I See You've Called in Dead

 

Declared dead by HR. Forced to figure out how to actually live.

I See You've Called in Dead made me laugh out loud and then cry actual tears sometimes within the same paragraph.

An obituary writer gets drunk, accidentally publishes his own obituary, and suddenly the company’s HR system thinks he’s dead. Dead people can’t be fired. So now what?

Bud Stanley writes obituaries for a living. He’s depressed, lonely, and still not over his divorce. One night he has too much to drink and does something spectacularly ill-advised. He writes and posts his own obituary to his newspaper’s online portal. By morning, the whole world thinks he’s dead.

His company’s system now has him listed as deceased, and you can’t legally fire a dead man. So Bud is suspended, unmoored, and left to figure out what to do with himself.

What he does is start showing up to the wakes and funerals of total strangers.

He meets Clara, a woman who has been doing this for years. Watching how people grieve and remember the people they loved has taught her how to actually live. Bud starts going too, and at each service, he hears stories about the deceased from the people who loved them. Slowly, something starts to shift.

His best friend Tim is one of the best characters I’ve encountered in a long time. Paralyzed in an accident as a young man, Tim fought through the grief and rage of that and came out the other side full of life, art, music, and deep friendship. He becomes the person who gently drags Bud back into the world.

This is a book about grief and loss that is also genuinely funny. Walking that line without losing either side is incredibly hard to do, and John Kenney does it beautifully. Narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins is perfectly cast. His deadpan delivery makes the humor land even perfectly, and he handles the emotional moments with real care.

This was my book club’s April pick, and every single person in the group loved it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I strongly recommend it.

Fans of Backman’s A Man Called Ove will feel right at home with Bud Stanley. Here’s my review. 

About the Author

John Kenney is the New York Times bestselling author of the humorous poetry collections Love Poems for Married People, Love Poems for People with Children, and Love Poems for Anxious People, and the novels Talk to Me and Truth in Advertising, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He has worked for many years as a copywriter. He has also been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1999. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

 To learn more about John Kenney and his other books, visit his website. 

April Reading Wrap Up

 

13 Books. All 4 Stars. Zero Regrets.

Thank you Simon Audio, Simon Maverick Audio, Harper Perennial, Macmillan Audio, The Dial Press, and Megan Beatie Communications for the gifted books. Appreciate it! 

It's my April reading wrap-up and I genuinely can’t believe every single one of these landed. 13 books. 13 four-star reads. Not one disappointment.

I grouped them by vibe because that felt more honest than just listing titles. Some were pure thriller adrenaline, some wrecked me emotionally, and some were just the kind of books I’d push into anyone’s hands without warning. It heavy audio month. Nine of these were listens.

The standout was I See You've Called in Dead by John Kennedy. An obituary writer accidentally publishes his own obit and somehow ends up learning how to live. It's funny, sad, and completely unexpected.

Interested in what I read last month? Check it out here. 

Thriller Thursday Book Mail

 

A middle-aged widow. A cleaver. A second career nobody saw coming.

Thank you Harper Perennial for the gifted book!

Korean crime fiction just delivered something truly unhinged and I am here for it. 

I was out of town for a few weeks and it was so nice to come home to find book mail waiting for me. And this one has me intrigued. 

Mrs. Shim Is a Killer by Kang Jiyoung has a wild premise.  A widowed mom loses her job at the butcher shop, answers a vague help-wanted ad, and accidentally becomes a contract killer. Turns out her knife skills translate beautifully.

It’s a darkly funny Korean thriller about survival, reinvention, and a woman who is done being everyone’s doormat. The author already has a Disney+ adaptation under her belt (Shopping Mall for Killers), so she clearly knows how to build a world that’s equal parts absurd and gripping.

This is exactly the kind of read I pick up when I need something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still delivers. Can’t wait to dive in.

Interested in other book mail I've gotten? Check out this post. 

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram!

About the Author

Kang Jiyoung is an established Korean writer based in Paju, near Seoul. She is the author of the story collections Goodbye Paradise, Time for Dogs to Eat and The Killer’s Shopping List. Her novels include Quarantine Station of New Culture, Elza’s Ha-yin, Circus in the Dark Forest, Frankenstein Family, Yawning is Delicious, Pheromone Boutique and Shopping Mall for Killers. Shopping Mall for Killers was adapted for television by Disney+. Mrs Shim Is a Killer will be published in over twenty languages worldwide.

The power of a recommendation

 

I’ve been recommending books for over 40 years. It started with one conversation.

I was a freshman in high school, reading something for English class, when my mom’s friend Mrs. O’Hara sat down and asked what I was reading. We started talking books and she told me I needed to read Robert Ludlum.

I had no idea what I was getting into. But I picked one up and I was completely hooked. Forty years later I’m still chasing that feeling and passing it on.

That’s what one good recommendation can do.

Check out the full story on my Instagram. 

The Dead Girls Book Club

 

This book club has a blood oath for membership. And that’s not even the wildest part.

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted early listen! 

The Dead Girls Book Club by Zia Rayyan is an entertaining, completely unhinged domestic thriller that had me listening straight through.

Amelia is lonely and lost. Her husband Ken is a detective consumed by a local serial killer case, which means she’s basically invisible in her own marriage. When she gets an invitation to join a small, exclusive book club, she’s desperate enough to say yes — weird vibes and all. And yes, there is a blood oath. I’m just going to leave that there.

Things get dark fast when a domestic violence incident turns deadly and Amelia starts wondering if one of her new book club friends might be a killer. After that, the book club really does go off the rails — in the best possible way.

I liked the female friendship dynamic at the center of this story, even when everything around it was spiraling. 

Narrator Hannah Church brought so much to the performance, and at just under 7 hours, this was the definition of bingeable. I finished it in basically two sittings.

I guessed the twist early. The ending tied everything up a little too neatly and quickly for me. This is book one in a planned series. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here, but I had a good time getting through this one.

This is a solid pick if you love domestic suspense and psychological thrillers. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out now. 

If you enjoyed this review, you might also be interested in The Wife Deserved It.

About the Author

Zia Rayyan is a psychological thriller author with no background, no alibi—only a need to write about the lies we tell, and the ones we bury.

Change of Plans

 

Sarah Dessen is back, and yes, she still knows exactly how to break your heart gently.

Thank you to Simon Audio for the gifted early listen.

Sarah Dessen has been writing YA for over two decades, and Change of Plans, her first book in nearly seven years, proves  she hasn’t lost a step.

Finley has always been comfortable in someone else’s shadow, coasting along in the wake of her magnetic boyfriend Colin. Then a last-minute trip to a family vacation home she never knew existed changes everything. Colin breaks up with her over a video call. She throws her phone in a lake. And for the first time, Finley suddenly has no roadmap. 

As a former librarian who book-talked Dessen’s novels more times than I can count, this one hit me right in the nostalgia. All the hallmarks are here: a smart, strong main character, a sweet love interest, family drama, and that pitch-perfect voice that captures being on the edge of adulthood. It’s incredibly satisfying watching Finley step out of Colin’s shadow and into herself. 

The extended family that Finlay falls into including her aunts, cousins, and the found-family crew at the Egg adds warmth and charm. And Ben is top tier book boyfriend material department. 

My one quibble: the reason behind her mom’s long estrangement from her family felt a little thin. I wanted more depth to Finley and her mom’s dynamic. The emotional setup was there. It just needed a little more space to grow. 

Narrator Mirai absolutely nails the performance. She balances teenage excitement with an undercurrent of self-doubt. The heartbreak, the worry, the self-discovery all feels real. This is a great audiobook pick. 

A warm, feel-good coming-of-age story with found family at its heart. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Change of Plans publishes May 5.

If you liked this review, you might be interested in Superfan, another coming of age story. 

About the Author

Sarah Dessen is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels for teens, including The Truth About Forever, Just Listen, and This Lullaby. Her work has been published in over thirty countries and sold millions of copies worldwide. She is the recipient of the 2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for outstanding contribution to young adult literature.

This Story Might Save Your Life

A popular podcaster disappears. Her best friend is the suspect. I couldn’t stop listening.

Benny and Joy are best friends and co-hosts of one of the most popular podcasts around. It’s a show built on survival stories. Then Joy disappears, and Benny is the prime suspect.

I loved everything about this one. Joy and Benny feel like real people, and their friendship is the heart of the story. The dual POV worked beautifully. You get both of them fully, and it makes the tension hit harder. The audiobook production is something special too. The sound effects aren’t overdone. They just give it this perfect podcast atmosphere that pulls you right in. And the bonus episode at the end is delightful, and exactly the right note to end on after some heavy subject matter.

Julia Whelan is, as always, flawless. Sean Patrick Hopkins brings Benny to life with humor and real emotion. Together they’re a perfect match.

Also worth noting, this podcast isn’t a true crime show, which honestly felt like a breath of fresh air.

This Story Might Save Your Life is a fantastic debut. Tiffany Crum is someone to watch. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⚠️ Trigger warnings apply — check before you read.

Interested in another thriller featuring a podcaster? Check out my review of Tell Me What You Did. 

About the Author

Tiffany Crum is a writer from Southern California. After many years in Los Angeles, she now lives with her husband and two teenage sons in Atlanta, Georgia. This Story Might Save Your Life is her debut novel.