Sarah Naughton deftly narrates this 21st-century epistolary novel, full of emails and blog posts, emojis, and graphics. The humor is spot-on as the story focuses on millennial intern Carl; his overextended boss, Smith, who is still grieving the death of his young secretary, Iris; and Iris’s older sister, Jade. Naughton smoothly moves between Carl’s snarky emails and Iris’s thoughtful “Dying to Blog” posts. But so many characters (and canned emails) jumble the narration. Another miss: Iris’s blog graphics are ad-libbed. A casual listen may turn into several rewinds to understand that Naughton is describing a picture that Iris has drawn on her blog post. Despite these small glitches, this is an interesting approach to an audiobook, and Naughton’s performance makes the story worth a listen. M.P.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
When You Read This: A Novel
Narrated by Sarah Naughton
Mary AdkinsUnabridged — 7 hours, 34 minutes
When You Read This: A Novel
Narrated by Sarah Naughton
Mary AdkinsUnabridged — 7 hours, 34 minutes
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Overview
For fans of Maria Semple and Rainbow Rowell, a comedy-drama for the digital age: an epistolary debut novel about the ties that bind and break our hearts.
Iris Massey is gone.
But she's left something behind.
For four years, Iris Massey worked side by side with PR maven Smith Simonyi, helping clients perfect their brands. But Iris has died, taken by terminal illness at only thirty-three. Adrift without his friend and colleague, Smith is surprised to discover that in her last six months, Iris created a blog filled with sharp and often funny musings on the end of a life not quite fulfilled. She also made one final request: for Smith to get her posts published as a book. With the help of his charmingly eager, if overbearingly forthright, new intern Carl, Smith tackles the task of fulfilling Iris's last wish.
Before he can do so, though, he must get the approval of Iris' big sister Jade, an haute cuisine chef who's been knocked sideways by her loss. Each carrying their own baggage, Smith and Jade end up on a collision course with their own unresolved pasts and with each other.
Told in a series of e-mails, blog posts, online therapy submissions, text messages, legal correspondence, home-rental bookings, and other snippets of our virtual lives, When You Read This is a deft, captivating romantic comedy-funny, tragic, surprising, and bittersweet-that candidly reveals how we find new beginnings after loss.
Editorial Reviews
10/15/2018
Iris Massey may be dead, but her story isn’t over in Adkins’s endearing epistolary novel for the modern age. Before the events of the novel, Iris has died of cancer; prior to her death, she had maintained a secret blog about her health during treatment. After Iris’s former boss and close friend, Smith Simonyi, learns of the blog, he approaches Iris’s sister, Jade, about having the blog made into a book. Jade is not only opposed, but furious with Smith for wanting to reveal such private writing. After a rocky start, Smith and Jade eventually start corresponding about Iris, whom Smith misses so much he continues to “talk” to her over email. Jade, meanwhile, dedicates herself to researching a potential malpractice lawsuit against Iris’s doctors and an email-based therapist. Told entirely in email exchanges and blog excerpts, the novel follows Jade and Smith as they help each other move on after Iris’s death. Smith’s emails to Iris are realistically personal, like diary entries, and Jade’s initial defensiveness is an understandable coping mechanism. Although the format doesn’t allow the characters to come fully to life, Adkins’s debut is a touching, funny, and life-affirming tale. (Feb.)
I found the romantic comedy — about a man trying to fulfill his late friend’s last wish — both completely wrenching and hilarious. I mean like, crazy funny. The offbeat story about love, family and mortality really sticks with you. The ideal summer read.” — Cup of Jo
“An uncanny novel that hits the zeitgeist.” — Thrillist, “The Best Books of 2019 (So Far)”
“It’s a risk to write a hilarious novel about grief and regret. It’s a bigger risk to tell the story solely through virtual communication. Mary Adkins succeeds on both fronts in this epistolary novel . . . . A story of flawed people who have connected under the worst of circumstances. It’s a quick, worthwhile read.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Delightful… An epistolary novel for the 21st century, When You Read This sparkles with a perfect blend of humor, pathos and romance…. Adkins has managed to paint an authentic and nuanced portrait of grief and the various ways people attempt to cope and continue on with life when the worst has happened. Inventive and irresistible, When You Read This is a tender and uplifting story about love, loss and the resilience of the human heart that will have you laughing and crying in equal turns.” — BookPage
“Stellar. . . witty, entertaining and at times heartwrenching. . . . When You Read This is an outstanding addition to contemporary literature that effectively addresses the issues people face today in a poignant and cleverly insightful manner. It is a true standout and should not be missed.” — BookReporter
“Adkins brilliantly captures the rhythms and cadences of the epistolary format in the digital age through a delightful cast of quirky, imperfect characters, both dead and alive. Tart, sweet, poignant, and rich with humor; completely irresistible.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“When You Read This checks all the essential boxes of Up Lit—though-provoking, tear-jerking, funny—and adds a delectable epistolary twist.” — Refinery29
“A touching, funny, and life-affirming tale.” — Publishers Weekly
“[A] heartfelt page-turner . . . A natural readalike for Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette and Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments.” — Booklist
“This inventive and hilarious novel has it all: Mid-life crisis sufferers denying their regrets, a lawless intern with alarming email etiquette, poetic online therapists and a moving message about the resiliency of the human heart. Read this book—I loved it!” — Courtney Maum, author of Touch and I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You
“Warm, original, funny and heartbreaking, this novel made me drop everything so I could read it in one lovely afternoon. WHEN YOU READ THIS is inventive and witty, but more importantly it’s honest and wise. I adored it.” — Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls
“Deeply moving but also uplifting, Mary Adkins’ debut novel is easy to read but hard to forget.” — Anne Youngson, author of Meet Me at the Museum
“I loved every word of this sweet little gem of a book. It was a quick, humorous—but ultimately touching—read that I couldn’t put down!” — Meg Cabot
An uncanny novel that hits the zeitgeist.
When You Read This checks all the essential boxes of Up Lit—though-provoking, tear-jerking, funny—and adds a delectable epistolary twist.
Delightful… An epistolary novel for the 21st century, When You Read This sparkles with a perfect blend of humor, pathos and romance…. Adkins has managed to paint an authentic and nuanced portrait of grief and the various ways people attempt to cope and continue on with life when the worst has happened. Inventive and irresistible, When You Read This is a tender and uplifting story about love, loss and the resilience of the human heart that will have you laughing and crying in equal turns.
Stellar. . . witty, entertaining and at times heartwrenching. . . . When You Read This is an outstanding addition to contemporary literature that effectively addresses the issues people face today in a poignant and cleverly insightful manner. It is a true standout and should not be missed.
This inventive and hilarious novel has it all: Mid-life crisis sufferers denying their regrets, a lawless intern with alarming email etiquette, poetic online therapists and a moving message about the resiliency of the human heart. Read this book—I loved it!
It’s a risk to write a hilarious novel about grief and regret. It’s a bigger risk to tell the story solely through virtual communication. Mary Adkins succeeds on both fronts in this epistolary novel . . . . A story of flawed people who have connected under the worst of circumstances. It’s a quick, worthwhile read.
[A] heartfelt page-turner . . . A natural readalike for Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette and Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments.
I found the romantic comedy — about a man trying to fulfill his late friend’s last wish — both completely wrenching and hilarious. I mean like, crazy funny. The offbeat story about love, family and mortality really sticks with you. The ideal summer read.
I loved every word of this sweet little gem of a book. It was a quick, humorous—but ultimately touching—read that I couldn’t put down!
Warm, original, funny and heartbreaking, this novel made me drop everything so I could read it in one lovely afternoon. WHEN YOU READ THIS is inventive and witty, but more importantly it’s honest and wise. I adored it.
Deeply moving but also uplifting, Mary Adkins’ debut novel is easy to read but hard to forget.
[A] heartfelt page-turner . . . A natural readalike for Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette and Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments.
An uncanny novel that hits the zeitgeist.
It’s a risk to write a hilarious novel about grief and regret. It’s a bigger risk to tell the story solely through virtual communication. Mary Adkins succeeds on both fronts in this epistolary novel . . . . A story of flawed people who have connected under the worst of circumstances. It’s a quick, worthwhile read.
[A] heartfelt page-turner . . . A natural readalike for Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette and Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments.
Delightful… An epistolary novel for the 21st century, When You Read This sparkles with a perfect blend of humor, pathos and romance…. Adkins has managed to paint an authentic and nuanced portrait of grief and the various ways people attempt to cope and continue on with life when the worst has happened. Inventive and irresistible, When You Read This is a tender and uplifting story about love, loss and the resilience of the human heart that will have you laughing and crying in equal turns.
Stellar. . . witty, entertaining and at times heartwrenching. . . . When You Read This is an outstanding addition to contemporary literature that effectively addresses the issues people face today in a poignant and cleverly insightful manner. It is a true standout and should not be missed.
When You Read This checks all the essential boxes of Up Lit—though-provoking, tear-jerking, funny—and adds a delectable epistolary twist.
I loved every word of this sweet little gem of a book. It was a quick, humorous—but ultimately touching—read that I couldn’t put down!
I found the romantic comedy — about a man trying to fulfill his late friend’s last wish — both completely wrenching and hilarious. I mean like, crazy funny. The offbeat story about love, family and mortality really sticks with you. The ideal summer read.
In her brave debut, Mary Adkins challenges readers to rethink the measure of a life well lived as social media changes the way we interact with others and, by extension, the way we grieve and, eventually, heal. WHEN YOU READ THIS is a poignant commentary on the endless possibility of connection in the online age and the pain and loneliness we experience when those connections fail.
A remarkable new take on the epistolary novel, WHEN YOU READ THIS manages to thread the finest of needles: a book about a young woman who died of cancer that is neither maudlin nor sentimental, but rather clear-eyed, poignant, and just as often hilarious as it is somber. One of the more memorable books I’ve read this year.
As with Maria Semple’s mixed-media masterwork Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Adkins’s debut novel is so much more than its clever style. I read it briskly with a permanent smile on my face, even when the tears were falling. Like a quasar, WHEN YOU READ THIS feels miraculous and leaves a lasting impression long after its final moment.
Sarah Naughton deftly narrates this 21st-century epistolary novel, full of emails and blog posts, emojis, and graphics. The humor is spot-on as the story focuses on millennial intern Carl; his overextended boss, Smith, who is still grieving the death of his young secretary, Iris; and Iris’s older sister, Jade. Naughton smoothly moves between Carl’s snarky emails and Iris’s thoughtful “Dying to Blog” posts. But so many characters (and canned emails) jumble the narration. Another miss: Iris’s blog graphics are ad-libbed. A casual listen may turn into several rewinds to understand that Naughton is describing a picture that Iris has drawn on her blog post. Despite these small glitches, this is an interesting approach to an audiobook, and Naughton’s performance makes the story worth a listen. M.P.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
2018-11-13
A vibrant epistolary collage with pieces of satire, romance, and family drama overlapping.
With six months to live according to her oncologist, 33-year-old Iris Massey covertly, and with some degree of irony, starts an account on Dying to Blog, a visual blogging platform for the terminally ill. The irony stems from the fact that Iris and her boss, Smith, helped launch the platform with their small, struggling PR firm and privately (and mercilessly) made fun of it, inside jokes being part of the deeply companionable work relationship between the two. Most of the novel takes place after Iris' death, when Smith learns that she left him a printout of this blog for potential publication. Missing his colleague and hoping to fulfill her last wishes, Smith contacts Jade, Iris' somewhat neurotic, totally no-bullshit older sister, who is a joy to read. The charming quality of Jade and Smith's developing relationship—both combative and empathetic—is anchored by their grief and by sections from Iris' blog, which is strikingly self-aware and sometimes breathtakingly poignant, especially the sentiments rendered in charts and graphs. The book moves with the entertaining swiftness and abrupt tonal shifts of communication in the digital age, with particular thanks to Carl, the intern Smith hires following Iris' death: a millennial ex machina who juices up the plot with perfect self-importance and -absorption. But thanks to Adkins, even Carl has a (hint of) compelling backstory and a delightful arc.
An excellent story that's condensed into a great example of the epistolary format: something that's thrilling to expand and decode while reading.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170067503 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 02/05/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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