Rating: 4.5/5
A fast an enjoyable read told through nonconventional means. Not much else to say. I didn’t give it a 5 simply because I wanted more from the ending but I’m not exactly sure what.
Book CW: character death, cancer, profanity
Premise
The book is a compilation of emails, text messages, and blog posts.
Iris Massey is a young woman who finds out she is dying of cancer. To cope with her condition, she joins a blogging community of people like her and begins to write. After she dies, her family and friends struggle to come to terms with what is the right thing to do to honor her wishes.
Before her death, Iris worked for a PR company created and run by Smith Simonyi. As a result of several business failures, the company is losing money fast. Smith’s only financial security comes from secretly “borrowing” money from his biggest client.
After Iris passes, Smith’s assistant Carl discovers a note left behind from Iris in which she tells Smith about her blog and expresses her wish that he publish it. In order to do so, Smith must request permission from Iris’ sister Jade, who is adamant that it is not only a terrible idea but also a scheme to exploit her sister’s death for profit.
Will they be able to come to an agreement?
Review (spoilers ahead)
I read this book over the course of 2 days and it was surprisingly hilarious. I would have probably read it in one sitting if I weren’t as busy with my job. It was like a novel made specifically to make fun of the way technology has become. (Having bots comment fake advertisements about Viagra on Iris’ blog for instance was absolute gold.) I was laughing while reading as early as page 3.
There are no real chapters, instead there are simply shifts in media. The general format is that there are several email exchanges (after Iris’ death) intermixed with occasion blog posts written by Iris before she died.
Although I found all the characters unlikeable, they were unlikeable in kind of the best ways (if that makes sense).
- Smith was maybe the most likeable(?) but he had a lot of problems. For one, he was secretly stealing money from his client Phil and kept pushing Jade for permission despite her refusing several times. Further, I’m not 100% what his relationship was with his mom since you don’t see much into that, but it didn’t seem very good. It seemed as though he was just content keeping her unhappy in her care home because it was the most convenient thing for him. Some Skype sessions were mentioned in passing though so maybe he was more active in her life than I thought.
- Jade was probably my least favorite character. She was extremely go-getting (which I can admire) but in a way where she didn’t care at all about what she was doing to other people. I found myself annoyed with her inflated idea of self-importance and her constant asserting of herself into other people’s lives. Even after Iris died, Jade was convinced that she knew exactly what was best for her sister.
- Carl…what can I say about Carl? He was a complete hot mess the entire book and a total plot device. Whenever the story was dying down Carl was right there to mess something up in the worst possible way. Reading interactions to/from Carl was probably the highlight of the book for me because of how ridiculous he is. It was pretty fitting that in the end he ended up with Phil because Phil was just as ridiculous (or should I say IT WAS PRETTY FITTING THAT IN THE END HE ENDED UP WITH PHIL BECAUSE PHIL WAS JUST AS RIDICULOUS.)
I’m not sure I would have found the story interesting had it not been told the way it was. A plot revolving around a sketchy business owner and a self-absorbed sister not getting along doesn’t sound as fun when I think about it not being told through passive aggressive (and straight up aggressive) email exchanges, so I’m very happy that the book was written the way it was. The only qualm I really had was that at the very end of the book I felt as if the story didn’t really wrap up. I found myself missing the feeling of closure that a book normally would give me.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick and enjoyable read.
