I Thought You Said This Would Work

My Review (Spoiler Free)

I Thought You Said This Would Work is wild road trip book that discusses everything from family relationships, to broken friendships, to the benefit of saying yes, all while dealing with the very real pressures and issues surrounding major health issues, like cancer. Ann Garvin puts together a story of three college best friends who have to put their lives on hold when one of them finds out that her cancer is no longer in remission. Katie, the glue of the friendship who is back in the throes of cancer, needs her two best friends to work through the problems and start to really be friends again. Her ex-husband has dumped their diabetic dog into a pound in California, which means that Holly and Samantha must race from Wisconsin to California, rescue the dog, Peanut, and make it back so that Peanut can be there to help Katie through her treatments. Sounds simple enough, but like most things in life, it does not go to plan. 

I Thought You Said This Would Work is a great and fast-paced book that brings the reader right into the passenger seat of this wild ride. At the heart of the story is a conversation about how to make amends with the past to create a brighter future and how sometimes the things that we remember most are not the things that actually need to be dealt with. Throughout the book, Samantha has to confront the fact that the role she always played in the friend group and in life is not the one that she always has to or wants to play, and that is okay. Ann Garvin shows that when you have true friendship, just a little bit of talking can repair even years of damage and even people you've just met can quickly become another friend for life. 

While on the surface, this is a road trip book, it is so much more once the pages start turning. This book covers friendship, love, loss, family, and the benefits of going with the flow. It shows that humans need other humans, animals are an even greater addition to our lives, and love can be found in the unlikeliest of places. Garvin also attempts to discuss living with a sleep disorder, cancer, and mental health (trauma/PTSD), but these themes do not flow as well as the others. The discussion of these elements fell a bit flat, and in parts of the book, seemed to disappear altogether. Overall, I Thought You Said This Would Work ranks among the top of my recommendations for an easy Sunday read.