nerdyprettythings's Reviews (515)

I loved this book. It's so weird, but in a really great way. If you're a fan of books like The Vegetarian by Han Kang or the film Synecdoche, New York (or most Charlie Kaufman movies), you would absolutely love this book too, The main character, Ingrid, has lost her identity and come unhinged. She replaced having a home life or personality with becoming one of the functioning parts of a high end cruise ship. Her boss tells her he sees something in her, and she feels more and more connected to the boat as she gets a combination of mundane and much more involved tasks. A takedown of consumer capitalism, reflecting on finding all your worth in meaningless jobs, looking for belonging, and it was darkly funny, The whole time I wasn't expecting the next turn, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. 

I really enjoyed Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance. It has a bit of a dark comedy feel to it, as well as a great character study and portrayal of grief. I don't always love books where the main character is a child, but if that's you, still consider giving this one a try! I thought it was really well done. Sally, our main character, wants to keep her missing loved one involved in her life (trying to be vague to not spoil!) and we get a couple of decades of it. Unlike other characters, she's not deluded about whether this person will come back, but she wants to continue talking to them, and to share the things they would have shared in life. The second person perspective really worked for me, and I'm so grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for access to the audiobook - this book worked especially well for me on audio, with Sally's second-person narrative. 

For me this book was just okay. It was informative, and some of the deep dives (ex: Trader Joe's' history and how new brands get into stores (basically paying a grocery store tribute) were very interesting. Some were disgusting (ewww fish counters are awful), and others were enraging. At the end of the book, the author covers the issue of slavery in the modern shrimping and fishing industries. This is a thing so many people don't know about, so I was happy to see it there. He literally gets to know a man who was enslaved for several years on a shrimp boat in Thailand...and then he goes on to be like "but it's not like people are going to stop eating shrimp, every industry abuses people." Shrugging off the idea of knowing whether your food comes from slave labor is the worst take I've read in a long time, and I was really frustrated with how easily the author decided to let himself and readers off the hook.

I loved this book so much. A 30-something heroine trying to navigate aging parents, friendships changing, dating being hard and people doing fucked up things to ~idealize~ their lives? Perfectly executed. I love.

I found the premise very intriguing, but I feel like the plot description gives way too much away. If you read this, I highly recommend going into it without much knowledge about the plot. I did love that the sidekick doesn't become a love interest, I'm so bored with forced romance plots.

I would give this 100 stars. Really tough material, and really important historical research, presented in a way that’s approachable to the average reader. The art is STUNNING, it’s so fitting to the stories, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as moved by the art in a graphic novel as I was in this one.