The Five-Star Weekend

“Hollis presses her finger to her phone screen so the picture stays put. I want to go back, she thinks. Back to the days of sleepovers and fancy birthday breakfasts.”

Above all else, Hollis loves Caroline and dedicates a good portion of her life to being her mother. Hollis does not resent giving up her career to stay home with Caroline. She cherishes her daughter and feels hurt by Caroline’s hurtful accusations and cold shoulder.

“Gigi normally checks in on Tuesdays, Fridays, the occasional Sunday evening: Tell me about your day. How goes it? I’m here, I’m here, I’m here. Initially it feels odd texting with a complete stranger, but, Hollis reasons, people do it all the time on dating apps—Tinder, Bumble, Hinge. Soon it feels more liberating than odd.”

Gigi represents the positives of digital relationships, especially after Matthew’s death. Hollis feels more comfortable speaking to Gigi than any other friend she sees regularly. Gigi helps Hollis confront her feelings after Matthew’s death, and she is grateful for her empathetic friend.

“The Gaspersons didn’t have a television. When the Gasperson parents and grandparents went out for dinner at the Chanticleer in Sconset, the Gasperson children played cards or board games or curated their collections of shells and sea glass, and they liked Hollis to tell them ghost stories by candlelight. Hollis would have worked for the Gaspersons for free.”

Hollis recognizes the impact of being raised by a single father early in life when she wishes to be a part of the summer family for whom she babysits. Hollis’s memory of the Gaspersons illustrates her early desire for a big, loving family, always spending time together. Hollis achieves this dream with Matthew and Caroline; however, she struggles to manage a work-life balance when Hungry With Hollis grows in popularity.

“I wanted to be surrounded by the people who knew me best, Moira wrote, even though a couple of the women I hadn’t seen or talked to in years. Even though our common ground had shrunk. Even though these women didn’t know one another well—or at all. I wanted to celebrate the friendships that had made me who I was.”

Inspired by Moira’s five-star weekend, Hollis initially replicates the idea to soothe her grief. However, Hollis’s five-star weekend quickly turns into a content creation weekend for Hungry With Hollis, and Hollis wants everything to be perfect and beautiful. Hollis loses sight of her initial intentions for hosting a five-star weekend, and she must confront her internal struggle with avoidance while facing her conflicts head-on.

“Hollis’s heart aches a little; Brooke loves nothing more than to be included.”

Although Hollis doesn’t consider Brooke her best friend from the new-mom years and often feels annoyed by Brooke’s social idiosyncrasies, she admires her as a good person. Brooke is incredibly self-conscious and overly concerned with other people’s opinions about her. Hollis wishes her friend felt more comfortable in her skin.

“Hollis used to be a devoted wife and mother, but when her website went stratospheric, she shoved both Caroline and her father into a corner. Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but there was a marked difference in their family dynamic. Hollis’s social media presence became her new baby; it was top of mind for Hollis every second of every day.”

Because Caroline resents Hollis’s prioritizing her work over her family’s needs, she is immature and unsupportive when the novel begins. Caroline lacks the experience and perspective necessary to empathize with Hollis. Even though she is a woman with big aspirations for a filmmaking career, Caroline doesn’t support her mother’s ambitions.

“Caroline groaned. The Hungry with Hollis community worshipped her mother, and one of Caroline’s major beefs was how much Hollis seemed to relish their adoration.”

Alternatively, Caroline does recognize her mother’s unhealthy obsession with the opinions of her followers. While the Hungry With Hollis subscribers primarily provide Hollis with positive feedback, a few people make rude and inappropriate comments and accusations, causing Hollis to second-guess herself. Caroline points out that Hollis needs to prioritize the time and opinions of the people she’s close to and who are physically present.

“Hollis is always overly dramatic, using a fake, high-pitched, singsongy voice—Tatum McKenzie, you never age a day, how are things, how’s Kyle, how’s Dylan, show me pictures—and Tatum stonewalls her, answering in monosyllables and ending the interaction as soon as she can.”

In watching Hollis become a “summer person,” Tatum feels she has lost a sister. Hollis undergoes significant changes after high school, broadening her worldview and cultivating a different life. Because Tatum changes very little comparatively, she holds Hollis responsible for their distant relationship, even though Tatum avoids Hollis at all costs.

“She will slay the girls’ weekend. She will be the MVP.”

Dru-Ann’s competitive nature is built around her confidence and strong convictions. She boldly supports those who need it most, including her grieving best friend. Dru-Ann consistently proves herself to be reliable.

“She marches down the hall, Charlie following behind, to their bedroom, which is always its most delightful at this hour, suffused with the late-afternoon sunlight. Everything looks gilded—but that’s just the surface of things.”

Like Hollis, Brooke focuses on appearances. She spends a significant amount of time decorating her home, shopping for popular clothes, and worrying about what others think of her. These preoccupations help her avoid thinking about how unhappy she is in her marriage.

“Because Caroline’s mother has a long, complex history with the island, which she seems to want to both embrace and deny, Caroline and Matthew had to create their own Nantucket traditions.”

A special place, Nantucket means different things to everyone who encounters it. Because Caroline isn’t initially interested in uncovering the specifics about Hollis’s upbringing on Nantucket, she loses out on a rich, interesting part of her mother’s life. However, Caroline creates her own cherished memories with Matthew, which she later romanticizes while holding Hollis accountable for her grief.

“Why me? Caroline had asked Isaac another time, and he said, When you cried, you showed yourself to me. You’re pure, unspoiled, you still feel things. I found that irresistible. Caroline does nothing but feel things—an echoing angst, longing, jealousy.”

Isaac takes advantage of Caroline while she is vulnerable. Even though Caroline tells Isaac she wants to pursue an affair with him, he fails to maintain a professional boundary as her much older mentor. Isaac adds to Caroline’s sadness by ending their affair. He knew he would hurt her by ending it, but he still follows through with the affair.

“Caroline lowers the camera. She doesn’t want to be the daughter who becomes indignant and jealous when her mother has a ‘moment’ with somebody she used to know—but too bad, she is that daughter. Her face flushes, and she kind of wants to scream.”

The Five-Star Weekend deviates from the beach read subgenre because romance is only a minor part of the narrative. The more prominent themes overshadow the scenes that do depict romance. Hollis’s reunion with Jack is delivered through Caroline’s angry, bitter perspective, prioritizing the Caroline/Hollis conflict over romantic content.

“Dru-Ann strides over to Hollis, Tatum, and her husband (they’re the kind of couple who share an e-mail account, Dru-Ann can tell).”

Tatum and Kyle illustrate the relationship Hollis would have shared with Kyle had she stayed in Nantucket. Jack and Hollis share an undeniable, passionate love for each other, much like Tatum and Kyle. Hollis can only ever experience personal growth by separating herself from Jack, whereas Tatum never spends a night away from Kyle.

“But, Gigi thinks now as they call the 3:25 flight, it’s a friendship built on a massive deception.”

Gigi provides a cautionary tale about online friendships. Gigi can easily lie about her background and intentions while chatting with Hollis via private message. Although she admires Hollis, Gigi’s intentions in befriending Hollis are born from selfishness and jealousy.

“Then Dru-Ann notices the camera trained on her. She gives it the middle finger. Despite herself, Caroline smiles. What would her mother’s fans think of that?”

Dru-Ann assists in bridging carefully arranged elegant content for Hollis’s website and realistic, funny, boorish women in their natural state. Wanting to capture accurate, unfiltered content, Caroline delights in Dru-Ann’s vulgarity. The fact that Caroline takes the filming assignment seriously demonstrates how she cares about her relationship with Hollis. She could film a lovely weekend, give her mother magazine-worthy content, and return to giving Hollis the silent treatment. Still, she chooses to consider the five stars’ emotional undertones carefully.

“What was it like? Caroline thinks. It was like being suspended over a deep, dark endless hole knowing you were going to fall in and never get out. She would never see her father again.”

Caroline’s grief over losing her father encompasses every part of her life. It seeps into her relationship with Hollis and interferes with relationships with love interests. Caroline has difficulty empathizing with others because she is so consumed with her grief.

“Jack chuckles. ‘You can be more than one kind of person in your life,’ he says. ‘But I’ve always been a person who loves Hollis Shaw.’”

Jack recognizes and supports growth and adaptation while simultaneously acknowledging that some feelings can last a lifetime. Although Hollis hurt Jack, he still chooses to love her decades later. Jack and Hollis share a passionate bond.

“She has a hard time getting into books, and she has certainly never read anything with a character like herself. Her life is so dull, so artless, that it falls well outside the realm of literature.”

Brooke’s low self-worth prevents her from developing an identity outside of being a wife and mother. Because she thinks so little of herself, Brooke doesn’t explore significant parts of her identity, such as her sexuality. In learning to value the unique person she is, Brooke opens herself to finding happiness.

“The two young women from the garden enter the store. They must be influencers, Dru-Ann thinks. They carry themselves as though the world is watching.”

Dru-Ann recognizes how young women aren’t just constantly being watched; they are being recorded. While dealing with her public relations crisis from a viral video, Dru-Ann knows firsthand the ramifications of the digital age and cancel culture.

“Gigi and Hollis gravitate toward each other until they’re standing side by side, watching Dru-Ann. Then Gigi points up at the drone, and she and Hollis both smile and wave. Caroline presses the Return to Home button. When viewed from above, her mother’s weekend is undeniably flawless.”

Caroline sincerely wants to create a documentary more like an exposé, so she stops filming when capturing the beautiful, relaxing content her mother wants. Caroline doesn’t realize that Gigi and Hollis’s friendship is far from perfect. Hollis protects Caroline from learning the truth about Gigi; she doesn’t want Caroline to experience more grief from discovering Matthew’s infidelity.

“This had thrown Gigi for a loop. Imagine being Hollis and not only losing your husband but having all of that unresolved emotional business.”

Part of the reason Hollis struggles to overcome her grief is because Matthew died before he and Hollis could resolve their marital conflicts. Gigi compassionately understands the complexity of Hollis’s emotions even though she feels jealous of her. To nearly everyone else, Hollis and Matthew shared a loving, successful marriage. The fact that Hollis opens up to Gigi about her and Matthew’s argument reveals how much she trusts Gigi.

“The man I was with…we weren’t married and we didn’t have children together. But in a way, that makes it harder. I don’t have much to hold on to now that he’s dead except my memories…and I’m not sure if you’ve experienced this, but memories lose their clarity with time. I find myself wondering, Did that really happen?”

Gigi’s grief differs from Caroline’s in that she doesn’t feel entitled to it. She cannot openly announce her loss as Hollis can because she would have to confess to the affair. Gigi’s pain is real and valid even if she cannot share it.