Something to Live For by Richard Roper- Book Review

Something to Live For by Richard Roper- Book Review

Title: Something to Live For (previously How Not To Die Alone)

Author: Richard Roper

Publisher: Orion Books

Publish Date: 2019

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Meet Andrew. Everybody likes Andrew. But they don’t really know him. They know what he’s told them – that he’s happily married with two kids. Living the kind of life that’s either so boring it’s true, or so perfect it’s a lie...

Enter Peggy. Peggy arrives in Andrew’s life in a burst of kindness and possibility. For the first time in ages, Andrew feels alive again. So now that he has everything to lose, can he risk it all and tell Peggy the truth? A big-hearted story about love, loneliness, and the importance of taking a chance when we feel we have the most to lose..

**This book review may contain spoilers**

This book is another of those average books that have excellent premises and a pleasant enough romance, but ultimately falls a little short of the best. I came across this book in the library, and the premise sounded intriguing enough that I decided to give it a try. It's certainly not as superior as my all-time favorites, but still a good read nonetheless. 

"Something to Live For" follows a man named Andrew and his colleagues, who have a fascinating job-- in the event that someone dies without any obvious next of kin, it's their responsibility to go through the deceased's house and belongings and try to locate any next of kin, as well as sort out their financial situation to see if they have any funds to cover the funeral expenses. 

This job exists in real life, at least in the UK-- they're employed by the city council. In most cases, these individuals die alone because they've simply 'drifted apart' from their family or friends. When there's no one to attend their funerals, these workers usually attend them not out of obligation but out of respect and kindness. Andrew is one of these individuals who regularly attends the funerals of the deceased. 

Andrew's life is quite drab-- he lives alone in a small flat, with model trains as his sole hobby, and no friends except his colleagues and a couple of online friends from a train forum. In short, he's just the type of person who would die alone without any obvious next of kin. But due to a mistake at a job interview, his boss believes he has a complete family back home (wife + 2 kids), and before Andrew can correct it, the news spreads so that everyone hears about Andrew's 'family'. Andrew now has to maintain the facade of his wife and children-- when he actually has none. 

Soon, a woman named Peggy joins the job, and Andrew becomes her mentor as she learns more about the job. As they spend more time together, they become closer, discussing life in bars and the homes of the deceased. Andrew finds himself in a predicament when he has to invite the five-person team at work to his house in a few weeks-- which is problematic, because then everyone would notice that he was perpetuating a ruse, for no valid reason. The story unfolds as a slow romance between Peggy and Andrew, and after a series of missed opportunities that frustrate Andrew, he eventually confesses to his colleagues that he actually does not have a family. Peggy and Andrew soon get together (Peggy also had an unpleasant husband whom she left). 

I liked the premise of someone working in such an intriguing job-- it definitely doesn't smell good, but sifting through the memories and belongings of deceased individuals isn't a typical job description. The odors are nearly always unpleasant because these people by definition died alone (that's why the workers sift through the belongings-- to find potential acquaintances/relatives), meaning the person had been deceased for quite a while before being discovered. Also, the deceased usually have enough money to automatically pay utility bills for months, meaning that utilities like heating and lights are still on; thus the bodies decompose faster. The corpses themselves are obviously absent when the workers arrive, but the odors linger for much longer. And it's a very distinct smell-- Andrew says that "once you've smelled death it never leaves you" (58). Andrew deals with this by spraying a generous amount of aftershave inside a mask he wears, although it doesn't entirely mask the smell. I appreciated how these workers-- who most people would not have known existed-- were explored, and their sheer kindness and respect for the deceased (every time Andrew enters a house, he behaves 'as though the deceased were watching him', and he consistently attends the funerals of these people). 

In addition to the premise, I liked the twist near the end of the novel (which I won't delve into much due to spoilers)-- I didn't anticipate Andrew's true family situation to be what it was, and for Andrew to have experienced it before perpetuating his lie. (Mind you, Andrew never had kids or a wife, or started a family of his own.) 

However, it was the characters (and the plot too, but that's not as important) that decreased the rating from a 5 to a 4 star. While I didn't dislike any of the characters-- they were all quirky or likable in some way-- many of them were quite flat and undeveloped. We only got to see one side of most of the characters-- namely Cameron, Andrew's train forum friends, and Peggy. Cameron is obviously a comedy character whose in-story job is to make people uncomfortable with his enthusiasm and fall-flat, unfunny jokes, Andrew's train forum friends are incredibly supportive but basically nothing else, and although Peggy was slightly developed in the story, I think we hear too little about Peggy compared to Andrew, even though she arguably has an even worse problem than Andrew (the situation with her husband), and her emotions aren't explored as much as Andrew's are. Cameron and the forum friends I can understand, since delving deep into each and every character would make it too long, but I think Peggy could have (and should have) been developed more as a character. It seems like the focus is on Andrew too much. 

All in all, "Something to Live For" is a decent novel with an intriguing twist near the end. Although I liked its premise and the twist at the end, I found the characters to be somewhat lackluster and not fully fleshed out. Overall, I enjoyed this book— it just lacked something truly impactful or emotionally resonant in its plot or characters. 

I would recommend this book for readers in grade 7 or 8 and up; it's an engaging read, and while it starts a bit slowly, the pace picks up quickly. It touches on themes of family issues, and the vocabulary may pose a slight challenge. 

Rating: I would give this a 4/5 - A pleasant read with a unique premise and an unexpected twist, but lacking depth in character development.