A woman falls in love with a ghost stuck on earth — can the relationship last?
The Regrets — Amy Bonnaffons
Under-the-Radar Book of the Week
The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons
What It’s About
Rachel and Thomas are two strangers who can’t seem to keep their eyes off each other on their bus route. When Rachel finally works up the courage to introduce herself to the handsome stranger, she learns that Thomas is everything she is looking for: he’s smart and fun and funny. But he’s also dead.
Thomas is currently in limbo, waiting for his bureaucratic metaphysical paperwork to go through, and is living out a 90-day purgatorial earth visit before he can proceed to the afterlife. The rules are simple, and only include one thing: do not get involved with anyone living.
But Rachel and Thomas can’t stay away from each other, their love affair becoming like a surreal movie montage they can’t believe they’re apart of. Soon, Rachel is consumed by him, and, unable to tell her friends about him or exist outside her apartment in a relationship, she begins to lose herself as Thomas takes a more possessive hold on her.
Why You Should Read It
I’m going to be honest — this is a weird little book. It won’t be for everyone. But if you give it a chance, you’re in for a beautifully written story of attraction, romance, and what ultimately is a toxic and harmful relationship, though the characters may not know it at times. To me, this was a novel about current and past relationships: How some that we may be in may not show up in ways for us like we show up for others. That ghosts of past relationships, good and bad, stay with us long after the person leaves our life.
If you enjoy the long inner monologues of Sally Rooney’s Normal People or entirely relationship-focused books like Seven Days in June, this will be the book for you. It is a character study, not an action movie, and beautifully explores the nature of connection and obsession.
Misc.
As some of you may have heard or read about in previous issues, I’m moving soon! I’ve accepted an offer on my house, and I’m frantically packing up books. This means I am frequently unearthing books I’ve owned for years (decades!) that I haven’t seen in a while, and I finally picked one up. I honestly can’t say what compelled me to open The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing to read the first few pages, but I was hooked.
It’s a classic I picked up at a sidewalk sale while living in NYC for $1, and I always meant to read it. Eight years later, it was still sitting there. Not anymore! It’s now proudly on my “read” shelf — which will soon be in yet another box — and I was surprised how many of the themes of the 1998 book still resonated with me today.
It’s a series of vignettes over the course of one woman’s life, usually a time when she was dating a man, contemplating their life together. Through the years, she learned that even when nothing is asked of men, they rarely deliver; that she shows unconditional support but is not given that same respect back; that somehow, even in her own life, she doesn’t feel like the main character.
I enjoyed making time and space for this one, and I encourage you to try an older book that has been sitting on your shelf for a long time. It may surprise you!
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More Books
Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations:
Read a mystical novel about what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman
Read about a lawyer fighting against an unfair justice system
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I love The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing (almost ashamedly? [If that's not a word, I don't care]). It's one of the very few late 90s novels I've reread. I think it holds up, sometimes in an almost jarring way.
P.S. I loved your October and November Stacks, and have curated a large portion of my winter’s reading from them. Thank you so much for what you do. I truly appreciate you.