It took me a bit…
Life is messy. I certainly dont expect tidiness from yours or anybo elses.
Summary - We All Want Impossible Things revolves around the lives of two female best friends. Ash is a recently divorced, single mother and the narrator of the novel who cares for her best friend, Edi, a woman of ovarian cancer and currently living in a hospice care center.
For the first 20 or so percent I was pretty unsure about this one, everyone and I mean everyone loved it so I was super confused. I realized that my distaste was coming from the not-sick main character, Ash’s poor life choices and selfish behavior. Once I got around halfway I took my opinions of her out and was then able to see that she was grieving her absolute best friend, people grieve in different ways and Ash was looking for an outlet, a reprieve from the unhappiness.
After the halfway point, I had the same reactions most people would probably have while reading a book about someone from cancer – I cried, a few times. But Newman managed to inject some humor and lightness and that was a welcome reprieve from the somber outcome we knew was coming.
Thank you @harper for sending me this one LAST YEAR, I’m so glad I waited for the right time and just in time to also read Sandwich this month!
If you happen to not read this one yet, I highly recommend reading or listening to this in as few sittings as possible – it’s a short little thing and I found it extremely immersive and dipping and dabbing wouldn’t work well for such a short and emotional read.
Find We All Want Impossible Things at the publisher →
Toni Rocchetti is a copy editor helping authors strengthen their narratives, deepen character arcs, and find the story that is already in the draft. She reads 80+ books a year across literary fiction, memoir, and nonfiction — and writes about what she is learning along the way. Work with Toni →
