Book Review: I Hope This Finds You Well

A comedy with raw moments.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue is a novel that I would describe as The Office meets Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. With the summary of the book boasting comedy, I was ready to laugh and enjoy a comical book, but to my surprise in the second or third chapter the book started to get sad and a little depressing for the main character.

Jolene Smith is the main character and the story is told from her perspective, she works at Super Shops Incorporated in Calgary, Canada, hates her job, has never made any connections with her co-workers, and lives a lonely life outside the office that she can barely afford.

When Jolene gets in trouble at work she has restrictions put on her computer as part of her probation plan instead of restrictions she receives admin abilities allowing her to see everyone in the company's emails and DMs. These capabilities give Jolene important information that will allow her to devise a plan to save her job from upcoming layoffs. In the process of her plan using her new knowledge, she realizes she likes her co-workers and they have more in common than she had thought learning this while spying on them through their emails. The main character also starts to build relationships with these co-workers like Cliff from Human Resources.

If you have ever worked in an office setting you will want to read this book, the office humor will have you laughing out loud and thinking about all your former cubicle mates.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue does have a sad and lonely underlying tone through the comical plan that Jolene has built as she learns to heal from the past, find herself, and build relationships. Bringing both comedy and Jolene's learning process together the book is heartwarming and in the end, will have you smiling.