This was a very different novel from the type that I usually read, a real departure for me, but I definitely enjoyed it! The story focuses on Ava Simon, a thirty-one-year-old products engineer, who has worked for years at STADA (a huge modernistic store similar to IKEA). Her current project, which she loves, is working to complete her design for The Very Nice Box, a product that STADA anticipates launching in the near future. Ava spends her days in a repeated same-old, same-old fashion that she divides into units of 30 minutes each, so to say that Ava has obsessive tendencies is putting it mildly. However, the reader quickly learns that a horrific car accident is in Ava’s past, an accident that still haunts her in the present. Her rhythmic existence is threatened when Mat Putnam, a new hire at STADA, is made her boss — and she eventually falls for him hard.
What follows is a topsy-turvy journey with Ava as she sorts out her new life, as well as a real mystery that needs to be solved along the way. It took me a while to get into this novel, but then it picked up so that I found myself quickly turning the pages because I was so engrossed. The description of STADA — especially its employees and its culture — is a real hoot, as are many of Ava’s thoughts that are passed onto the reader, adding bits of almost laugh-out-loud humor to the story. Although I found the ending to be rushed and just a bit contrived, it did seem rather fitting, and I enjoyed that The Very Nice Box was a part of it!
All in all, this was a quirky, poignant and heartrending read. It would definitely make a great movie!
What follows is a topsy-turvy journey with Ava as she sorts out her new life, as well as a real mystery that needs to be solved along the way. It took me a while to get into this novel, but then it picked up so that I found myself quickly turning the pages because I was so engrossed. The description of STADA — especially its employees and its culture — is a real hoot, as are many of Ava’s thoughts that are passed onto the reader, adding bits of almost laugh-out-loud humor to the story. Although I found the ending to be rushed and just a bit contrived, it did seem rather fitting, and I enjoyed that The Very Nice Box was a part of it!
All in all, this was a quirky, poignant and heartrending read. It would definitely make a great movie!