ARC Review: "More to Life;" by Chris Knight ★★★★

ARC Review: More to Life by Christopher Knight

Thought-provoking, charming and devastatingly moving, Knight has composed a short and sweet yet powerful tale celebrating the joy of living. Bring tissues!

“Find your John. A John is someone who makes you feel truly alive, who makes life worth living. The light in a dark room. Your John makes you smile even on the worst of days. Life is too short not to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you, trust me.”

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
John Parvis is a fan of routine: he gets the same coffee (three sugars, two creams) to board the same train to work the same job every single day. That is until the fateful day he bumps into aspiring poet Clara Mori, whom he spills his coffee on. It is then he discovers, upon giving her back the notebook she dropped, that she intends to end her life.

John, determined not to let this happen, asks her on a coffee date. From there, he sacrifices the order he loves so much and decides to show her the serendipitous and spontaneous things, that make you grateful to be alive. Accustomed to isolation, Clara finds her eyes are opened and her world is shifted by John’s unwavering kindness, laying a new hopeful path before her.

Together they form a bucket list for her, and do things together, quickly falling for each other. But there is a grave secret Clara holds, which will change everything.

He wondered how he even got there. All he was trying to do was save a stranger’s life. In some twisted way, Clara Mori ended up saving his. Her presence had become a lifeline that he didn’t realize was desperately needed.

This is told from the third-person past-tense POV of John and Anna.

OVERALL OPINIONS
I cannot commend Knight enough on this beautiful piece. I smiled at the funny jokes between John and Clara, I despaired in the darker moments. This is really something remarkable, and I know we will get more great stories from him!

This reminded me in a lot of ways of the film Love at First Sight (2023), a quirky and great movie that questions fates, providing statistics about all sorts of things like the chances of our main characters meeting.

ㅤ☕the semi-colon;
Starting with the title itself, before you read the book you get a hint of what it will be about. The semi-colon at the end of the title is intentional: it has become the symbol of suicide and mental health issues, but also for those affected it represents resilience and hope. In writing, the semi-colon is used to expand points, allowing a pause in the sentence but also a continuation as the story is not over yet. Clara herself, a woman contemplating suicide who later gets a tattoo of the semi-colon, puts it so well:

“It’s more than a tattoo; it’s a symbol that our stories aren’t over. We keep going and going and going, no matter what.”

Clara often uses it in her poetry which crops up in snippets at the end of chapters throughout, a rather touching aspect and arguably symbolic with the promise of writing more poems. Arguably, the most fascinating element about this is her page titled as her suicide note containing a semi-colon: it shows her inner conflict, that deep down she does want to keep going and her life is on hold for a moment, that’s all. And she does find continuation of her life, through encountering John that day. It adds a whole layer of complexity to the narration and Clara herself. This was done exceptionally well!

ㅤ☕formatting and images to tell the story;
Indeed, the writing style and format itself of this story are refreshingly unique. With each new page, there is guaranteed to be some change in fonts, text sizes and boldness: for example, when someone whispers, the text goes small (oh wait, sorry I should whisper! ᵗʰᵉ ᵗᵉˣᵗ ᵍᵒᵉˢ ˢᵐᵃˡˡ) or when someone is reflecting on a situation there is a literal reflection under the text itself. Indeed, each section division has a reflection, symbolic of different perspectives. Some text consists of a few sentences on their own on a page, drawing attention to the content. There’s even text that starts to fade at a point where the narration talks about things fading away! Absolutely ingenious! I haven’t seen anything like it for ages!

There are some images incorporated too, which contributes towards part of the narrative. Like when John weighs up a situation, there is “I should” and “I shouldn’t” on a set of literal scales; or a picture of a marquee showing the name of the movie they are going to see! Oh, and there’s a QR code that once scanned takes you to the YouTube page where you can listen to Claire de Lune by Johann Debussy during the chapter at the restaurant, which paints the ambience and eases you very quickly into the vibes in that chapter. All-in-all, the layout and use of text changes is quirky and gives this tale an interesting, engaging quality to it which I found very endearing. It makes us the reader see and experience the story through the narrator’s fresh pair of eyes.

There are two times that the narrator directly addresses us: one to wittingly ask “are you still there?” among the hilarious wall of text about Clara talking “on and on and on and on” for 2 pages; another when the plot twist occurs. “Are you paying attention?” is questioned in big bold letters across 2 pages. I love how different both these times are: 2 pages but with very different tones, again engaging with us the reader. The former one you may miss just because Clara is talking so much; the latter is completely unavoidable, much like the situation Clara is about to reveal.

Some wonderful quotes to find within here. One such example:

That coffee stain wasn’t a flaw; it was a badge of authenticity. Born from the unexpected. A reminder that even in our messiest moments, we are still worthy of admiration. Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

ㅤ☕life direction;
All of this beautifully impacts the story of John and Clara: two individuals who couldn’t be more different, who end up saving each other. Their bond really made me emotional by the end. They show such a realistic dynamic, from their arguments to funny banter to the gradual falling for each other.

Because of John, Clara feels less alone and more seen, which is lovely. He shows her the good in people, putting her previous negative experiences with people to shame. It can make someone’s day having someone understand them, and this book really hones in on this message.

And because of meeting Clara, John realises his life is incredibly duller than he thought and makes him question his own way of living through both her views on life and from meeting her father, Arthur:

“Family, work, bills,” Arthur continued, “sometimes you think you have all the time in the world, and then all of a sudden you don’t. Once time passes, it doesn’t swing back around, and by the time most people realize that, all of their time has already been spent.”

Truer words were never spoken. Through Arthur, John realises the place he works for sees him only as a number and an inconvenience when he is unable to show up. This, I’m sure, will feel rather relatable to a lot of readers with office jobs.

Other than our main characters John and Clara, only 2 other characters appear: Clara’s father Arthur and an old man in the restaurant Ray, who lost his wife at some point. Both characters, however brief their interactions, help drive the point that life is too short and to spend it wisely.

ㅤ☕the themes;
Death and grief are the main themes of this book.

John goes through the five stages of grief with Clara: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Denial when he finds out, anger when they argue with each other, bargaining trying to regain control of the situation by creating Clara’s bucket list, depression and acceptance at the end of the book.

Death is explored through both what happens at the end but throughout the story. There are so many views of it, from Clara’s bleak outlook that everything goes to John’s more optimistic side that while everything goes, seizing the days, the moments are what’s important:

We all die with nevers… Books never read… Dishes never cleaned… Laundry never folded… Sweaters with the tags still attached, never worn… Life is a never-ending cycle of chores, waiting to be finished. A plant, waiting to be watered. All contributing to the rhythm and routine of life. But life is all about perspective. If life is just chores, then life is also living in a clean house. Seizing opportunities as they come, instead of watching them pass you by. John was determined to make the most out of whatever time Clara had left.

<< Positives >>
🠚 A very quick read. I covered this in less than a day.
🠚 The charming cover with the coffee of three sugars and two creams that started it all, the title with the semi-colon.
🠚 The bond between John and Clara: their humour, their support for each other.
🠚 Unique and quirky presentation of story through its change of format and use of images to help tell the story
🠚 Beautiful descriptions!
🠚 Accurate depiction of characters trying to get by: life isn’t fair, death isn’t fair, can only try to enjoy every moment.

<< Negatives >>
🠚 I dearly wish there had been more depth and descriptions between John and Clara in some moments. There are gorgeous descriptions, don’t get me wrong. It would have added to Clara’s character in particular, and made what happens all the more poignant.
🠚 The pacing, therefore, felt off at times, where I would have loved a moment fleshed out more.
🠚 I would have loved a playlist for this book or a song for more chapters, it was a sweet idea.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ John꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I especially liked John’s character development, going from hating Tuesdays to hating everything that has done Clara wrong, being brave enough to decide to quit his job, throwing caution to the wind and doing spontaneous things. We really all do need a John in our lives. Please, find your John!

His life could be described in two words and those words were boring and borrrrrrrrrrrring. But something told him these words were exactly what Clara needed. And maybe they were… A little spontaneity, a bit of chaos, and a lot of John Parvis.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Clara꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ She is so lovely, and deserves the world. I am so glad John was able to give it to her. It is so heartwarming that Clara makes John a “Before I Go” list. It is interesting that she lies about her condition.

Through her years, she had grown skeptical, her heart hardened by countless countless countless words. But there was something different about John. His words carried a sense of honesty that was hard to ignore. It was at this moment she realized that sometimes, just sometimes, only sometimes, words can be more than just words.

FAV QUOTES
• Through the whirlwind of thoughts, it finally dawned on him that work would still be there tomorrow, waiting for him. But this girl might not.
• Some would call it fate, a cosmic alignment of stars that brought John Parvis and Clara Mori together just when they needed each other… But in truth, it was pure chance, the serendipity of right place, right time. Insignificant moments of chance converging into something remarkable. There are no written rules among the stars, Life just is… And it always will be.
• Fresh flowers are always so full of life, and to Clara Mori, they were always more than just decorations. For her, they were a reflection of life itself. Flowers bloom, they’re cherished. Nurtured by sun and water. Thriving under care. Yet, despite best efforts, flowers, like all things, eventually wilt and fade away.
• A day isn’t bad, until it is. But even if it is, tomorrow might not be.
• Only those who have experienced true loneliness could fully understand Clara Mori, but somehow, on this particular Tuesday, John Parvis managed to make her feel just a little less alone, and a tad more seen.
• Dying with a full to-do list, however, might be the essence of life itself. The beauty of living isn’t in checking boxes on a list, but instead in the perpetual pursuit of experience. A to-do list should forever evolve, with things getting checked off and new things added in. Rinse and repeat. Everyone should die with a stack of unread books waiting to be read. No one should ever be *truly* finished.
• Sometimes the most ridiculous things are the best things
• Clara smiled back, realizing it didn’t matter what they were doing. What mattered was that John, for some reason, cared enough to do anything at all. As long as John Parvis was around, Clara Mori knew she was in good hands.
• “We’re all dying; you’re just ahead of the rest of us,” he told her, “Live your life as if you’re still living.”
• We are more than our illnesses, more than our depression, worth more than our own minds give us credit for. At the end of the day, that’s exactly what it is. The END of the day… Another day gone, with another day on the way.
• Their dance was a silent toast to the love they had unintentionally found. Chance, disguised as fate.
• Grief… A profound and consuming emotion, wrapping itself around the heart, almost suffocating it. It manifests in waves, crashing relentlessly, making it difficult to breathe. The world feels muted, and colors begin to look dull... A road trip without a map.
• Sometimes, love isn’t about the words you say, but about the actions you take. Showing up, without a sound.
• Grief is the regret of unspoken words.
• “Every story has an end, every story has to end, but you can always start a new one. And don’t forget, There’s always more to life;”
• He was living for two. Not only for himself, but also for Clara Mori. Each day was lived in honor of the wonderful girl he spilled his coffee on. Three sugars, and two creams;
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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Christopher Knight and Reedsy for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“More to Life;” is out now!