Release date: May 28, 2019
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 🌟🌟
“Up to that point I’d never realized that life, just sometimes, can be wonderfully, beautifully simple.”
Plot: This is a story about a man who is given a second chance at life and love as long as he exposes a little white lie that he told many years before….a little white lie that has grown into so much more.
Review: Special thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC. The ARC was given in exchange for an honest review.
This has got to be one of the strangest, uniquely set books that I have read in a long time. I do not recall ever reading a book where the majority of the it is set around an agency like this one.. It is both ludicrously morbid and spectacularly brilliant in one. Why? Because Andrew, the main character, has a job working for a government agency that requires him to sift through a dead person’s belongings to find any sort of next of kin. Since most of the dead are of the lonely sort, there is normally none and Andrew will then arrange the funeral. Although it is not part of his job description, Andrew often attends the funeral so the person is not entirely alone which is actually kinda sweet.
Andrew is also a lonely sort due to his past until he meets Peggy. Peggy makes his realize his loneliness and Andrew begins to see he needs to live his life instead of going through it with implicit numbness. I really enjoy being able to watch characters personally grow like Andrew does.
With all this said, I don’t know what to make of this novel. Although, the story itself is unique and humorous at times, it is extremely sad. Depressingly sad. And to top it all off, there were one too many times where I became extremely bored reading and ended up skimming most. I am a reader that needs / wants more entertainment and this severely lacked it.
Recommendation: You can pass on this one.
