Hey all! This book was just released today and you should go out and get it. :D
How Not To Die Alone by: Richard Roper is about a man named Andrew, who lives in England, and he is anti social. Andrew basically goes to work and goes home everyday, he doesn't have friends outside of a model train forum. His coworkers think he has a family and leads a normal life, only he doesn't have a family; no wife named Diane, nor two kids named Steph and David. He made up this story at work because he basically daydreams at his interview with his boss, Cameron who asks about a family and Andrew, not knowing what Cameron had asked, goes along with it, and to his dismay figures out his error. Five years later and he's still going with it, working as a Public Health official, until an attractive woman, Peggy, starts working at his office. Chaos ensues, and Andrew's simple life is turned upside down within weeks.
My thoughts with spoilers!!!: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can relate to Andrew with being anti social and not having a lot of friends and if I didn't have work, school, my family, or my boyfriend I would be a recluse too. Andrew's lack of confidence was endearing and at times very funny. I loved his inner dialogue throughout the book, his wit and sarcasm were really on par and I laughed out loud quite a bit. The explanations for Andrew's quirky and almost insane characteristics makes a lot of sense to the plot and made me feel sorry for him. This story definitely has dark humor, deals with darker subject matter like death, loss, and suicide, which I think was done very well. Andrew and Peggy's job in the public health department, where they go into the homes of deceased people right after their body is removed from the premises and their job is to look for clues of next of kin to contact them about the death of their family/friend, and to see if the deceased has enough money to pay for their funeral. Through these scenes with Peggy and Andrew their friendship grows.The chemistry between Peggy and Andrew was so cute and I was rooting for them to get together the whole time. The parts I didn't like was how fast the sister is killed off, when she died I felt bad for Andrew, but I wasn't attached to her as a character in order for me to care about her death. I also didn't like how they left Andrew and Peggy's relationship, it was a little lackluster for me, yes I'm sure they will probably date after Peggy has time to settle and heal from her divorce, but I still wanted more at the end of the story. These two points don't make the story any less amazing though and it is one of my favorite stories that I have read this month. It left me thinking about my own life and if I'm living it to the fullest I possibly can. This book was a very good surprise and I highly recommend this story for a not so light spring read.
Comments