Amazon Customer

Relatable, Poetically Written Novel is no Easy Beach Read

Reviewed: 07-02-20

The prose itself was probably my favorite part. Beautifully written, there were many moments that I highlighted certain passages because of the timeless prose- this book is full of cleverly written lessons of life, love, writing, the tortured artist life, death, grief, and growing up. It’s a sort of coming of age novel that many 20 somethings can relate to- the broke, down on her luck waitress who wants to be an author who can still pay the rent, and find her one true love struggles with mental health issues, the loss of her mother, and the toll her grief takes on her job, relationships, and overall well-being. She’s a like able character who I felt very close to, I was cheering her on the whole time. However, her down on her luck sob story soon becomes slightly irritating, only so many bad things can happen to one person before you start to feel negative just reading about the depressing things that keep happening to her over and over. I had to put it down a few times because it was heavy at points- those times I feel the author lost her ability to write eloquently and lingered on the descriptions of panic attacks too long, making me feel panicky myself. From an anxiety sufferers POV King does a phenomenal job explaining anxiety- that feeling of not fitting right in your own body- and I do love her way of educating the readers on mental illness and what it really feels like on the inside/what it looks like to others such as bosses or romantic interests on the outside. I liked the end, however I felt it was missing something. I was left feeling a bit uneasy about what will become of the main character, I wasn’t fully satisfied. The performance isn’t bad- but some of the voices the reader does are hard to listen to, like when she does the little boy voices or men voices. The tone doesn’t always match the authors intent- a kind man can end up sounding sleazy with the voice that’s used for the kind mans dialogue and so on. Must read if you’re from Boston, so many connections which was fun. Overall, I loved this book but it does get pretty depressing and if you relate to the character and love her like I did, it can be hard getting through her panic attacks and moments of heavy grief and depression. Not a light and easy beach read, but there’s enough light in the story to still make it a great summer read. Just don’t read it when you are sad already!

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