How many second chances do you need to get the life you wanted?
Published: 2014
Genre: Magical Realism
CW: Infidelity, Cursing, Burns, Vomit, Medical Content
★★★✬☆ (3.5/5)
Katie's life is in a state of purgatory. The renovations on her second restaurant are falling behind, the new owner of her old business is desperate for her to leave, and her ex-boyfriend won't leave her alone. But when Katie inadvertently causes a workplace accident, a strange girl appears to give her the following directions:
1) Write your mistake.
2) Ingest one mushroom.
3) Go to sleep.
4) Wake anew.
Now, Katie has an opportunity to make her life perfect. But just how many mushrooms is it going to take?
I wasn't expecting to relate to the struggles of an aspiring restaurant owner, but as someone in her late twenties who consistently makes bad choices and feels like she's constantly waiting for her life to get together, I found this book hitting a lot harder than I expected.
The concept of a character using a magical MacGuffin to fix their mistakes and dealing with the damage they inflict to the timeline isn't a new idea, but O'Malley executes the story so well that readers can forgive the trope use. Even when something predictable does happen, his use of humour and interesting twists keeps things from getting boring. His simplistic art style also creates a wonderful contrast to the complexity of the plot.
My main complaint is that most of the side characters feel underdeveloped. Particularly Katie's new business partner, Arthur, who disappears for a large chunk of the story. I can slightly forgive this, however, as it does show that Katie is so wrapped up in her own problems that she doesn't really pay attention to the people around her outside of how they're connected to her. Another issue I had was that the ending wrapped up a little too neatly. At one point, Katie is informed that the builders need $12,000 within 24 hours or they will abandon their work on the new restaurant, and we never get a follow up on that. Did she and Arthur manage to scrape together the money? Did the builders decide not to push the issue? Who knows?!
But what I most appreciated about this book was the complexity of the protagonist. Katie is self-absorbed, yes, but O'Malley makes it clear that she isn't a completely horrible person. While she mainly uses the magical mushrooms to perfect her own life, the first time she undoes a mistake is because she feels terrible about getting one of her waitresses, Hazel, badly burned. And in every timeline Katie creates, the two women always end up becoming friends. It's nice to see a character who is undoubtably quite selfish yet has the capacity to be kind. I think that most of us can relate to that.
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