4.5⭐️s

Not a typical go-to read for me but this book was fun.

After Becky receives the Death card, while having a tarot reading, she goes into meltdown mode and delivers some harsh truths in the form of letters thinking she’s about to die.

Becky cracked me up😂 Between her complaints about life and the dramatic spiraling after the tarot reading, she had me rolling. It did rub me a little the wrong way that (almost) everyone turned their backs on her after receiving their personalized hate mail, but I couldn’t necessarily blame them either.

I enjoyed reading through Becky’s transformation while navigating hitting rock bottom, then working to mend her life and fix relationships. There were a lot of relatable moments and felt a kinship with her.

Knocked it slightly just because some of the story seemed repetitive but overall enjoyed the read.

Max… I wanted to like him so much but dude needed to learn how to communicate better. He ended up being trash regardless but he had potential to be better😂

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for the opportunity to arc read!

As someone who just turned 30 recently and has felt similarly to the narrator at times, I found this novel to be very poignant but also hopeful.

Becky is a 29-year-old who is stuck in a rut and seemingly unable to move forward in any aspect of her life. She is working a job she hates, still fixated on her ex-boyfriend five years post-breakup, lives with her mom, and finds herself unable to relate to her friends, who are in a different stage of life from her. Following a disastrous tarot card reading, Becky is convinced that she is going to die soon and decided to air her grievances and feelings to her loved ones and boss in the form of letters. However, once morning comes and she realizes that her drastic actions will have consequences, Becky scrambles to pick up the pieces.

The narrative was engaging and enjoyable, and while the process of growth wasn’t as steady as I might’ve liked, I was satisfied with the ways in which Becky decided to improve her life by the end of the book. As a non confrontational person myself, I recognized in my own life several of Becky’s struggles. I think making a great leap can be daunting and challenging, but the reward almost always outweighs the difficulty, as Becky discovered.

The misread tarot allegations immediately drew me into the premise of this novel. There is a slow buildup until the protagonist pulls the death card and spirals. As a tarot reader I found it humorous because people really do get stressed when they get that card. The protagonist was difficult for me to really bond with or like throughout the novel’s progression. Her cringey quips were great, but her lack of self-awareness felt too much. The whole time I felt like I was anxious with the protagonist and the author did fantastic on writing on that degree of millennial anxiety. I needed more redeemable qualities and events to really make me empathize with the character.
There is one point I wish I could be the protagonist friend for the moment to make her snap back to reality. I liked the delivery of the tarot reading and how it was emulated as popular culture exchange. I do always love unreliable narrators and how that really makes the narrative. For that I am giving this 3.5 rounded up to a 4 – because that kept me reading. I almost would have loved to see this story from the other’s perspective’s as well just to get relief from the protagonist’s anxiety.

I gave this book a 3.5. I found the synopsis very intriguing which was what made me pick up this book to begin with and I ended up really liking the way it was written. The letters were entertaining to read and I thought it added a very fun element to the book. I found myself relating to the main character a lot (not in a good way) but she was lovable in her own flawed way. This was a funny, at some points sad, read and I did really enjoy it. I would recommend it to people who want a more unserious coming-of-age read!