I appreciate the author telling her story. It was well written and interesting. Thank you for letting me read this book.

It is always a challenge to review a memoir. I find myself often not leaving a star rating on Goodreads - because who am I to rate someone's life experience? This was a difficult read but I applaud the author for being courageous and telling her story! This was well written and I would recommend it - but do not expect a light read!

Where does one start when trying to review the story of someone else's life experiences? Do you look at the talent of the writing? The writing was really quite good. Do you look at the way it made you feel? I've never felt so uncomfortable reading a story - but not in way you might think. It was uncomfortable because I was bathed in this woman's pain and sat with her in it. Do you look at the characters and judge them or their actions? Well that's a hard no. I mean, how do you tell someone you're not reacting right, you're not grieving right, you're not doing the right thing. You simply can't tell a real human being that. I can curse at and judge book characters. I can judge someone's writing skills. But this woman has bared her soul and poured out her truth - the good, the bad and the ugly. Her emotions are raw and real and ugly. She confesses to things that we have all thought, but so seldom express for fear of being judge or because we can't sit quietly with ourselves and learn our truth or look for insights into our thoughts and motivations and actions. So 9 bazillion stars should be awarded to the bravery for telling her story, no matter how uncomfortable it was to read.

As a work of experimental type fiction, or at least fiction that wants to be different, or fiction that wants to send a message, this does not work on any of these levels. Let's Hope for the Best is an interesting idea that did not live up to its potential, at least in this iteration. Still, I have to give Ms Setterwall kudos for attempting something so different.

As many times as I sought to get involved in this novel, I just couldn’t. It has a slowness that I couldn’t relate to. I also had a problem with finding empathy for the main character. I found her slow and robotic.

I was unable to finish this novel.