This hurts, this hurts so bad. I'm a buckaroo, I wanted to give this a higher rating! I NEEDED this book to FIX ME (and my reading slump). But for me this book didn't deliver. Let's talk about it. Come on, it's family therapy time.

Before we dive in I'll just start by saying I've been in a MOOD since like, idk, April?? I'm having a harder time than normal enjoying the books that I read and for the life of me I can't really figure out why. It's not burnout, so I don't know what's going on. I'm telling you this to clarify that my inability to connect with this book may be coming from my slump. If you had a different, better reading experience than me then nice 😡 I'm really happy for you 😡

But also? I don't know, I just genuinely didn't like this one as much as I like Tingle's other books. On paper it has the classic Chuck Tingle absurdity: a grave robbing influencer steals a rockstar's body for a whopping $5M payout. Unfortunately, Eddie's corpse reanimates in transit and then shit only gets weirder from there. Like, hello, let's trot!

I'm aware I sound like a broken record at this point but the problem for me was our main character Poppy. The setting was great, the gore was horrifying and also a little hilarious which Chuck Tingle does so well. Small wink to Bury Your Guys? Caught it, smooched it, put it in my pocket. Eddie Michaels? He's a STARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! But Poppy? I've never beefed so hard with a fictional character before. Like, overall I understood her journey from her upbringing and how that affected her in adulthood and how she was raising her daughter, Marlo, but also. Like...that was it? I think it was just hard for me because Poppy's emotional journey felt both rushed at the end and wildly unearned. Like y'all, I was there in the trenches of Poppy's mind and personally, I'm of the opinion that one aha moment does not a better mother make but that's just me and my mommy issues talking.

I just flat didn't like Poppy and I'm aware she's supposed to be dislikable in the beginning and that's what her character growth is gonna be about. And I don't even really have issues with dislikable characters, honestly I think an unlikable character is more complex and fun to read about but not Poppy. No, Poppy just spent all her time getting on my nerves and taking an annoying amount of time to realize things I was always way ahead of her about. Also, I'll say it, I kinda didn't really like Marlo if I'm honest. She was cute and sweet but, if you'll walk with me here for a moment, she kind of reminded me of Aidan from 2002's The Ring. Like, she was six but bizarrely wise beyond her years in a way that just, it didn't make SENSE! I also see the irony of accepting a reanimated body with no qualms but where I draw the line is how realistically a six year old behaves.

I did preorder this one so I might let the dust settle and do a reread next summer, but more than my issues with Poppy, I feel like this book just lacked the heart and earnestness that I usually feel in a Chuck Tingle book. Lucky Day was like, easily in my top 3 books for 2025, it changed my brain chemistry. I'm crying right now thinking about that absolutely gorgeous ending! So maybe my expectations were just too high coming into this book and there was no way for the book to meet or exceed such expectations, maybe the bar was a little too unreachable, even for Chuck Tingle.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to an ALC and provide an honest review, all opinions are my own.