A review by carolynaugustyn
The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs by Matthew Dicks

3.0

This was definitely a good read- fast moving and sentimental in all the right ways- but I was left feeling like something was missing. Caroline and I have a lot in common (aside from similar names). Like her, I often revert to the push-over, silently suffering, "whatever you want to do is fine..." type. It's not good and is a difficult way to live life (or so my therapists tell me). So I completely related to Caroline's struggle to start speaking up and standing her own ground, it felt real and sloppy. The characters were all, in fact, perfectly imperfect, which is always nice to read. I think my main issue with the book and where I was left feeling the most "meh" was that there was often too much going on and not enough attention was given to the main issue. There would be moments I wanted to sit with a certain emotional scene and absorb it fully but we were already moving on to someone else's issue and a whole new emotional ride. I enjoyed the emotional aspect but I felt like it could be rather surface sometimes, mainly due to the amount of stuff going on distracting from the core issue. Overall, a nice read with lots of wonderful moments, just would have liked a little more stillness to let some emotions really sink in.