I absolutely loved the audiobook of Phaedra Patrick’s The Messy Lives of Book People, read by Late Sobey. The ghostwriter’s point of view was fascinating. Although the narrator, Liv, didn’t mean to become the ghostwriter for her favorite novelist, watching her gracefully accept her role and keep the author’s last secret was entertaining. There were plenty of obstacles Liv had to face to attempt to keep this secret safe; but she handles each obstacle with grace.

The only off-putting thing in this novel was four characters, the journalist Liv’s husband and two teenage sons. The journalist was so creepy at times and felt very true to real life (I read way too many true crime novels, and journalists can be vultures toward the victims and their families). This was clearly a plot point of the story, but journalists like this fictional one can be hard to deal with.

Don’t even get me started on Liv’s useless children and husband. Three fully grown men cannot go minutes without calling their wife or mother because they are too incompetent to do anything themselves. These three almost made me DNR the book; they were so irritating! I know that was the point of the characters; it shows why Liv feels so attached to her new secret life, but DAMN.

Works Cited

Patrick, Phaedr. The Messy Lives of Book People. Manningham : Park River, 2022.

Sobey, Katy. “The Messy Lives of Book People.” By Phaedra Patrick. n.d. Augio Book.