Review by Stacey O’Carroll
Author: Amy T Matthews
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
RRP: $32.99
Release Date: 31 January 2024
“Plant a tree that will live long after I’m gone. Something shady. That also has blossoms.”
Sometimes, it takes the people who know us best to push us out of hiding from life and start to enjoy living again. Someone Else’s Bucket List is the latest novel by academic and author Amy T Matthews, who also writes under Amy Barry and Tess Lesue. A lovely novel, which shows there’s love and life after loss and the bond of sisterly love.
Jodie Boyd is lost even before the loss of her sister, Bree, to cancer. However, when her sister’s pre-recorded social media video appears on Thanksgiving, Jodie’s quiet, unassuming life is catapulted into new directions and unfulfilled possibilities. In the video, Bree explains her wish for risk-averse Jodie to complete the last items on her bucket list and share them on social media. With the use of the bucket list, Amy adeptly balances the sadness of cancer and grief with lighter romantic comedy-style antics.
“My dying wish is for you to finish my bucket list.”
Despite the joyful cover of Someone Else’s Bucket List, Amy’s novel has some truly heartbreaking moments. The opening few chapters that focus on the protagonist’s sister in her final days at the hospital are challenging to read for someone who has watched cancer take a loved one. Not because the writing is bad or the scenes are frustrating, but because they are so realistic in their portrayal of those final months and weeks. Amy’s descriptions of a close family member succumbing to cancer were so realistic they triggered vivid memories. In an interview on the Writes 4 Women podcast, Amy discusses how she thought perhaps the opening scenes had gone too far into the realistic trauma of hospital days for cancer patients and their families. However, I agree with Amy that whilst they are vivid, these scenes with Jodie’s sister are important to understand who Bree is, her connection to her sister and why certain things are on the bucket list. What Amy’s opening chapters do extremely well is replicate the shock and emotional ‘gut punch’ that is grief. In saying this, perhaps a little more warning about what to expect might be beneficial for those still processing grief.
“For a moment the world swam. Time went wobbly. For that moment Jodie felt certain that Bree was alive again. She was here.”
But why should the author or publisher have a warning? Perhaps this comes down to genre expectations. Amy’s book is marketed as a romantic novel, which the story is, but the semiotic connotations with covers like Someone Else’s Bucket List seem to imply the reader can expect a romantic comedy or a light and fun escape. Whilst the actual bucket list chapters do fall under this category and were a joy to read, the level of sadness evoked by the opening chapters (and some other scenes) would better place the novel in the category of Cecilia Ahern’s P.S. I Love You or JoJo Moyes’ Me Before You. Both are beautiful and heartbreaking books about love and grief that intertwine humour. This is exactly what Amy has written about in Someone Else’s Bucket List. She explores grief over the loss of a family member and how those left behind can find a way forward to keep living whilst a large void exists in their world. About halfway through the novel, I started to wish I had my own bucket list to help me through the first few years of grief.
“The sorrow swelled and filled her and overflowed, forming a bubble around her.”
Although this review may make Someone Else’s Bucket List seem to be all tears and tissues, there is also a fun, hilarious and romantic journey through the bucket list driving the story forward. Amy has created some funny, quirky secondary characters who could easily be caricatures but are grounded in complexity. Their odd traits are just one aspect of who they are, which makes them all the more believable on the page.
The American setting works well given some of the locations of the bucket list (especially in New York) and the pop culture references (always fun inclusions). However, it is a little disappointing that another Australian writer would choose to place her novel in another country. With so many wonderful romance writers in Australia, it is a pity to see so many romance novels set in America.
“Fear is just a part of life.”
While the mostly linear structure works well for the narrative device of completing a list, some moments feel a little slow and make the reader wish for more interaction with the main romantic interest or further comedic relief. However, Amy’s descriptions of grief beautifully put words to what can be a hard-to-define human experience.
The ending was a lovely and unexpected surprise that gave further depth to a character who incites the story and could have easily disappeared after the opening scenes. Someone Else’s Bucket List is a funny and hopeful novel for lovers of Ahern and Moyes.