I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text color to white so no one can see.That is until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.
When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favor, convince HR she’s Supershops material, and beat out the competition.
But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworkers’ private worlds and realizes they are each keeping secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Eventually she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if that means coming clean to her colleagues.
Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes along with it.
I did not read the summary for this book AT ALL before diving in…all I read was a few short reviewer sentiments that said words like “snarky”, “wickedly funny”, “unexpected”, and “heart warming”.
I did NOT notice the words “deeper and more emotional than expected”.
So I was kind of caught off guard by the seriousness and the heaviness of what I found in these pages.
While I do think there were some funny moments here and there, a lot of the book felt a bit depressing and sad.
The main character comes off as quite lonely, a little mean and kind of a sneaky liar with a low key drinking problem.
She was quite frustrating to me, actually.
I don’t think you’re really SUPPOSED to see her in a very positive light….mostly in the first half of the story.
Those chapters had me feeling very meh and bleh about the whole thing.
The second half was better….a little more laughs to be had, a little more understanding of what is truly going down, a little more awareness of the issues the main character is really dealing with internally.
The storyline and secondary character development became a little more interesting and engaging as well.
I think this actually was a good story even though it wasn’t QUITE what I expected.
It did address what unresolved trauma can do to a person as well as undiagnosed mental health issues as well…the hurt and damage it can cause to the person experiencing it and those around them too.
What the message of this book tries to communicate is the whole premise that you never really know what a person is going thru or who they truly are on the inside, even if you assume that you do.
And also….that we ALL need other people…we ALL need community…and we ALL need healing.
Important statements were made, some laughs did occur and touching moments happened….
But this wasn’t exactly the humorous, light, uplifting read I was hoping for…and I didn’t over the top LOVE it.
But it was a pretty good read for what it (unexpectedly) was.
I am glad to move on to something a little different though as my mood just didn’t match with this read.