I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue: book review
Overview: Jolene is stuck in an office job she hates but can't give up because it stops her from being thirty-three and living with her parents. After getting bullied all through high school, Jolene's life hasn't gotten much better, especially as she realizes after an HR glitch that all her co-workers are gossiping about her. Equipped with the new power to read everyone in the office's correspondence, Jolene sets off on a mission to manipulate her co-workers and insulate herself from the impending layoff. Overall: 4
Characters: 4 I liked all of the characters in the novel, and Sue does a good job of revealing slowly to Jolene and the reader what makes all the office villains complex and compelling. Jolene is cutting and sharp and closed down to the world for good reason. It hasn't been nice to her. Jolene was bullied as a kid; she's made out to be an outsider by her coworkers as an adult. I thought the book did a great job of exploring how the ways your peers treat you as a kid really do influence the rest of your life. It comes through in her anxiety, her default assumptions about others, her self protective measures. It's honestly probably a large part of why Jolene has been in the same low-level office role for eight years. Now this is maybe a slight spoiler that's hinted at from the start, but Sue adds to this thread by giving Jolene a friend who was also bullied who died in an accident. I really wished that this wasn't an extra dangling thread. I just feel like there are so many books about characters who are sitting with the guilt of losing a friend in a way that was not their fault but they feel to blame for. This aspect isn't explored in-depth and just compounds the bullying Jolene faced as a kid, and I feel like it was played up for a tension that was never very compelling. It was clear from the start Jolene was not to blame, and it was such an auxiliary point in the mix of the office drama and the family drama that it felt unnecessary and a bit cliche. There are adults affected by the lifelong trauma of bullies without a singular traumatic event (I mean it's a theme that runs through Taylor Swift's entire catalog).
As for the other characters, Sue manages to give surprising twists to their originally straightforward personas. While some felt better executed than others, I did enjoy the realization that community is possible. Jolene also comes to more of an understanding with her mother and actually bonds with her co-worker about having over-the-top Persian moms. I won't get too into all of these developments because that's the joy of the book, but it is quite touching.
Plot: 4 The book is tightly plotted, full of twists and turns and short chapters and DM exchanges that keep it reading fast. Generally, the chapters alternate between scenes in the office and scenes in Jolene's personal life in her decrepit apartment. While there are some predictable turns, I was still surprised a good amount of the time by the way that Sue took Jolene from point A to point B. She takes a lot of very popular romance tropes to enhance her side plots, which is interesting. I read the book in two days and found it to be a very engaging read.
Writing: 4 I liked Sue's writing. Jolene is cynical and sarcastic and hilarious. For as dark as the world feels for Jolene, there's a real heart here. If you're looking for a sad but ultimately uplifiting story, I highly recommend picking up I Hope This Finds You Well.
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