Found In A Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Book Review Apr 27, 2023

My review

2/5 stars

What I got from this book wasn't quite what I was expecting. The basic premise was captured in the book's blurb, but key elements were missing that changed how I interacted with the story.

The biggest example of this was the fact that I hadn't put two and two together about the fact that the bookshop was closed because of the pandemic. The author did a brilliant job of capturing the essence of many differing viewpoints during the pandemic - in fact, she did too good a job for my liking. The writing bought me back to a time of heightened anxiety that I've tried to forget, and made it very challenging for me to fully enjoy the story. The fear and grief that many felt was bought to life on the pages and is a testament to the writing talent of the author.

Conversely, the contents of the book felt overly chaotic for me. There were so many different characters to keep a track of, and very few of them got a meaningful conclusion - I struggled to keep all of their lives straight in my mind as I was reading, and consequently found it challenging to care deeply about any of them. Annoyingly, the characters that were given the most time and effort were ones that didn't feel overly relatable or particularly likeable to me; the ones I wanted to know more about (in particular the mum of two small children who's husband was a paramedic) were passed over. The one exception that was Madison - I was invested in her from the minute she appeared on the page and was satisfied with how things ended up for her in the book.

I did appreciate the change in pace towards the end of the book, as it kept me reading to the end to figure out how everything concluded. It caught me off guard and renewed my interest in a story that I, sadly, was otherwise not overly enjoying.

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book blurb

Dear Lost for Words,

We are trying to stay at home... I am enclosing a cheque and I hope that you will use it to send us some books. Please choose books that we might think are wonderful.

Rosemary

Loveday Cardew's beloved Lost for Words bookshop, along with the rest of York, has fallen quiet. At the very time when people most need books to widen their horizons, or escape from their fears, or enhance their lives, the doors are closed. Then the first letter comes.

Rosemary and George have been married for fifty years. Now their time is running out. They have decided to set out on their last journey together, without ever leaving the bench at the bottom of their garden in Whitby. All they need is someone who shares their love of books.

Suddenly it's clear to Loveday that she and her team can do something useful in a crisis. They can recommend books to help with the situations their customers find themselves in: fear, boredom, loneliness, the desire for laughter and escape.

And so it begins.