The Two Lives of Lydia Bird: A Novel

I picked this one to be my first book of 2024 & I was slightly disappointed. I loved One Day in December so much but this one just didn’t WOW me. I felt it dragged on and didn’t catch my attention like I wanted it too.

I liked the way the author worded many of her passages. It was an interesting book with parallel universes.

The premise is similar if not exactly the same as that of a 2012 tv show called, Awake, by Kyle Killen, that was excellent but cancelled after the first season for low ratings. The premise was a bit different in that while we're aware that the main character is sometimes sleeping we're not sure which version of events is real, the reality where his wife died in an accident or the reality where his son died. He's not really grieving bc he sees each loved one when he goes to sleep, but his family member is. The best touch is that in both realities he's seeing a therapist (one played by B.D. Wong!) but the two therapists are giving him opposite advice. A true work of art!

In any case, I still enjoyed the premise of double lives in this book. I was entertained throughout. The book was well-written, had a good understanding of grief, and had a very satisfying ending.

SPOILERS BELOW

The human brain is wired to cope with grief. It knows even as we fall into unfathomably dark places, there will be light again, and if we just keep moving forward in one brave straight line, however slowly, we’ll find our way back one day.

Honestly this has been on my tbr for quite some time. I only read it because I saw it in the review of [b: Text for You|22392078|101 Dirty Text Messages Sexting & Dirty Text Messages For You To Get Naughty (Dirty Talk 101 Series Book 14)|Denise Brienne|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429247323l/22392078._SY75_.jpg|41812292] that this was better. This book was so much better.

I found it hard to get into this book initially, I started reading a few days ago and I didn't find myself reaching out for my e-reader. But, it got better around the 43% mark for me. I didn't put the book down and I read it finish.

This book made me ache, it didn't make me cry but it kind of put a hole in my chest. I can't think of losing the man I love, yet even so without a goodbye. I would probably hold onto every thing he owns, every memory of him until I can't. I was reading this book while telling myself I need to let my partner know he's loved and that he's important more because I can't be without him.

I can understand Lydia's pain and her longing and the suffering. In her dreams with Freddie, initially it seemed like she was projecting her wants into the dreams but I realised it was more than that. It was every could have and should have in her life.

Freddie appears only in the dreams throughout but it feels like you're seeing their lives from a corner seat. Through her reality and dream world, she comes to terms with her grief when she's awake or asleep. I didn't look at the dates initially but it is important to know how long she needed to even take the first step forward. The romance wasn't heavy on this book and I think rightly so because it would have been totally unrelated to this book.

I'm giving this 4 stars because of the beginning. If not it would have been 5. And I wouldn't really consider this a romance book, because of how little it was written about in this book.

Though the ending was a little unpredicted, I think it was a good way to end the story. For the reader and for Lydia.

Billions of humans, all of us scurrying around the planet, falling in and out of love with each other for no reason explicable by logic or numbers or common sense. How unaccountably strange we are.

Definitely one of the better reads this month.

Sad but a good book. Kind of predicted the storyline.