How to Be a Better Adult

By: Jacque Aye

Narrated by: Jynelle Brown

"Another day of corporate drudgery".

Hope Obiako, disillusioned by her mundane existence as a lowly account specialist, discovers a mysterious handbook that drastically changes her life. Hope is a master performer, making a show of her competence and compliance. And while she really is both competent and compliant, no one at William Hensley & Associates seems to see it. But what they never saw coming, behind her quiet and agreeable personality, is Hope’s drive to “make it” by any magical means necessary.

This book is Sorry to Bother You meets the surrealism of Atlanta, plus some Awkward Black Girl mixed in for good measure! An afro-surrealist tale with magical undertones. If you like the themes in the work of Sayaka Murata and the magical realism of Haruki Murakami, you'll enjoy this audiobook.

©2023 Jacque Aye (P)2023 Jacque Aye

So much potential to be great, but overall it was okay.

The narrator did not read fluidly at all. It was very distracting, she paused in odd places, the cadence was off. The different character voices were cool. The story was interesting and relatable, but the fantasy/magical realism aspect could have been utilized more.

Great Story!

I loved that this was a relatable struggle that the main character overcame. The author also did a great job of tying different parts of the story together and painting a picture for readers!

Weird in the best way!

We all are just trying to figure things out. This book was warm and hilarious.

A little hint of magic!

This was a great read, it was a relatable piece to women of color in corporate spaces. While having that satisfaction of throwing our professionalism out the window and punching a person our two.

I just wish it had been longer!!!

I think it wraps up neatly but I wouldn’t have minded another 50 chapters! At first this reminded me of Markus Zusak’s “I am the messenger” except everything just gets worse and worse for Hope instead of better. But it felt more relatable in that way. I feel very connected to Hope. I’m going through a long break up with my dream job so I feel a lot of what she’s going through. I genuinely did not expect where this book was going to go and -spoilers- the 4th wall break was so interesting!! My heart dropped when the second to last chapter concluded so thank you for mentioning that I’ll be able to hear a continuation of Mona’s story soon. I can’t wait to hear more from this author in the future!!!