PositiveThe Boston GlobeThe book should appeal to fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, but it is being touted as \'darkly comic,\' which is a bit misleading. The only way to find most of Amy’s misadventures funny would be to laugh at her, which McClorey clearly doesn’t want. The incidents are entertaining without diminishing the raw truth of Amy’s turmoil and suffering ... A character making poor decisions and behaving badly is a requirement for dramatic conflict, but building a book—especially one written in the first person—around someone most readers would find uncomfortable to be around requires a deft touch. McClorey proves more than adept; even as you cringe at what Amy says or does, you’ll mostly just want to protect her from herself, to help guide her to the higher ground she seems so incapable of reaching ... (The secondary characters, with the exception of landlord Gary, are not fully fleshed out because Amy is so deep inside her own churning thoughts that she can’t see anyone as they are.) The novel is unnerving at times, simultaneously making us realize how egregious Amy’s mistakes are and how challenging it is for her just to navigate an ordinary day ... The book’s ending, which can perhaps be read in two ways, feels either too hopeless or, more likely, unearned. Either way, it seems rushed ... Still, it’s a moving story, well told, and Amy, who you might not want to spend time with in real life, will linger in your imagination long after the final pages.
