Name: Deepika Ramesh's review of I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi
Item: I Liked My Life
Rating: 5
Author: Deepika Ramesh

Abby Fabiaschi

“An emotional journey of love, loss, healing, and redemption. I rooted for every character.” —Lisa See, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Snow Flower and The Secret Fan “I Liked My Life is a treasure of a novel. Warm-hearted and clever, the story will keep you reading until the final delicious revelation.” —Diane Chamberlain, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author “Warm and hopeful, this marvelous debut stands next to novels from Catherine McKenzie and Carolyn Parkhurst.” —Booklist (starred) In the tradition of Jodi Picoult and Where'd You Go, Bernadette? comes a story from debut author Abby Fabiaschi that is "as absorbing as it is illuminating, and as witty as it is heartbreaking." Maddy is a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother, host of excellent parties, giver of thoughtful gifts, and bestower of a searingly perceptive piece of advice or two. She is the cornerstone of her family, a true matriarch...until she commits suicide, leaving her husband Brady and teenage daughter Eve heartbroken and reeling, wondering what happened. How could the exuberant, exacting woman they loved disappear so abruptly, seemingly without reason, from their lives? How they can possibly continue without her? As they sift through details of her last days, trying to understand the woman they thought they knew, Brady and Eve are forced to come to terms with unsettling truths. Maddy, however, isn’t ready to leave her family forever. Watching from beyond, she tries to find the perfect replacement for herself. Along comes Rory: pretty, caring, and spontaneous, with just the right bit of edge...but who also harbors a tragedy of her own. Will the mystery of Maddy ever come to rest? And can her family make peace with their history and begin to heal?

A Novel

I Liked My Life

Alex S

Deepika Ramesh

I loved all the ghosts in Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. After that, I love Maddy — the ghost who was a reader, who volunteered at a library, who quoted lines from her favourite books to express her feelings, who was a badass. Let me leave her that way. But she is dead. We don’t know why she killed herself when everything in her life was perfect. Her husband Brady and her teenage daughter Eve lash themselves for not knowing that their most important person was depressed. What I loved the most about the book was that Maddy was influencing their lives, scheming fruitful events from the great beyond, to clean up after herself and to enable them to let her go.

I particularly enjoyed how she communicated with them. Lyrics, planting random thoughts in their heads, sending warm vibes which her family can actually feel… I am that sort of person. I seek solace in the belief that I receive messages and signs through unexpected sources. Hence, I enjoyed those parts in the book.

I Liked My Life is hilarious and profound. It reminds us to not take anything for granted. It wants us to make a genuine effort to choose presents for our dear ones, be there when they need us, pay attention, practise mindfulness. The takeaway could be threadbare, but that sort of reinforcement will always be necessary.

Loving a person doesn’t make them who you desire; it makes you vulnerable to their reality.
We don’t come into this world all-knowing. That’s what life is for.
When the world gives you a hard time, pick up a book and join another.

Called "marvelous" and "absolutely stunning," this debut asks: What happens when a mother's death leaves her husband and daughter wondering why they thought everything was okay when it was not “An emotional journey of love, loss, healing, and redemption. I rooted for every character.” —Lisa See, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Snow Flower and The Secret Fan “I Liked My Life is a treasure of a novel. Warm-hearted and clever, the story will keep you reading until the final delicious revelation.” —Diane Chamberlain, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author “Warm and hopeful, this marvelous debut stands next to novels from Catherine McKenzie and Carolyn Parkhurst.” —Booklist (starred) "A heartbreaking and ultimately heartwarming read about life, death, and family." —PopSugar, A Best Winter 2017 Book “An absolutely stunning book...remarkable.” —RT Book Reviews, 4 1/2 stars, Top Pick A story from debut author Abby Fabiaschi that is "as absorbing as it is illuminating, and as witty as it is heartbreaking." Maddy is a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother, host of excellent parties, giver of thoughtful gifts, and bestower of a searingly perceptive piece of advice or two. She is the cornerstone of her family, a true matriarch...until she commits suicide, leaving her husband Brady and teenage daughter Eve heartbroken and reeling, wondering what happened. How could the exuberant, exacting woman they loved disappear so abruptly, seemingly without reason, from their lives? How they can possibly continue without her? As they sift through details of her last days, trying to understand the woman they thought they knew, Brady and Eve are forced to come to terms with unsettling truths. Maddy, however, isn’t ready to leave her family forever. Watching from beyond, she tries to find the perfect replacement for herself. Along comes Rory: pretty, caring, and spontaneous, with just the right bit of edge...but who also harbors a tragedy of her own. Will the mystery of Maddy ever come to rest? And can her family make peace with their history and begin to heal?

Angelina Wu

I liked my life was such a good book. An unexpected ending. Would definitely recommend it to friends.

Allyson Marrs

Book by Abby Fabiaschi

I Liked My Life is a compelling novel about a family coping with loss. When stay-at-home mom Maddy commits suicide, the entire community is shook, overwhelmed by the possibility of a seemingly happy wife and mother taking her own life. Her teenage daughter Eve is lonely and angry. Her husband Brady is distant and despondent. And Maddy, well, she's watching from limbo and trying to intervene — to lift her husband and daughter out of their grief and into a new reality without her. And maybe into the life of sweet, single Rory.

Narrated by all four main characters, the novel begins soon after Maddy's death, where she discovers she cannot only still watch her family's lives, but she can also influence them by planting thoughts and feelings as strong as real memories — because most of them are. 

Her death causes them all to re-evaluate their relationships. Brady thought they had a fine marriage. Eve thought she and her mom were close as could be. Maddy thought Brady had given up caring. Maddy thought Eve had grown away from her. She felt both no longer appreciated who she was and what she did for them. But is that enough? Is that enough for Maddy to take her own life?

With the discovery of Maddy's journal, Brady and Eve hunt for clues, each blaming themselves, yet both clinging onto a desperate hope that there might be a secret so well-kept, it could absolve them of their guilt. They begin building their armor of possibilities, every journal entry another clue that either affirms or fractures the story they've created. 

But within these moments, three broken people are forced to find and face their mistakes and imperfections. Sorrow has unearthed their faults. As their shared history of assumptions, built up under the false promise of more time, is rehashed, each character must carry the responsibility of their actions and inaction. Their family had slowly begun to crumble before Maddy's death, indifferent to the feelings that families require: love, compassion, and forgiveness. If these are baseline, a given, do we need to actively practice them? 

Meanwhile, Maddy is also focusing her energy on the lovely Rory — a kind woman she feels is capable of putting her family back together. We peek into Rory's life too, and see how the constant care of her dying mother, and the apathy of her only brother, creates a lonely, singular-focused existence. She's surviving. But she's not experiencing. Nudges from Maddy move Rory closer to Eve and Brady. As a friendship forms between Rory and Eve, and a potential romance blossoms with Brady, Rory acts as a metaphorical mirror, again making both Eve and Brady look beyond the surface of hurt and into the experiences (good and bad) they shared with Maddy.

All the while, there's still an itchy feeling of mystery surrounding Maddy's death. We explore minor recounts of her life, and touch on her own regrets of not speaking up about her unhappiness and needs, but there's no overwhelming feeling of resentment. So why did she do it?

I Liked My Life is a book about the "unsaids" — about the things loved ones take for granted from each other, and the sacrifices we make around our own happiness out of complacency. Once we stop caring about our own needs, we can no longer show our love to those who still have it. Once we let routine transition into assumptions, we are no longer engaged in our relationships. And as Maddy reminds us, this engagement is the difference between losing love and losing who you are.

Melissa Railey

“An emotional journey of love, loss, healing, and redemption. I rooted for every character.” —Lisa See, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Snow Flower and The Secret Fan “I Liked My Life is a treasure of a novel. Warm-hearted and clever, the story will keep you reading until the final delicious revelation.” —Diane Chamberlain, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author “Warm and hopeful, this marvelous debut stands next to novels from Catherine McKenzie and Carolyn Parkhurst.” —Booklist (starred) "A heartbreaking and ultimately heartwarming read about life, death, and family." —PopSugar, A Best Winter 2017 Book “An absolutely stunning book...remarkable.” —RT Book Reviews, 4 1/2 stars, Top Pick A story from debut author Abby Fabiaschi that is "as absorbing as it is illuminating, and as witty as it is heartbreaking." Maddy is a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother, host of excellent parties, giver of thoughtful gifts, and bestower of a searingly perceptive piece of advice or two. She is the cornerstone of her family, a true matriarch...until she commits suicide, leaving her husband Brady and teenage daughter Eve heartbroken and reeling, wondering what happened. How could the exuberant, exacting woman they loved disappear so abruptly, seemingly without reason, from their lives? How they can possibly continue without her? As they sift through details of her last days, trying to understand the woman they thought they knew, Brady and Eve are forced to come to terms with unsettling truths. Maddy, however, isn’t ready to leave her family forever. Watching from beyond, she tries to find the perfect replacement for herself. Along comes Rory: pretty, caring, and spontaneous, with just the right bit of edge...but who also harbors a tragedy of her own. Will the mystery of Maddy ever come to rest? And can her family make peace with their history and begin to heal?

Alex S &
I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi

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I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi