The Next Thing You Know by Jessica Strawser – 352 pages
Book Blurb:
The Next Thing You Know by Jessica Strawser: As an end-of-life doula, Nova Huston’s job—her calling, her purpose, her life—is to help terminally ill people make peace with their impending death. Unlike her business partner, who swears by her system of checklists, free-spirited Nova doesn’t shy away from difficult clients: the ones who are heartbreakingly young, or prickly, or desperate for a caregiver or companion. When Mason Shaylor shows up at her door, Nova doesn’t recognize him as the indie-favorite singer-songwriter who recently vanished from the public eye. She knows only what he’s told her: That life as he knows it is over. His deteriorating condition makes playing his guitar physically impossible—as far as Mason is concerned, he might as well be dead already. Except he doesn’t know how to say goodbye. Helping him is Nova’s biggest challenge yet. She knows she should keep clients at arm’s length. But she and Mason have more in common than anyone could guess… and meeting him might turn out to be the hardest, best thing that’s ever happened to them both.
My Review: 3.5 stars – Guest Review
The Next Thing You Know by Jessica Strawser is an emotional, relevant, thought provoking and unique story. It focuses on Nova, a death doula, and immerses the reader into her life as she deals with emotionally complex repercussions resulting from taking on a client (Mason) who is dealing with a serious medical condition that threatens the untimely end of his career. She breaks the rules of her profession by becoming personally involved with Mason. Throughout the novel, Nova’s backstory slowly unfolds, as well as her relationship with Mason. Although this is primarily Nova’s story, there are multiple narrators and the story moves between the present and the past. At times I felt that there were too many points of view, and I wasn’t always sure why some of those characters’ narratives were included. The timelines also jumped around quite a bit.
All of the characters were well-written and complex, particularly the free-spirited Nova. Although I enjoyed the story, I wasn’t consistently able to connect with the characters, and wasn’t completely invested in the relationship between Nova and Mason. I was fascinated with the subject matter of the book and the themes that were dealt with. The author did a wonderful job highlighting the profession of a death doula, which is relatively a new field that many people are not familiar with. I really admire and appreciate Ms. Strawser’s ability to tackle difficult and timely subject matter. The story went into great detail to explain what a death doula does. It explored end of life choices and how death doulas provide mental, spiritual, and comfort and assistance to people who are terminally ill, and raises moral and ethical questions about what the job should not entail.
Some themes of the story included: loss, grief, family, friendship, romance, and the complexities of end-of-life care. I loved this author’s previous novel. She can always be counted on tackling very unique and current issues that cause the reader to analyze various perspectives and ethical dilemmas. For this reason, this book would lend itself to great book club discussions. While I really liked this book, I wished I could have felt slightly more emotionally invested in the storyline and characters. I recommend this book for the subject matter and definitely am looking forward to all of the author’s future books. Review courtesy of Guest Fairy Ronna.
Quotes I liked:
Maybe humans are more like turtles than we realize. If that’s true, we’ve been cheated out of having protective shells. We’re all so vulnerable. No wonder so many of us are scared.”
“Some people think you can’t give the people you care about the benefit of the doubt without being a doormat, a pushover. They’re wrong. The hardest, strongest thing you can do is to forgive them anew, every day, for their flaws – and forgive yourself too.”
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