BLOG TOUR: Happy is the One - Katie Allen

What if halfway through your life was just the beginning?

Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life.

 

Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof.

 

With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

 

But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

 

Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin.

And he’s hiding even more from her…

 

What did I think?

Oh my goodness, Katie Allen's new book, Happy is the One, is simply stunning.  I loved it from the very first page and my feelings continued to grow the more I read.

Robin knows when he's going to die as he was born during the appearance of Halley's Comet and he is destined to die when the comet returns, just like Mark Twain correctly predicted for his own death.  Now you would think that Robin would be able to live a full and happy life, knowing that his number is not coming up until he's 75, but instead he seems to be obsessed with planning every minute of his life until his death....whilst life passes him by.

It's a bit of a culture shock when Robin returns to his home town to live with his elderly dad and it is heartbreaking that his dad can't communicate verbally any more.  Robin's mum died when he was young and it seems that he was never close to his dad so it's a difficult time for both of them.  As they get to know each other again, things that Robin thought he knew are brought into question, including his inability to die until 2061.

The story is incredibly poignant and my heart ached at certain points as Katie Allen put me through the emotional wringer.  I love being so invested in a book that events make me gasp out loud and struggle to hold back my tears.  The writing is so warm and witty that there's sure to be something to smile or laugh about on the next page whilst my tears are drying.

Breathtaking, stunning and memorable, Happy is the One is a book with the biggest heart; it made me laugh, cry and everything in between and I simply can't recommend it highly enough.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

About the author:

Katie Allen was a journalist and columnist at Guardian and Observer, starting her career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London. Her warmly funny, immensely moving literary debut novel, Everything Happens for a Reason, was based on her own devastating experience of stillbirth and was a number-one digital bestseller, with wide critical acclaim. Katie grew up in Warwickshire and now lives in South London with her family.

Follow the tour:

Everything Happens for a Reason - Katie Allen

 

When Rachel’s baby is stillborn, she becomes obsessed with the idea that saving a stranger’s life months earlier is to blame. An unforgettable, heart-wrenching, warm and funny debut.

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Mum-to-be Rachel did everything right, but it all went wrong. Her son, Luke, was stillborn and she finds herself on maternity leave without a baby, trying to make sense of her loss.

When a misguided well-wisher tells her that “everything happens for a reason”, she becomes obsessed with finding that reason, driven by grief and convinced that she is somehow to blame. She remembers that on the day she discovered her pregnancy, she’d stopped a man from jumping in front of a train, and she’s now certain that saving his life cost her the life of her son.

Desperate to find him, she enlists an unlikely ally in Lola, an Underground worker, and Lola’s seven-year-old daughter, Josephine, and eventually tracks him down, with completely unexpected results... Both a heart-wrenchingly poignant portrait of grief and a gloriously uplifting and disarmingly funny story of a young woman’s determination, Everything Happens for a Reason is a bittersweet, life-affirming read and, quite simply, unforgettable.

What did I think?

Oh my goodness, where do I start?  What a beautiful, completely unique book.  Katie Allen's debut novel is poignant, incredibly personal and surprisingly funny.  I absolutely loved it and the synopsis is right: it is completely unforgettable.

Rachel suffers a most terrible loss when she gives birth to her stillborn son, Luke.  Perhaps the worst thing that anyone can say to someone who is grieving is 'everything happens for a reason' but Rachel takes this comment literally and tries to find the reason that Luke died.  Rachel believes that saving the life of a man who was about to jump in front of a train was the reason that her son died and this man lived.  Through dogged determination, we follow Rachel's journey as she searches for the mystery man and makes life-long friends along the way.

The format of the book is very special indeed; I actually didn't realise what I was reading in the first few pages and when it hit me I thought my heart would break.  Although it is such a terribly sad subject, especially as the author has first hand knowledge of stillbirth, the whole feel of the book is surprisingly warm and funny.  It feels as if the process of writing her thoughts, feelings and actions is incredibly cathartic for Rachel and, although Luke is never far from her mind, having such a massive project on the go does help take her mind off her loss.

I've often considered how highly sensitive we become when something bad happens to us.  It seems like everyone is so insensitive but I've often wondered if that is because we are so over-sensitive at that particular moment in time.  Rachel has lost her baby and it seems like every way she turns she sees babies; everything reminds her of Luke and the fact that he is not here.  I'm not saying that there aren't insensitive people out there, comments like 'everything happens for a reason' and 'life goes on' prove that people often don't think before they speak, but you don't want others to put their life on hold because you are sad.  It reminded me to be more sensitive to people's feelings and that just being there for someone and saying nothing is better than saying something inappropriate.  Actions really do speak louder than words.

Everything Happens for a Reason is heartrending, honest and humourous; I've never read anything like it before.  So thought-provoking and poignant, it's a completely wonderful debut and highly recommended reading.

Many thanks to Orenda Books for sending me an ARC of this wonderful book; all opinions are my own.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Amazon