A fresh take on Groundhog Day in this heartfelt and hilarious novel following a friend group so damaged that only a funeral could bring them back together.
When Babe—the complicated, magnetic matriarch of their teenage summers—dies, four estranged friends return to sleepy Mercy Island, a storm-swept stretch of coastal Georgia, summoned by the reading of her will.
Didion arrives at the timeworn pink house to find the friends she never thought she’d see again—along with the tensions, attractions, and unfinished business that once bound them together and broke them apart.
What should be a brief weekend of small talk quickly unravels when they wake up and discover...it’s Saturday. Again. And again. And again.
Trapped in a time loop with no end and no instructions, they’re forced to confront the betrayals, breakups, and buried truths that shattered them all those years ago. Because maybe, just maybe, an endless weekend is exactly what they all need to save their own lives.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
Audiobook, 10 hours, 18 minutes
Published July 21, 2026
by Macmillan Audio
3.5/5 stars
Destination Funeral, out since July 21, was my second read by Paige Harbison, I really enjoying her debut, The Other Side of Now. I listened to this one as an audiobook ARC.
When Babe dies, four estranged friends are pulled back to Mercy Island for the reading of her will. They find themselves stuck in a Groundhog Day style time loop the night before her funeral.
A time loop naturally means covering similar ground on repeat. That said, Harbison does it well, letting small shifts show up in each loop as the group slowly catches on. Each friend brings a distinct personality to the group with the story weaving back in time to show how their friendship formed and the moments over the years that shaped who they became. It gave the present day tension more weight and I was able to grasp exactly what each was carrying into that pink house.
Destination Funeral is a story about family, sisters specifically and a group of friends finding their way back to each other. A warm, bittersweet read that asked for a little patience, but worth it in the end.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for a honest review.
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