HELLO BEAUTIFUL by Ann Napolitano

William’s 3-year-old sister dies when William is 10 days old.  The behavior of his parents after this tragic loss causes William to feel that he should have been the child who died.  Basketball becomes his refuge, and he “wills” himself to become tall.  He meets Julia in college, and her three sisters and parents soon become his surrogate family.  However, cracks begin to appear in the veneer of Julia’s close-knit family, and two almost simultaneous events send them into a tailspin.  The resulting fracture resembles what happened to William’s family, as Julia’s family goes from happy to splintered in a split second.  Another example of history repeating itself is William’s reaction to the birth of his own daughter.  From here the story becomes just too messy and somewhat tedious.  The author covers too many issues—depression, attempted suicide, coming out as gay, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, cancer, estrangement, and, of course, the death of a child.  Also, the degree to which William’s parents distanced themselves from him seemed weird to me.  He had to have had some supervision and discipline when he was a child, as I don’t think he raised himself, and there was no indication that someone else did.  I kept hoping for something to draw me to this story, but, alas, the ending is melodramatic and predictable.