How Lucky audiobook

“How Lucky is a gem: a riveting plot and a narrator who is charming, engaging, and downright inspiring. Will Leitch brilliantly juggles hilarity and horror. I loved this novel — every page.”

I loved this book so very much. I loved it!Daniel lives in the college town of Athens, Georgia. One of my dear friends is from Athens, attended UGA, and was married there, and if you are like her and have a love for that special place, this author clearly shares your same love in this book! It was a great setting to share Daniel’s story.Daniel has a degenerative disease, and he narrates his story. But first, he needs to tell the reader about the possible kidnapping he witnessed. Right from the very start there’s an underlying thread of tension because Daniel may have witnessed a real crime while looking out his front window.But at the heart of the story is Daniel’s heart. His goodness, warmth, and positivity. He educates the reader on spinal muscular atrophy, but even more so, the microaggressions and not-so-microaggressions those with physical disabilities are confronted with. I’ll never forget my time spent with Daniel or this most memorable and engaging story.I received a gifted copy from the publisher. Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

"Stay kind, kid. No one will see it coming."If Fredrik Backman decided to try his hand at a creative retelling of The Girl on the Train, I imagine the resulting novel would look very similar to How Lucky. Will Leitch has achieved a near-impossible level of perfection, blending winsome, self-deprecating sarcasm with deeply-humanizing empathy."You don’t owe anyone anything. They help you because they love you. Why else does anyone help anyone? Letting someone help you is the nicest thing you can do for anyone."In How Lucky, Daniel spends most of his time at home. He works remotely as a customer service agent for a regional airline and interacts with most of his friends online, as he also happens to have spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that has caused his body to deteriorate and leaves him confined to a wheelchair."I make a mental note: No more Batman underwear. Disabled people have a hard enough time with people thinking we all have the mental capacity of children without them seeing me in Batman underwear. Leave me alone."One day, Daniel believes he witnesses a crime from his front porch. He wants to help local authorities figure out what happened, but because his disease makes verbal communication difficult, he decides to take matters into his own hands, setting off a chain of events that manage to be both slapstick and incredibly dangerous - in more ways than one."The world is just a cavalcade of surprises."Daniel is funny, self-aware, perpetually grateful, and gives stellar representation to a community of people with disabilities. His best friend, Travis, and primary caregiver, Marjani, are devoted, selfless, and compassionate. How Lucky made me laugh out loud, over and over again, and kept me on the edge of my seat in suspense, and had me near tears more than once."I am blessed. I am blessed because I am going to go long before any of them do. I am not going to have to grieve for them, because they are going to have to grieve for me."Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Anxious People, and Good Eggs will fall in love with this book, and with Leitch's compelling narrative style. The unflinching hope, optimism, and intrinsic goodness seen in the first-person narrator, Daniel, will absolutely restore your faith in humanity, and the beautiful portrayals of friendship and devotion will warm your heart."I have not suffered. I have lived!"——A huge thank-you to Will Leitch, Harper, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!——Follow @letteredlibrary on Instagram!

I would never have picked this book if not for Book of the Month. I am so glad I did.The main character, Daniel, has spinal muscular atrophy. He tells the story from his perspective, which is one I hadn't encountered before. The author did a wonderful job of educating readers on SMA and life as a disabled individual. He really brought Daniel to life. The author also made me laugh aloud and I was legitimately concerned for Daniel during the more harrowing scenes. The characters in this book are *generally* good people who are trying hard in life. It made me happy.I am so glad I read this and hope it gets the attention it deserves.

It’s obvious that if there is something strange in your neighborhood, or if there’s something weird and it don’t look good you are going to call the Ghostbusters forthwith so they can deal with your spectral infestation. However, who are you going to call if you have an invisible man sleepin’ in your bed? Well that would be Ghostbusters too. But if you are looking for a really good book to read full of the feels and the suspense who would you call then? Definitely not the Ghostbusters, Drs. Spengler and Stantz likely only read paranormal trade publications and it is obvious Dr. Venkmanthan just reads the TV Guide magazine when he is sitting on the pot. So if you are looking for a really good book I would suggest you call author Will Leitch at home and ask him to send you a free copy of his new book How Lucky. It is really good, and if you ask super nicely he might autograph it and include some homemade baked goods. The narrator of Will Leitch’s How Lucky is 26 year old Daniel. Daniel suffers from type II spinal muscular atrophy. SMA is one of those truly horrific medical conditions that happens when your genetic code goes a little wonky. This degenerative disease affects the muscles, soon you are unable walk, speak, moonwalk, swallow, or breath, often leading to premature death. But Daniel is not some kind of Gloomy Gus bemoaning his fate as he tools around in his electric wheelchair, in fact he is upbeat and happy. He has good friends and family. He appreciates and loves the caregivers who bath, dress, and care for him. He feels he is lucky living his life in his college town of Athens Georgia. And then just when you think you have a gripe on where this heartwarming story is going, a Chinese exchange student goes missing. Daniel thinks he may have seen her taken. Suddenly, the novel transforms into Hitchcock’s’ The Rear Window, but instead of Jimmy Stewart confined to a wheelchair with a busted leg, our protagonist cannot talk or move, and the slightest trauma may stop him from breathing! To say the final pages are tense would be the understatement of the century, like saying bears are scary or that I look “just OK” with my shirt off. Bears are horrifyingly unstoppable murder machines and the work my trainer Gustav has put into my workout has just been off the charts. I should really pay him more. Why I have already received early interest about joining the Las Vegas Chippendale male revue (if only I can come up with a solution to my glitter allergy). If you are looking for a well-written suspenseful novel with substance, and memorable characters then get on the phone now and give Leitch a call so he can send you How Lucky right away!

Wonderful characters with authentic voices. Would love another one with the same group.

10/10 recommend listening to this audiobook - WHAT A NARRATOR! *immediately Google searches other books narrated by Graham Halstead*I don't think I have ever been so charmed by a main character! Sweet Daniel, our narrator, is funny, intelligent, optimistic, and entertaining - and this made for a fascinating "kidnapping whodunit" story - with Daniel as the only witness.Will Leitch wove together an intricate story of Daniel's life prior to the time the book was written and stitched it in seamlessly with what was happening presently in the story. I couldn't stop listening to the story or falling in love with Daniel, Patrick, and Marjani. It was so nice to read of people who were kind and supportive, giving Daniel the love and support he needed in his daily life.I recommend this book for many reasons: excellent disability representation, a "glass half full" narrator, stellar supporting cast, the creativity of the writing, and so much more. I loved it and I think many will, too!

I was a bit nervous for this one! We've got a middle-aged white guy writing from the POV of a protagonist with a pretty specific disability (SMA, a degenerative disease*) that he doesn't share, and I wasn't familiar with Leitch as a writer, but this was the only BOTM the month it came out that interested me, so I took a chance, and I'm glad I did! I thought the whole thing was very sensitively done, and I thought Daniel ended up being a great character. SMA is something that he lives with, but he as a person is not his disease, and he has an extremely rich inner life, and a pretty rich outer one as well. He has a great caregiver, a loving mother, a job that he can do from home that supports him well, and a great best friend. He also loves the place he lives, and he has a measure of independence that makes him feel satisfied with his life.*The author's notes share that the author is familiar with SMA because his son's best friend has the disease.Daniel is pretty much homebound, although he can leave the house with assistance, and he has a very specific routine. He begins seeing a girl outside his house at the same time every morning who appears to be walking to class (he lives in a college town), and one day he sees her get into a car with a man. The next day the girl has made the news as having disappeared, and Daniel suddenly has to decide what to do about the knowledge he has.This book is sort of a hybrid creation: part character study, part mystery/thriller, part general fiction. Daniel sort of falls backwards into investigating the crime, and accidentally becomes involved in a way he didn't expect. The book takes care to navigate how his SMA and life in a wheelchair complicates suddenly being involved in the plot of a thriller, but we also see pretty clearly a slice of Daniel's life, and how his SMA does and doesn't affect his everyday existence. My favorite part was probably the relationships that Daniel has with Travis, his stoner best friend who he's known since he was a baby, and his caregiver, Marjani. He loves both of them, and they both love him, even though the dynamics are different as one is a friend and one is an employee. Daniel is realistic about his medical condition and what it means for his future, but the book never descends into maudlin territory. I do really recommend this one.

"you don't really know anything about yourself until you've been forced to deal with pain, real pain" I've gotten stingy with my 5 star ratings so the fact that I gave this book 5 stars should be very telling. I fell in love with Daniel. He's hilarious, has a cool personality and is very self aware. I had a blast reading this book and I read it so quickly that I had to do a double take to be sure I didn't accidentally skip over some of it. It's perfectly paced and a fast read. I adore everything about it. I loved all of the characters as well. I found myself constantly rooting for Daniel and becoming so frustrated when others failed to understand him. "Grief, Mom discovered, was not a problem you could fix, a loose screw you could tighten, a math problem you could solve, a child who's pain you could comfort. It just sat there in your stomach and didn't move. Sometimes it grew, sometimes it shrank, but it was always, always there"

Unique and engaging story. I really enjoyed.

Books that allow you to look so, so clearly at life through the eyes of another person are my five star books. THIS book is one of those, especially because the main character has SMA and I think it did an AMAZING job allowing the reader to understand even half of what it's like to go through life with a disability. Our world needs more eyes opened to how others live in it, especially those with disabilities or who are less fortunate. Leitch has a personal connection with SMA and I think that made this story even more believable, not to mention the obvious research and interviews that must have happened during his writing.It's hard for me to really express how this one made me feel, other than maybe in awe of those who live with spinal muscular atrophy and appreciation for my mostly "normal" body. I cringed so many times during this story, able to feel what Daniel was feeling, or at least have empathy for what he was going through. It's difficult to imagine what it would be like to be unable to communicate with others verbally, but this book made that more real. Daniel is a deep character, as are the people he lets help him through life. His mom makes me proud to be a woman and the fact that she stood up to that pompous doctor and helped her son become the independent man he wanted to be. Marjani made me laugh, gave me a fierceness in feeling protective over Daniel, and I think there's only a few souls like her in the world who really care for those they are charged to help. You could tell she loved Daniel like her own child. Travis... Goodness, where to start! He cracked me up and I loved that he had been friends with Daniel from day one and never, ever dropped the friendship despite the worsening state of Daniel's SMA. The best spots in heaven are reserved for friends like him.The mystery was interesting and the "bad guy" had me saying "what the hell" so many times and feeling generally uneasy. That plot line kept me intrigued; I flew through this book, but honestly, I'm sad it's over. I wish I knew what else Daniel achieved in his life and I really miss his witty banter and his breaking the fourth wall to connect with his audience. I didn't expect to love this one so much, but it was a wonderful surprise.

In “How Lucky”, by Will Leitch, twenty-six year old, Daniel, is the kind of first-person narrator who is talking directly to YOU, the reader. He could be sitting across from you telling you this amazing story. Leitch’s execution of this intimate narrative style is perfect, I “became friends” with Daniel. Daniel has Type 2 SMA, a degenerative disease that I’ll let him explain to you. He lives alone (but with help from some great characters) in Athens, Georgia, which is a college town. One morning he sees a young woman get in a car with a man, and soon she is reported missing. Did Daniel witness a kidnapping? One of the symptoms of his advanced SMA is difficulty communicating; how will he make known what he saw?You’ll have to suspend your disbelief around some of the plot points, but it’s easy to do because Daniel’s voice and point of view are so compelling. He’s full of up-to-date cultural references, progressive social commentary, insight into Americans with disabilities (at least from one perspective), and a ton of humor. There is quite a bit of suspense and a cinematic climax that’s worthy a film treatment. This is a fast-paced, action-packed, thoroughly entertaining, novel.