This book sadly did not live up to my expectations. It had potential, but it just didn’t hold my interest.
The narrator did a good job.

I wanted to like this one, but just could not get into the story... The characters and pacing felt surprisingly flat for something described as "comically surreal". I was expecting a light-hearted, somewhat comical journey story, but it felt instead like a heavier-than-expected retrospective on one woman's life. And I don't get the Mothman bit AT ALL... This one didn't work for me.

I wonder if you’re familiar with the myth of the Mothman. For a month between November and December 1967, people in Point Pleasant, West Virginia reported seeing a human sized Mothman, which not only became a local legend, but was connected to the very real collapse of the Silver Bridge, an accident that killed 46 people in December, 1967.

The narrator of our book is Cassie, a 50ish year old woman who’s weathered difficulties throughout her life and is at the end of her tether.

She was orphaned as a child, her parents killed in the Silver Bridge collapse. Raised by her aunt and uncle, everything about her parents was off limits, left unspoken.

She’s now a failed novelist who teaches community college. Her marriage has reached an end as her meteorologist husband has been living in the basement for the past two years following a terrible weather prediction, a cancellation, and a debilitating fear of…the weather.

Having had enough, Cassie takes her puppy and heads to West Virginia searching for a truth she doesn’t know exists. In the middle of the Christmas holidays, braving terrible storms, a bleeding head wound, and a hotel that doesn’t allow dogs, Cassie tries to figure out why her parents were in West Virginia to begin with.

Enter strange and enigmatic Ingram, a cryptologist, who slowly helps her uncover the past and heal wounds she didn’t realize she had.

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It’s at turns funny, heartbreaking, and tender, this journey made by a lonely woman who doesn’t trust herself or anyone else. She’s obsessed with moths — maybe seeing them where they aren’t — and yet somehow, hopeful. In the end, our failed writer, in a failed marriage with a puppy who chews everything in its wake, Cassie finds that she can write her own ending.

Thanks to @netgalley and @harpermuse for the audioARC to listen and review. Available May 21, 2024.

Real Life and Other Fictions by Susan Coll
I would like to Thank Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ability to review an ARC audiobook copy of this novel.
Meet Cassie, she’s in her fifties and needs to find her story. As an empty nester whose marriage is over, she leaves just before Christmas with her new puppy to find the truth of her story that has been hidden for her lifetime. She finds truth, love and how she fits into a well known folk tale of the Moth man.
The audiobook was narrated by Jane Oppenheimer. The audiobook had a nice flow and swept you away to join the characters in the story. The narrator had a nice mellow voice that fit well with the characters and really brought them to life! The audiobook was so pleasant and I felt I was part of the story, it definitely made the whole experience nice.
I absolutely loved this book! It resonated with me on a personal level as a reader in my fifties, and also an empty nester. I would recommend this story in any format but especially the audiobook version!

Firstly, I need to point out I listened to this rather than read it, and we all know an audiobook is made or unmake by its narrator. I really enjoyed the narration of the characters with this edition and felt instantly charmed by the characters. There is something intriguing about this story, from the secrets to the conspiracies to the bouncing puppy who doesn’t know how to behave. It definitely made my drives to work 100% more enjoyable.

Cassie is a woman in her 50s with a pretty clear cut case of empty nest syndrome, which is not helped by her less than ideal husband. So, when Cassie finally breaks she finds herself searching for answers she didn’t know she needed. Her whole life has been shaped by a bridge collapse when she was 3. 50 years on, it’s time to find out what really happened, and how a giant, red eyed moth is connected.

What I will say is I found the ending a little rushed. It was all tied up well but considering the chapters are entitled “ reckoning” I felt a tad underwhelmed. Especially when Cassie confronts her aunt. But other than that I really enjoyed the story and the pace and the dog!

This was NOT what I was expecting! I thought this would be a rom-com and honestly I would not have been interested had I not seen "mothman" in the blurb. I was so refreshingly mistaken! This book definitely reads more like a lighthearted mystery with a side of quirky romance. I don't think I have ever read a book like this! I need a whole series involving other cryptids please! I loved following along with all the clues and coincidences. This isn't a book with huge plot twists where you can't peg the ending until it happens, but I was actually ok with that. It really worked for this book. I loved the narration. I'm not sure I've ever heard this narrator before but after listening to this, I want to look up more books she has worked on. Overall, this seems like a "book for everyone" no matter what your typical go-to genre is.

Great book. i don't really think i am the target audience for this book, but i will be buying a copy for my mum

I was so excited to receive this book as an arc reviewer. I loved the description of this book and I thought it was going to be a really quirky and fun read. The book was extremely confused and felt hard to get into, it was so much, and I had trouble getting into the story. I continued on with it as I felt it could have just been detailed building of the setting, but it just continued the whole way through. There were so many unnecessary details and storylines, that I still don’t understand why they were all included? . I wanted to finish this as I thought it would get better, but I was highly disappointed and felt this book took me way too long to read because I couldn’t get myself to enjoy it.
I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to read as an arc reviewer, and may give other books from this author a chance in the future! This one definitely wasn't for me AT ALL.
The narrator was great, it just wasn't a story I could get into.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc audiobook.

I listened to this on audio and I just couldn’t connect with it. I found myself zoning out and having to rewind to follow the story. I can definitely see people loving this, just not me unfortunately.
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Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to review this book.

Pleasantly surprised that "Real Life and Other Fictions” was an enjoyable read. Susan Coll’s weaves an interesting We are introduced to Cassie, a woman in her 50s who finds herself at a crossroads. Orphaned as a toddler, she has spent her life tortured by the mysterious circumstances that caused her parents’ demise. She is also haunted by a “mythical creature” that she blames for her situation, her parents' demise, blurring the boundaries between reality and myth. It makes one question Cassie’s actions and thought processes. She almost seems to be unhinged. Her search for answers has consumed her five decades on earth and leads her from a failed career as a journalist to a community college lecturer.

One day with her patience exhausted, not only from the past but also her present - her somewhat unstable, meme famous, cheating husband Cassie seizes the opportunity, takes her teething puppy, and embarks on a spontaneous road trip in search of the truth. She’s determined to start at the beginning and uncover the secrets of her past. This irrational spontaneity occurs a few times throughout the novel and leaves one to think that Cassie may actually be unstable. One of the very few issues I have with her.
Cassie's journey unfolds as a surreal, comedic adventure infused with chaos, warmth and unraveled secrets. As she moves through this surreal landscape she encounters a colorful cast of characters, including an odd somewhat cold cryptozoologist who joins her quest. There may or may not be hints of a buddy romance here. This novel is definitely worth a read, it was an enjoyable experience.

Thank you to #NetGalley, the author Susan Coll and HarperCollins for a digital copy of #RealLifeandOtherFictions in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was really intrigued by the synopsis and cover is really cute, but this book just wasn't really for me. There were some questions about where this was going and so I stayed with it and didn't DNF. And I'm glad I finished it cause it definitely picked up in the 20% of the book and the main mystery was solved which thrilled me!

Thank you to NetGalley and to HarperCollins Focus for my audio ARC!

Definitely the weirdest book I’ve ever read, but I loved it. Somebody PLEASE get Cassie a helmet. I love that she’s 50. Girl boss finding her way after her awful husband has spent years draining her, on a roadtrip to the place that took so much from her as a baby. Cassie is very funny grumpy and the narrator executes her personality so well. I was so entertained and found myself always wanting to pick this audiobook up :) An audiobook with only one person narrating can be hard to get into if they don’t differentiate characters well, but that is not the case here! High quality :)

I will say, if you’ve got a fear of moths, this book is not for you!! I will say it’ll be a while until I can hear that word again, but just when I was starting to get sick of hearing about moths with no additional context, everything started to slowly come together.

Her puppy is basically her own character as they describe all the trouble she gets into. As a dog lover, this was so cute and provided some needed comedic relief She is such a wild dog mom!

This felt like the family friendly version of that tv show “Lost Tapes” where they went around looking for Bigfoot and such. So fun, but also built on a very tragic backstory that has haunted Cassie for years. It was wonderful to go along on her healing journey.

Richard is the worst and he will remain the worst and I think that I love that so much. Stinky men don’t change.

The plot twists are so good!! Thriller worthy, but without the anxiety. You’ve gotta lean into wholesome coincidences and fate for this one.

This isn’t a romance book, but there is a cute lil love interest that’s built on the basis of a friendship. :) I want to hug Cassie for all she’s persevered through. <3

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Muse Audiobooks for an ARC of this book that get’s published on May 21st.

This quirky book was very entertaining but not what I expected. The cover seems to advertise a lighthearted rom-com but this book was so much more unique than the appearance.

Cassie Klein has just sent her daughter to college and just discovered her goofy meteorologist husband has been having an affair with her best friend. Cassie decides to get away from it all and take the time to discover the reason she was orphaned as a child when her parents were driving across a bridge when it collapsed. This tragedy has not only haunted her entire life but she has become obsessed to a point that her obsession has ruined her career.

This novel was a light hearted book but also a rediscovery of self and making hard but necessary decisions.

The audiobook has a fantastic narrator, Jane Oppenheimer, who switched from each character with ease but never annoying.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Muse Audiobook for the Advanced Reader Copy. #NetGalley #RealLifeAndOtherFictions

Alright, I’m giving up. I tried, I really did but I could not get into this one and I’m done trying. I made it 73% through and MAYBE it will pick up in the last 27% but honestly I’m not up for it. I’ve been confused most of the time. I’m following the overall storyline but this obsession with the moth thing is just too much. I can appreciate the storyline of wanting to know what happened on the bridge and her parents but it’s too drawn out with no real meat in the middle to keep you enticed. Maybe it’s a winner for others but it’s not for me and it’s definitely not something my friends would finish either.

I really wanted to love this! I didn’t dislike it but was slow in too many parts it was hard to stay engaged.

This book was an unusual book of one woman’s self discovery. While the Mothman aspect was interesting I also found it distracting at times. I felt the narrator did a wonderful job pulling the listener into the story. Thank you Harper Muse Audiobooks and Net Galley for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

Susan Coll is a new to me author and she writes in a way that makes me feel like I'm reading the stories of a friend. Very familiar in the way she weaves a story and I felt connected to the way the story gave insights to her past intersecting with her present. The main characters interactions with her family members reminded me of conversations I've had with my own family (lots of stuff you just don't talk about).
Her husband was a piece of work and I like that she had finally chosen her own happiness.
Over all this was a good story (albeit a little long) and I enjoyed most of it. The cover doesn't really give you the impression that it's going to be a woman's fiction novel... it seems like it's going to be more lighthearted but after I realized this... I enjoyed the book.
Thanks for the ALC from NetGalley

This is one of those contemporary novels where the plot is a lot of talking, recalling, and regular stuff, mixed in with a cool urban legend (?). Or is it just a legend????

I requested this one simply because I saw Mothman. As a child of the 70s/80s where every Big Foot, Mothman, Jersey Devil movie was consumed like manna, I was all in. The bonus for me is the main character lives in a place where I lived for 20 years in Maryland so the references hit my memory bank AND I retired to the hills of West Virginia and our isolated acreage is where, for sure, the legend continues.

I just adored this audio arc. I loved Cassie who, in her 50s is searching for her history. I loved the people she met along the way. I loved the history (yes, in fact, the bridge in Point Pleasant did crumble), along with the legend of Mothman.

I enjoyed this book so much that I started listening in the morning and my earbuds stayed in all day. I hopped on my treadmill a ton of times because I needed to be up and moving while the story was told to me. Then it added. And, even at 10 hours, it felt too soon.

Off to discover more of Susan Coll's catalogue.

The dialogue at times was awkward and the "mystery" of the main character's past is very obvious from the beginning. I loved the self discovery and character development the main character goes through. I enjoyed the narrator of this novel.

Great story. Very interesting. The self discovery while also uncovering the past kept it interesting especially with the mythical kind of element surrounding the death of her parents.
It was intriguing.