I just posted a YouTube video review of this because, at least in Canada, it’s out today. Out soon elsewhere, I think: https://youtu.be/JpHncEurXe8

This is charming in a messy, verisimilitude type of way. I can see why the marketing would go with Nora Ephram-esk. It’s very good at dredging up lots of different emotions in the day-to-day. While it does take a moment to shift gears into the writing voice and the narrator herself, especially because it feels a bit monotonous at first, it really finds its stride on the building blocks of the first act—not to mention the structure of each chapter, which is each week broken up on a day planet for our editor protagonist, Liz.

What’s really ingenious about this is that the minutia, especially concerning what Liz is specifically editing that day/week, acts as a vector, vehicle, and springboard at any given time. Even as Liz puts a piece of writing into the context of her own life and ascribes it meaning, it naturally asks the reader the same. Then it becomes pertinent to the plot as well. It’s really satisfying and smart. I’m not sure I’ve seen a device deployed much like it?

I worried about “liking” or understanding Liz to get behind her voice as a protagonist for a while because of the kind of moral flexibility that she seemed to be projecting, but it actually works quite well; contradictory character traits and actions end up almost as being good, not to mention proponents of good drama.

In any case, I laughed out loud multiple times, winced, and was surprised to find out how much I cared about Liz. I am very happy I went out of my usual reading comfort zone to try it out. I hope this finds the audience it deserves.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the digital ARC.