The Road to Tender Hearts, Annie Hartnett

Hartnett’s book is an exploration of grief that manages to be both a bit sad and a bit funny. Hartnett can create a world where the surreal feels domestic. Her characters are often outcasts dealing with heavy loss, yet they are rendered with deep empathy so that their quirks never feel like caricatures. The prose is sharp and imaginative, turning a road trip into a human connection. It’s a strange blanket for anyone who has ever felt misplaced by their own mourning.

The novel’s pacing and sheer volume of subplots can occasionally feel overwhelming. Hartnett populates her world with so many side characters and bizarre vignettes that the central emotional arc sometimes risks getting buried under the scenery. If you prefer a tightly focused, linear narrative, you might find the tonal shifts between humor and tragedy a bit disturbing. The quirk factor is cranked up past ‘11’ so at times it threatens to distance the reader from the raw pain at the story's core, making the resolution feel slightly more chaotic than cathartic for those looking for a traditional ending.