Book Review: "The Two Lives of Lydia Bird" by Josie Silver
“The Two Lives of Lydia Bird” by Josie Silver
Synopsis: Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.
Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’d been together for more than a decade and Lydia thought their love was indestructible. But she was wrong. On Lydia’s twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident.
So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants is to hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life—and perhaps even love—again.
But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened.
Lydia is pulled again and again through the doorway to her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay. - Ballantine Books
Rating: 4.25
Trigger warnings: death, loss, grief
Review: I read this book, and I loved it. However, I can see how you can pick it up, expecting something light and frothy, and being slammed like a Mack truck by the emotions this books elicit. Sometimes, we aren’t ready for that, and it can color your reading of a book, no matter how good it is (one day, I’ll tell you about the books I started and ended after my ex and I ended things last summer).
Admittedly, this isn’t the same buoyant holiday read that “One Day in December” is — but that does have its dark moments, if I remember correctly? — and I can see how people might be bummed out by the story line. The bright and happy cover does hide a book that is about grief and loss and learning to love again, and had I not been expecting that, I am not sure I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did.
The “Two Lives” referenced in the title are the two worlds that Lydia straddles after her fiance’s tragic and unexpected death: one (the real world) where Freddie died and she’s trying to move on, and the other (dream world) where Freddie didn’t die and life continues on “as usual.” I much preferred the awake story line, and I am glad that it was the predominant narrative. Y’all know that I read a lot of what I would consider “rom com” novels, and I appreciated that this one mostly turned that convention on its head. Seeing Lydia go through the lows, and the lower lows, of grief — in both the real world and the dream one — made me appreciate her highs so much more.
It does require a bit of suspension of disbelief that there are two universes, one only accessible by a sleeping pill, lived in by the same person (unless you’re a sci-fi fan, I suppose), but I didn’t find it that much of a stretch. I liked the “Sliding Doors” nature of it after all, and I felt Lydia’s relief that there was a place in the world where Freddie lived on. It was interesting to see their relationship there, in the dream space, and how it was different than what she romanticized. Freddie (and Lydia) were real flawed people, and their relationship wasn’t perfect; even though I think Freddie was done a little dirty in the dream characterization, I think it’s an important reminder to remember both the good and the bad.
I also have a note to self that I called the ending on page 44 — I’m not like Shannon, who typically does this — so just know that the happy ending is in sight from almost the beginning. Knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel is the ultimate message I got from this book, and it’s nice that the author gave us that gift with the plot, as well.
TL;DR: An incredibly moving and nuanced portrait of love, both lost and found, and how grief can shape us. It is hard read, but one that ends on an ultimately happy and uplifting note.
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