Twenty- One Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks

Twenty-One Truths About Love is the third Matthew Dicks novel I have read, the first two being Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend (which I absolutely loved!) and The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs (which was good, but not as good). This one was written in a most unexpected format- it was all lists. The main character Daniel struggles with anxiety and depression and on the advice of his therapist he writes lists. These lists range from texts from his wife to possible good locations for a robbery. I thought it would be difficult to get in to a book written solely in list form, but it actually worked. The way Daniel writes his lists allow in a lot more narrative than I expected.

Daniel is struggling with his life decisions and lists are helping him, but maybe not enough. Here's my own list about Daniel:

1. Daniel loves his wife.

2. Daniel is insecure about living in the shadow of his wife's late husband.

3. Daniel's book shop may fail right any day now.

4. Daniel is getting desperate and is likely to make some bad decisions.

5. Daniel needs to get his crap together.

6. Daniel is a little whiney and annoying.

7. Daniel's lists start to get a little annoying, too.

Kudos to Matthew Dicks for this creative idea and for pressing through when he was told it would never work. It does work, though not completely successfully. I feel like as the reader I was in Daniel's head a little too much and he wasn't particularly likable as a character. He does grow and get better as the story progresses, but most of that is saved for the very end which leaves a lot of book to finally get to that point. This is a very quick read and would be perfect for a time when you want to be able to pick up and put down your reading material. It is easy to come back to it later.


*This Advanced Reader Copy was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for and honest review.*