Hello everyone,
I'm so excited to be part of the Unclaimed Baggage Blog Tour! I literally binge read Unclaimed Baggage in a day and I really enjoyed it. Read on for my full thoughts.
Release Date: September 18, 2018 (out today!)
Source of my copy: publisher
Series: standalone
My rating:
Synopsis
Doris—a lone liberal in a conservative small town—has mostly kept to herself since the terrible waterslide incident a few years ago.
Nell had to leave behind her best friends, perfect life, and too-good-to-be-true boyfriend in Chicago to move to Alabama.
Grant was the star quarterback and epitome of "Mr. Popular" whose drinking problem has all but destroyed his life.
What do these three have in common? A summer job working in a store called Unclaimed Baggage cataloging and selling other people's lost luggage. Together they find that through friendship, they can unpack some of their own emotional baggage and move on into the future.
There was just something about Jen Doll's story that had me binge reading the entirety of Unclaimed Baggage in a day. It may possibly be the fact that it's a quirky story about three teens who became unlikely friends one summer while working in a store that sells stuff from people's lost luggage. It could be the characters--I want to be part of Doris, Nell, and Grant's friendship group and work at Unclaimed Baggage with them! Or, it's the touch of romance, the dash of mystery, and the sprinkling of more heavier topics like alcoholism, sexism, racism, religious hypocrisy, and small-mindedness in a small Southern town that kept the story grounded and much heavier than the cutesy cover would have you believe.
We start the story in Doris's POV--the self-proclaimed "Number One weirdo liberal agnostic in my minuscule Alabama town." She's still mourning the lost of her aunt Stella, the one person who never judged her and encouraged her to be her own person, but working in the stockroom of Unclaimed Baggage was her happy place and helped her deal losing her aunt.
But, soon Doris's sanctuary was invaded by Grant (our second POV), the handsome star quarterback and the town's golden boy who could do no wrong. But, unbeknownst to everyone, he has a burgeoning drinking problem that caused a series of events that had him lying low for the summer. He was ordered to "worked on his issues" with the promise that he'll be reinstated in the football team in the fall with barely a slap on the wrist. To get him out of the house, his mom got him a job at Unclaimed Baggage.
Then, we have our third POV, Nell, who just moved to Doris and Grant's town from Illinois, leaving behind her friends and her boyfriend of three months Ashton. Suffice to say, Nell was not happy with the move. Her parents encouraged her to find a summer job to make new friends, and she ended up working in Unclaimed Baggage with Doris and Grant.
I liked Doris and Nell right away and the easy friendship that formed between them. It took me a while to warm up to Grant who came across as a real douchebag in the beginning. There was friction between Doris and Grant because of their shared history. I cheered Doris on when she told him off and didn't take any of his bullshit. He did get better the more he hung out with the girls, and I really like the trio they formed as they helped each other deal with their own emotional baggage.
Upping the quirkiness factor of the novel, we also get short chapters about a purple luggage that eventually made its way to the store. For a while I didn't know where the author was going with this random luggage when all I wanted to do was get back to Doris, Nell, and Grant. But, it all made sense in the end and I liked how it went full circle with one of the story's threads.
Unclaimed Baggage the store was one of my favorite things in Unclaimed Baggage. I didn't know selling stuff from people's lost luggage was a thing until I googled it and found out it's a real store. I've been stalking their Instagram since (they have some really amazing stuff!), and if I ever find myself traveling to Alabama, I'll definitely make it a priority to visit.
I flew through the book very quickly as I tend to whenever I read lighthearted, romcom-ish reads like Unclaimed Baggage. But, beneath the initial cute/quirky tone it does delve into more serious topics where there were no easy answers. I thought the author did a good job balancing the light and the heavy, and at the same time not tying everything in a neat bow in the end. With that said, I do wish we got an epilogue a few months down the road that updated us how Doris, Nell, and Grant were getting on now that they're in school. I'm confident that Doris and Nell will remain close, but I have questions about Grant as his was the most open-ended.
I thoroughly enjoyed Unclaimed Baggage, and I can't wait to read more by Jen Doll.
Jen Doll is the author of the debut young adult novel, Unclaimed Baggage and the memoir Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest. She's written for The Atlantic, Elle, Esquire, Glamour, GQ, New York Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Vice, The Village Voice, The Week, and many other publications. She grew up in Alabama and lives in Brooklyn.
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