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 is desperate to find them, even when the police soon 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.
I’m trying to get my audiobook mojo back.
I can’t believe I just said “mojo,” but here we are.
There was just a big chunk of time where my brain wouldn’t cooperate much, and I was struggling to stay engaged with any of the audiobooks I was listening to. And I tend to be a “hybrid reader,” mixing in chapters of the physical book with the audio. The hardest thing for me is listening to an audiobook start to finish & then actually writing a review for it. It’s one of my ongoing goals and I’m going to take a stab at it here!
I do have a physical copy of Tiffany Crum’s THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE, which was how I found out that the audiobook is very unique! I’m not sure I’ve run into this before, but there’s quite a bit of “bonus material” for the audiobook that is not featured in the physical book. Obviously, I can only comment on my experience with the format I went with, but I feel pretty confident saying this is definitely one to check out on audiobook!
THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE is a really unconventional book in a lot of ways. I think you’d ultimately shelve this one under Mystery/Thriller, but this is also a very nontraditional love story, kind of in slow motion.
Our main characters are best friends Benny Abbott and Joy Moore. They host an extremely successful podcast called “This Story May Save Your Life,” where they humorously dissect your odds of surviving a particular worst-case scenario, like getting swallowed by a whale (WHALEFALL reference?), or stepping into quicksand.
The story bounces all over in time, and meticulously recounts Benny & Joy’s meeting, their friendship, and the start and meteoric rise of their podcast. They are in the midst of a multi-million dollar negation with a production company when Joy drops a bombshell on Benny: she needs to take a break from the show.
Things take an even scarier turn the following day, when Joy and her husband, Xander, vanish without a trace. There are signs of a struggle in their home, and their dog was left loose outside. But there’s no sign of Joy or Xander.
And as we dive deeper into the complexities of Joy & Benny’s relationship, it’s only natural that the police are at least looking at Benny in regards Joy’s disappearance.
There’s not a whole lot more I can say here without giving too much away. That said, I want to offer some content warnings, because this book dives into some really heavy material. (Feel free to bail out now if you want). THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE deals with some things that might be troubling for some readers, including (but not limited to): infertility, pregnancy, miscarriage, domestic abuse, and gaslighting.
There’s some really interesting disability rep in this one too, as Joy has narcolepsy. It’s a huge part of the story, actually. I think Crum was really thoughtful and well-researched about this condition, and it was always something that was there on the periphery of Joy’s story.
The formatting of this audiobook is tremendously cool, and as I mentioned, it features some bonus material that’s not in the physical book (mostly voicemail/tip line messages from fans of the podcast, as well as a bonus episode of the podcast at the end of the audiobook). Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins are the narrators, and they do incredible work bringing Joy & Benny to life, and carrying the reader through the ups & downs of their deeply complex relationship.
THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE is full of twists and turns, and it’s a really emotional story. This is definitely one of the more unique mysteries I’ve read & I had a lot of fun with the audiobook!
Huge thanks to Macmillan Audio for sending this one my way!!
Grimdark Dad 