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A review by booksanddoggo
Everything All at Once by Katrina Leno
4.0
This book is about Lottie, who has just lost her aunt, a really famous writer who wrote the most popular, most beloved children’s books in the world. At her aunt’s will reading, Lottie is left her diaries and 24 letters, each with some instruction. They’re purportedly to help with her anxiety (which is in overdrive what with facing grief and mortality and the end of high school and losing a mentor figure), but they’re also to help her aunt wrap up some ~mysterious secret business.~
I love Katrina Leno. Her books are so weird, because they usually have at least some little dollop (or a BIG helping) of magic/magical realism, but she writes it in a very matter-of-fact, realistic fiction esque way. The tone is so distinct (and so good at depicting anxiety; it reminds me of Katie Heaney actually — a big compliment). Sometimes it has worked for me more than others, and this one doesn’t quite reach Summer for Salt for me (I mean, come on, it’s hard to compete with a super sweet f/f romance and such good misandrist revenge), but there were aspects here I really really loved. I loved the coziness of the Alvin Hatter books — Lottie’s love of rereading them and the little snippets from them scattered throughout. And the ideas about life & death & eternity were great as well.
I love Katrina Leno. Her books are so weird, because they usually have at least some little dollop (or a BIG helping) of magic/magical realism, but she writes it in a very matter-of-fact, realistic fiction esque way. The tone is so distinct (and so good at depicting anxiety; it reminds me of Katie Heaney actually — a big compliment). Sometimes it has worked for me more than others, and this one doesn’t quite reach Summer for Salt for me (I mean, come on, it’s hard to compete with a super sweet f/f romance and such good misandrist revenge), but there were aspects here I really really loved. I loved the coziness of the Alvin Hatter books — Lottie’s love of rereading them and the little snippets from them scattered throughout. And the ideas about life & death & eternity were great as well.