This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum

 

Summary (from the publisher): Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different “against all odds” survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy, they’ve been the best friends everyone wants to befriend—and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy’s husband, Xander, they’ve built a lucrative empire.

The problem is, their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander’s one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple’s disappearance is the incomplete, previously unseen first draft of Joy’s memoir. Benny will stop at nothing to find them, even as the police zero in on him as their prime suspect.

Millions of devoted listeners think they know the “real” Benny and Joy. But as the hours tick by, and the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive, not even the most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets their favorite famous BFFs have hidden from the world—and from each other.

Review: Benny and Joy are hosts of a popular podcast with the same name as the book title, where they share stories of survival against the odds, including Joy's own experience with severe narcolepsy. Along with Joy's husband Xander, they've built a successful empire. Until one day when Benny arrives at Joy's house to find shattered glass and no sign of Joy and Xander. 

The premise of this was so intriguing. I loved that Benny and Joy run a podcast and how much attention Joy's disappearance attracts because she is so well known due to the podcast. The novel alternates with Benny in the present day trying to figure out Joy's disappearance, and chapters from Joy's memoir, which tell her story and how they got to this point. This worked really well to give us back story and build tension and suspense surrounding her disappearance. It was also interesting depicting Joy as someone suffering from narcolepsy. It sounded so debilitating and the many drugs she was on just to be able to function sounded really intense. 

I have to say the audiobook for this was absolutely phenomenal. The production quality was just elite. It is dual narration, with different narrators for Joy and Benny, but Joy is narrated by Julia Whelan herself, which is always a win in and of itself. But additionally, the book adds sound effects here and there that added so much to this. When the book includes clips where callers have called into the podcast, the "recording" is made to sound like exactly that - a slightly tinny, phone call quality. At one point, Benny and Joy have a speaking event with fans of their podcast and the audiobook includes audience applause where appropriate. It was subtle and not over the top but yet it added to this SO much. I am so glad I chose to listen to this one and even wonder if I would still be giving this four stars if I had only eyeball read it, since I'm not a huge thriller fan. 

Like virtually all thrillers, I was unable to even guess at the ending and it came as a total shock to me. And like most all thrillers, I thought elements of the conclusion were crazy and over the top and questioned if it could have really happened as presented. Although I will say this ending was a tad more plausible than most! And was very satisfying to me in the way it all wrapped up. 

I will say, a lot of things could have been resolved in this if Benny and Joy could have admitted their true feelings for each other. 

Stars: 4