Early Review – Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life by Helen Fisher (4/5 stars)
Reading Level:Adult
Genre: Magical Realism
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: May 28, 2024
ASIN: B0CL5FZ5YC
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing. Joe is a good friend, good at his job, good at making things and at following rules, and he is learning how to do lots of things by himself.
Joe’s mother knows there are a million things he isn’t yet prepared for. While she helps to guide him every day, she is also writing notebooks of advice for Joe, of all the things she hasn’t yet told him about life and things he might forget.
By following her advice, Joe’s life is about to be more of a surprise than he expects. Because he’s about to learn that remarkable things can happen when you leave your comfort zone, and that you can do even the hardest things with a little help from your friends.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: For some reason I was under the impression that this was a magical realism type of read…I think in NetGalley it was under sci-fi/fantasy. This was not that type of read at all. This is flat out a contemporary fiction about a neurodivergent young man who has to deal with living on his own after his mother passes away.
The beginning is a bit slow and Joe’s mom doesn’t pass away until quite a bit into the book. At this point things get much more interesting. I did find this to be an engaging read. The chapters are fairly short, which helped propel me through the story. I didn’t want to put this down because I wanted to know what was going to happen.
Fisher does an excellent job writing both Joe’s character and the people surrounding him. At its heart this book is about friendship and supporting the people around you, even when they are a bit different.
Joe’s mom remains a steadfast presence throughout the book with her constant advice through the notebooks she leaves Joe. These excerpts from her notebooks can get a bit long and preachy feeling, although some of them were cute and humorous too. I couldn’t help but think that maybe Joe’s mom did him a disservice by making Joe too dependent on her. It’s when Joe is really forced to start figuring things out for himself that he really starts to flourish. This is something his mom could have helped him do earlier if she had pushed him outside of his comfort zone more often.
This was a nice, heartwarming read, that was straightforward in the story structure and yet complex in how the characters interact with each other. It was a decent break from all the fantasy I read (even though I totally wasn’t expecting this to be what it was).
My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this, it was a bit slow to start but ended up being very engaging. I would recommend if you are intrigued by watching a neurodivergent person navigate life and if you enjoy stories about unlikely friends banding together to help each other. It is a sweet and heartfelt story and is well written.
