Real Life and Other Fictions was more than a little challenging for me. I listened to it several times in an attempt to pinpoint the genre and to fully form an opinion about it. After saying that, I landed on this book being three stars for me. It’s certainly unique and intriguing which I’m sure a large audience will love!

I was frustrated in not really being able to nail down a genre. The story starts with Cassie leaving her meteorologist husband who had suffered both personally and professionally after a disaster of a weather report. She packs us her dog and hits the road.

While on her road trip, she believes there is a moth in the car which she finds strange as it’s winter. Seeing the moth reminds her of the stories of the Moth-Man whom many claimed was sighted when a bridge collapsed in 1967, taking the lives of her parents when Cassie was two. As she got older, she obsessively watched the Moth-Man movie and saw numerous connections between the movie and her life.

Deciding to find out more about the bridge collapse while figuring out what to do next in life, she goes back to where her parents died. Once there, she meets many people of the small town who all have their own ideas of the supposed strange sighting and occurrences in the area. Also in the small town, she meets a man who seems to be after answers to similar questions Cassie has. Does she find the answers she seeks? And does she go back home? If so, what happens?

I originally thought this was going to be a cutesy romcom and having a second chance at love after a failed marriage. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was part mystery, part folklore/urban legend, mixed with serious family issues and drama.

Overall I like the story of this book. Cassie is having a crisis in her life. Her marriage is falling apart, her daughter has just left her an empty nester and an even that happened years ago is beginning to look like it wasn't all true, at least the story she was told.
I really did like Cassie and her story, my problem was for some reason Susan Coll decided to add the Mothman element to the story. There really was not reason to, she had a lovely story without it. For me it distracted from the story way to much and was not needed.

This one definitely wasn't for me AT ALL. I wasn't a huge fan of the author's last book but the cover and description for this one had me intrigued. Unfortunately I ended up wishing I DNF'd when I first had the inclination early on. I found this one quite boring, and a little all over the place and didn't love the narrator either. Definitely not a romance more women's fiction/family drama where one older woman embarks on a road trip with her dog to dig into what really happened to her dead parents and the bridge collapse that killed them. There was also a weird thing with moths and the Mothman myth/movie/prophecy. It got weird. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was like nothing i expected and not in a good way.

I thought i was going to read about a woman discovering not only her family story, but also herself, instead it was a kind of creepy yet boring book revolving all around a "moth man". the narrator didn't keep me on the edge in fact i feel like i didn't even listend to the second half of the book.

This is obviously only my opinion and maybe you'll like it, but i advise you to not get into this book thinking is a women's fiction focusing on the discovering of yourself, you'll only end up disappointed.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins Focus for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a strange, yet fairly boring book. Cassie, is an empty nester, whose husband, a failed meteorologist is living a separate life in the basement due to his weather anxiety. Cassie, a failed journalist, is traveling for the holidays when she sees a moth in her car which causes her to crash. She has a lot of built up anxiety about moths as her parents died in a bridge collapse where moth man appeared. Wildly bizarre read, that did get better at the end once Cassie finally got some answers about her life after almost 50 years.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A little bit slow, but an impressive book.

Cassie and her dog became my friends for some time and I loved to follow their inner journey and reveal of secretes.

I specifically loved how the chapters were titled, it seemed unrelated to the book, but it all knotted down at the end.

This book just really was not for me. I found the narrator dry, the prose pretentious, and the story boring. I just could not care about any of it.

Unfortunately, I just could not get into this book and DNF. While the synopsis was interesting and intriguing, perhaps I am not the right audience for this book. I’m sure others will love it!

At 50 years old, Cassie is going through it. She is on the verge of a divorce, dreams of becoming a novelist that never came to fruition, and is still looking for answers about her parent's mysterious death. Naturally, she gets behind the wheel and drives in search of all the missing pieces in her life.

It is a thought-provoking exploration of the traumas and obsessions that we carry with us, which are the catalysts for the storms that mark the seasons of our lives.

Initially, the story appears normal and relatable, but then the extraordinary seeps in. The narrative blends real-life characters and scenarios with the intrigue of cryptids and local folklore in a casual and quirky tone. Through Cassie's introspective narration, we uncover the myriad connections between her life and literature, prompting us to delve into our own experiences similarly.

"The DNA of the entire story is contained in the opening pages. The same is true in a marriage." This quote got me good.

Cassie also offers some literary criticism, such as rejecting the famous first lines of Anna Karenina by reflecting that not all happy families are alike, just as this story isn't your typical romance novel.

The audiobook's narrator is Jane Oppenheimer, has worked on various trending novels. A beautiful voice that suits Cassie perfectly. I sped up the narration quite a bit as it flows more slowly than I like. Despite that, she does a great job of bringing this story to life.

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Thanks, NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus, for approving this ARC. I was really looking forward to it.

Real Life and Other Fictions was not what I was expecting. I thought I would be reading women's fiction with a focus on books. Instead, it was a creepy, surreal story that was so drawn out that I almost gave up several times. The narration was good, but the story itself was not.

Surprising, in the best of ways! I went into this book without reading the synopsis or having any real idea what the book was about. Having read other Susan Coll books I was expecting a heartfelt, slow romance/lit fic. I was not prepared for a deep dive into the lore of mothman nor a story about a woman whose life is so intimately intertwined with that lore. To say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book would be an understatement. Coll has created a story that details generational trauma, historical events, and mythology without having a definate stance on any of these things, She leaves the door open for readers to draw their own conclusions about what really happens. While Coll leaves readers to their own devices when it comes to cryptzooloy, she does an excellent jobs of winding the novel down, without anything feeling final. Readers get the sense that this is just the beginning of Cassie's life and story. It was refreshing to have a character over 35 in a story that felt like it would continue off the page. Overall, I really great novel with lots of fun elements and many emotional moments. The narrator was excellent!

Enjoyed listening to this book. It was a bit slow to start; however, discovering the journey that Cassie was on helped draw me in and kept me going to connect the dots. I would be interested in reading more from this author. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very different from what I initially thought it would be. I enjoyed how the book started off and all of the events that led to Cassie going on this journey. I could not wait to find out why there was so much secrecy around her parent’s death. This book got a little odd at points with the moth man and talk of aliens, but overall it was an interesting read.

"Such minor fictions speak more powerfully to reality than reality itself."
This book is not any other book I have read!
I love how it parallels the fictional world and you are questioning everything.
It did take me about 25% of the way into the book to really "get into" the book. I love the connection to the Moth Man Prophecy and how interwoven it all was.
I also love the connection to the dogs---and the mention of heterochromatic eyes---which I have. :)
So much of the book was "creepy" but not scary exactly.
The relationship between the mother and daughter was beautiful---and the MC's commitment to truth.
The audio book was good---however, there were moments where I was considering this book may have been better in text. The stream of consciousness feel of the book really made it a bit over the top sometimes, especially when she was being repetitive about the past memories or pieces of writing she had read.
I highly recommend this book for the story. It sure gives you a lot to mull over.

This book is not what I expected. There are a lot of parallels to the Moth Man Prophecies. It almost seems like there should be a thriller element to it, but it definitely isn’t a thriller. Although, there was a twist/big reveal at the end. Overall, it was ok. A little confusing at times, and also drawn out:

3.5/5 ⭐️
4/5 🎧

This book was a completely different change of pace from what I’m used to reading. It was very original and I loved all the little hedgehog facts thrown in. I don’t know if it was because I wasn’t fully invested in the story but I felt like it was so difficult to figure out which neighbor the chapter was talking about until I had more back story to make the connection.

I enjoyed listening to Jane Oppenheimer narrator the story. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it as much without her!

I really tried to get into the flow of this story, realising it was basically a true story still did not help. Maybe the style of writing just didn’t grip me. I tried but alas to no avail.

Cassie, a former journalist and aspirational author turned creative writing professor, has questions from her life that have gone unanswered for decades. What were the circumstances around the bridge collapse that left her orphaned at the age of two? Why is no one willing to provide details of what her parents were doing in the area? Why has her husband of twenty-plus years confined himself to their basement, unable or unwilling to communicate about… anything? And why is no one willing to talk about the moth? Cassie sets out on a road trip to the bridge collapse site, newly-acquired puppy in tow, in an attempt to figure out the truth behind all of these questions.

I couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding as I read this book. The heroine spends nearly the entire story concussed and unable to take care of herself, let alone a puppy. Most of the conflict of the book comes in the form of various puppy hijinks and Cassie’s denial of her (potentially serious) injury. In turn, I spent most of the book waiting for it all to catch up with her and wishing she would just seek out medical attention - not just for her sporadically bleeding head wound, but also for the obsessions that single-handedly tanked her journalism career.

I listened to the audiobook version of Real Life and Other Fictions, which may have contributed to the uneasiness I felt. The narrator, Jane Oppenheimer, brings a heaviness to her performance that makes you feel as burdened by the past as Cassie is. She leaned into Cassie’s fixations - really leaned in, like it was Jane’s obsession as much as Cassie’s. As the story goes on and the lines blur between the “real life” Cassie experiences and the “fictions” she has been told to believe, I got such a Shutter Island/Turn of the Screw vibe. I didn’t trust Cassie. I didn’t believe that anything she was seeing was rooted in reality, and that made it really hard to relate to her.

While it appears to be a “thing” in the Point Pleasant area and the story behind the 1967 Silver Bridge collapse, I was caught off guard by the throwaway references to a late 1700s battle between Virginia settlers and the Shawnee Indians that allegedly led to the area being “cursed”. The Indian Burial Ground Trope being what it is, we have to be so careful with how these stories are told and retold. Rarely does the retelling provide honor, deference, or peace to the peoples who were victimized. Cassie only wonders whether the chief’s depiction at a memorial might be racist and/or reductive, then, disappointingly, takes the rest of the story about the “curse” more or less at face value. I was also frustrated with Cassie’s aunt/adoptive mother over the course of the book. Halfway through the novel, she uses her conflict with Cassie as an exploitative story beat for her radio program. The radio show is high-profile and embarrassing, bad enough that Cassie’s college-aged daughter reaches out to see if she’s okay. Then, the plot line is dropped. Never addressed again. Even though the whole radio program alludes to the story Cassie is trying to investigate in the first place.

That said, there were some things I liked in Real Life and Other Fictions. Susan Coll is a talented writer and offers some turns of phrase that are quite beautiful, with multiple meanings. Sentences like “I begin to poke around the room, which is booby trapped with nostalgia” are weighty and evocative. The latter half of the book also has some musings on the nature of storytelling that are particularly insightful.

I think if you liked Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar or A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham, you might enjoy this book. Both of those novels had elements in common with Real Life and Other Fictions: first-person narration, something a little… off about how the protagonist experiences the world, and characters who aren’t quite telling each other the whole truth. Worry-wart that I am, I will grant that I may not be the target audience for books like this. Your mileage may vary.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Susan Coll, and Harper Muse for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

It took me a few days to write feedback after finishing this because I'm still not exactly sure what I think.

First, based on the description, I had no idea this book was going to center around a Mothman cryptid. It's bizarre to me that this isn't mentioned at all in the description since the entire book is about moths and the Mothman. I'm honestly not sure I would have picked this up if I had known that, so that taints my review a little.

I really enjoyed the parts of the story that weren't about the Mothman. Cassie's struggle to end her marriage and her complicated feelings about her husband and marriage were excellent. I particularly liked the self-exploration she went through realizing that part of what drew her to her husband initially was his lack of interest in her/the way he gave her space and didn't force her to talk about her past, and yet in retrospect that lack of interest was a huge red flag and a sign that their marriage was never healthy. I think many women in midlife who have been married for 10+ years go through a similar period of reexamination of the beginning of their relationship, and this felt very genuine and insightful.

I also really liked the premise of her sudden road trip to investigate her parents' deaths and the resulting discoveries she made about her own involvement and the information her aunt and uncle had been hiding from her for her whole life. It makes sense that fifty years earlier the adults were encouraged to sweep things under the rug and not talk about unpleasantness. The ties to the generations before them not speaking about their trauma around the Holocaust added additional nuance that I thought was very well done. I also loved the throughline about Cassie's inability to write her own story and her investment in the stories of her students.

The only thing I didn't really connect with was the magical realism element. It seemed to go either too far or not far enough. Strange things happen in this town and there are lots of men who look alike who may be twins or triplets or might just be a figment of your imagination and there are rare moths everywhere and they may or may not be related to a Mothman legend but also the main character has hit her head repeatedly so maybe this is all a hallucination. I would have preferred to pull back personally. Cut some of the moth references, make the hotel she stays at just a nice normal family-run institution with no confusion about whether the proprietors are real/magical. But I also might have been sold if the author had leaned in more and made it clear the town was magic. Or if the focus had been on the revelation that the "magical" elements were not real and Cassie was an unreliable narrator. Either way, the balance just felt slightly off on this aspect.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was thoughtful and genuine, and I liked reading about a woman in midlife reexamining and reclaiming her life.

Cassie has had enough. In her 50s, with a cheating husband, a stalled literary career, and unanswered questions about the accident that left her a young orphan, she and a teething puppy embark on a road trip that's heavy on impulse and light on planning. Not sure where she’s going, she decides to start at the beginning: her parents’ death. What were they doing on that West Virginia bridge when it collapsed? And why won't anyone in her family talk about it?

This intriguing premise grabbed my attention right away, especially since the pivotal event (the bridge collapse and the Mothman) is based on a true story. I enjoyed the first person narration, and Cassie's witty and intelligent banter, even when that banter was with herself. The reader is taken along on the journey as Cassie discovers what really happened on that day so many decades ago. However, the story very quickly got bogged down in the weather and moths (yes, you read that correctly). Both the weather and moths play a significant role in the storyline: Cassie's husband is a brilliant but troubled weather-obsessed-weather-phobic-weatherman, and a giant moth (the Mothman) was reportedly seen by many prior to the fatal bridge collapse. Still, there was just so much weather, and so many moths.

There were many lovely, quirky characters I enjoyed meeting in this book, and I like the way the truth of Cassie's past was revealed to her one piece at a time through each one. The droll, offbeat humor throughout the book was also entertaining.

The writing is fantastic, and for readers who like eccentric characters and don’t mind slightly rambling, sometimes verging on esoteric, conversations, this would be a great choice. I did like Cassie’s story of self-discovery, but I’m probably not the right audience for this book. It could have ended earlier and I would've been fine parting ways with the weatherman and the Mothman.

Thank you to Harper Collins Focus/Harper Muse, NetGalley, and the author Susan Coll for the complimentary advance copy! It was my pleasure to write this candid review.