When I was offered an Advanced Reader's copy of Mary Adkins’s debut novel, When You Read This, I was a bit skeptical. The book has a very serious theme: a woman passes away tragically young; how do her death and her final wishes affect those she leaves behind? The epistolary format of the book, composed mostly of blog entries, emails, and text messages, seemed a little irreverent to me. However, I enjoyed Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, which also utilizes an epistolary format, so I decided to give it a go.
I’m so happy I did. Through the blog posts of Iris (the woman who passed away from cancer) and various forms of communication primarily involving her boss, Smith; her replacement at work, Carl; and her sister, Jade, this novel achieves flow and a lovely arc of emotion as those left behind find their way through grief and living and come to terms with how they can honor Iris’s final wishes in ways that also honor their goals for their own lives and help them come through Iris’s death more in touch with themselves.
Watching Jade and Smith process their shared grief as they read through blog posts and drafts that Iris left behind resonated with me. I lost my mom and my daughter within ten months of each other four years ago. After their passing, I thought about so many things that I wished I had done with them or spoken about with them. I realized, in particular with my mother, how many questions I had never asked her, questions for which I will now never have the answers.
I think most readers will feel a kinship with the characters in this book and be able to identify with those left behind after Iris’s death. The only reason this book didn’t get a fifth star from me is something which in another reader might be why they would give it a fifth star. I didn’t like some of the humor in the book. Sometimes it felt forced and other times it seemed silly or inappropriate. Other readers might like this aspect of the novel because it keeps it from being too somber.
If you have never tried an epistolary novel, this one would be a great place to begin as it utilizes a number of elements characteristic of this format and does so in an effective manner. If you are already a fan, I think you will enjoy this novel immensely. The only people I might caution against this book are those who have very recently lost a loved one as some of the humor might not meet you where you are right now.
