here). I went into it blind without reading the blurb or any reviews, but I couldn’t help but notice all my Goodreads’ friends and their plethora of Stars which had me like . . . .



I was REALLY afraid I was going to be a wrongreader because the one thing I simply can’t abide by in either real life or fiction is an extramarital affair. I mean it’s just so easy to NOT have one, you know???? And judge me all you want for being holier than thou, but I can’t personally think of a justification of why it would ever be okay. But really nothing is so much of a dealbreaker for me that I won’t continue reading a book and I am so glad I did.

Affair aside, I loved this novel. The “mommy issues” – the intergenerational friendship – the soon-to-be empty nester middle-age leading lady, and even the “things we never get over” made for an absolutely fantastic read. And Jules’ ended up being someone I loved and totally could relate to for the most part . . .

“You want to get some dinner? What are you in the mood for?”

Xanax. An entire pack of cigarettes. Several horse tranquilizers.

I ended up reading Sandwich right after this by pure coincidence. They shared many of the same themes and I’m disappointed in myself to report they both . . . .



Highly recommend each of them.
Profile Image for Cindy (leavemetomybooks).
Cindy (leavemetomybooks)
1,260 reviews787 followers
March 31, 2024
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH - 500 STARS

Claire Lombardo is a magician. I wasn't sure how she was going to match The Most Fun We Ever Had (which is one of my favorite books ever - I enthusiastically read all 500+ pages twice), and don't worry, folks - she KILLED IT. In Same As It Ever Was, she captures every complicated, messy emotion of marriage and family life and friendship and motherhood so perfectly. I feel like all of these people are real, and that some of them might be me. I laughed and cried and never wanted this book to end. I'm already looking forward to reading it again when I pick it for bookclub.

This was one of my most-anticipated books of 2024 and is absolutely one of my favorites. READ THIS!

* thank you so much to Doubleday for the NetGalley review copy. SAME AS IT EVER WAS publishes June 18, 2024.
Profile Image for Heather~ Nature.books.and.coffee.
Heather~ Nature.books.and.coffee
792 reviews193 followers
May 1, 2024
3.5⭐ (rounded up) My first book by Claire Lombardo and I enjoyed it. It was a long one, so I took my time. It's a family saga, and the story of a middle age mom, Julia, with two grown children and a seemingly happy life. Yet she deals with struggles of her own. You'll read about her relationships and challenges with her marriage, her children and her own mother. This is more about Julia and character driven than about the plot. It's very realistic and I felt so sad for Julia in parts of this book. I enjoyed reading about Julia's relationship with her children and the problems she's dealt with in her marriage. Like I said though, this book definitely was on the long side and I feel it could've been shorter. I do think the audiobook would've been a big help with this one. But overall an interesting family story.
Profile Image for Emma.
Emma
1,412 reviews
June 27, 2024
I wonder if I'm missing something because while Same As It Ever Was was a totally decent novel, pleasant to read most of the time due to Claire Lombardo's excellent writing and the way the book is built (going back and forth in time in a very clever way), I don't understand all the gushing reviews.

First and foremost, it was too long, you could have cut 100 to 150 pages off and it would have been fine. This book didn't need to be 500 pages long and I think that's why it felt so drawn-out and too slow.

I understand self-sabotage, I really do, but at some point I just couldn't stand Julia's self-defeating behavior. She's got reasons to be this way, but maybe we've learnt them too late to be able to cheer for her. I don't need the MC to be likeable to enjoy a book but I need to understand the character's reasons to be unpleasant or, in this case, so negative.

I make it sound like I had a bad time reading Same As It Ever Was, I didn't (I wouldn't have finished such a long book if I hated it), many of its themes resonated with me and I really enjoyed quite a lot the way Claire Lombardo played with time, but it just dragged too much to earn more than 3 stars.

Also I liked how Susan (Suzanne?) the dog was very present and a real character of her own.
Profile Image for Seawitch.
Seawitch
540 reviews22 followers
July 4, 2024
Whoa. This is an intense book.

At the core of the story is a wounded narcissist mother and her withholding relationship with her daughter. There is also the story of the marriage of the rescue complex husband who falls in love with the emotionally stunted daughter.

I don’t know why I expected something a bit more humored or nuanced but this was page upon page of depressive self-examination by the protagonist.

I admire the author’s willingness to get very deep into the psyche of her characters. And I wonder (and feel sad about) what her own upbringing was like, because I don’t think this kind of story could be “made up” without a little of the emotional deprivation of a lousy upbringing having been experienced firsthand.

Some of the storytelling was repetitive - as was her earlier book The Most Fun We Ever Had. There were some aspects that just felt you were getting hit over the head again and again.
Profile Image for Nora Nora.
Nora Nora
923 reviews2 followers
June 27, 2024
DNF at 35% (where she decided to go with the guy to the lake house).
It’s not easy being in the MC’s head, watching her making one stupid decision after another without any good justification (other than whatever her mum did?), granted I’ve never been good with unlikable characters.
Then she decides to go to the lake house, I just thought that’s enough….
Profile Image for Marilea Grider.
Marilea Grider
104 reviews4 followers
June 23, 2024
I spent hours reading this and just had to stop at 25%. The MC was just ugh. I wished she would just go away because all the other characters were great. A joyless time suck.
Anne
379 reviews
July 8, 2024
A DEEP dive into the malaise of a woman and her marriage, this book is way too wordy and long. Where was the editor? The fact that the characters are white and upper middle class makes it seem whiny. Sure she had a difficult mother/childhood, but who didn't? Not really sure what Lombardo's purpose was here; the story doesn't rise above the level of melodrama.
Profile Image for Lynn Peterson.
Lynn Peterson
996 reviews117 followers
July 7, 2024
Another really long book by Claire Lombardo. I liked her earlier novel better than this one. This one was very emotionally driven - about a woman who is raised by an emotional absent mother and now questions her own mothering and relationships. It is a heavy book and took me several days to read.
Profile Image for Jaclyn.
Jaclyn
Author 55 books706 followers
July 7, 2024
Unusually, it took me more than a week to read this. I wanted to read it but kept not wanting to pick it up and be inside Julia’s tortured but funny mind. It took me a while to realise that was because her interiority often matched mine and the discomfort of that was confronting. She thinks mean and petty thoughts. She’s lonely and vulnerable. She feels undeserving of everything she has, and she has a lot. Ooooffft. It was a lot. But it was also a beautiful big feelings novel of empty nests, self-sabotage and family. Lombardo has written another perfectly observed family drama and I hope she keeps them coming.
Profile Image for Dale.
Dale
81 reviews1 follower
July 1, 2024
I just could not get into this story. I so loved The Most Fun We Ever Had so looked forward to reading this second book. But I did not finish this one as it just wasn’t interesting or enjoyable to me.
Profile Image for Claudia Piepenburg.
Claudia Piepenburg
Author 5 books23 followers
June 25, 2024
Insufferable novel. 500 pages of the internal monologue of one of the most unsympathetic protagonists I’ve ever encountered. I’m halfway through and am finished. Could care less what happens to this miserable, unhinged, unhappy, miserable woman. Her character and the author’s constant use of metaphors as well as distracting semi-colons littering every page like birdseed spilling out the sides of a cage housing a maladjusted parrot who screeches at everyone who walks in the room; as if they’re there to kidnap him or worse set him loose; because he got free once and it so traumatized him that he needs daily medication (see what I did there?) is more than I can take. Why do people read this soap-operish drivel?
Profile Image for Vicky Trainor.
Vicky Trainor
79 reviews
June 28, 2024
I was so excited for this book because I loved The Most Fun We Ever Had so much. I wish this story was told from multiple perspectives like her last book, because being in Julia’s head for 500 pages was a real drag. She doesn’t like anyone, including herself, makes terrible decisions and says the rudest things “without meaning to” over and over again. She’s always complaining that she doesn’t understand social rules or emotions but never gets help…??? A let down unfortunately.
Profile Image for Kari Ann Sweeney.
Kari Ann Sweeney
1,194 reviews356 followers
May 6, 2024
The Most Fun We Ever Had is one of my favorite novels, so I was eager to get my hands on Lombardo’s sophomore effort, 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝗪𝐀𝐒 (Pub 06.18) Thanks to my dear friend @jamie.of.all.trades who not only picked up a bound galley but got it personalized to me from the author.

As eager as I was, it took me over a month to read. It took a beat to get into, so stick with it. Once I hit my stride I still read it slowly because the writing, story and characters required my undivided attention. It also required a hefty supply of book darts.

I adored it. This sweeping literary family drama packs a punch. It’s a touching, complicated and introspective story about long standing relationships as a woman- being a friend, daughter, wife and mother. You’ve heard the phrase that encourages authors to “𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸.” But Clare Lombardo disrupts this thought with her uncanny ability to write about things she “doesn’t know” with profound depth and understanding. She masterfully crafts characters who deploy statements that deeply resonate with me on multiple levels. She takes an observant perspective of seemingly universal imperfections of people and unfurls the motivations with deft nuance. It blows my mind.

You know what else blows my mind? The last 15 pages left me gutted with tears running down my face.

“𝘐𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘹𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬? 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴- 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴- 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰.”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,768 reviews

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