Life Unbothered

A few weeks ago I stepped out of my typical genres to read a nonfiction biography about Freddy Powers; this week I’ve stepped out again and read Life Unbothered, by Charlie Elliott*.

life unbothered cover

Life Unbothered is from the perspective of Wade Hampton, a good-looking guy in his mid-twenties living in Phoenix with a less-than-stellar grip on his existence. He suffers from severe anxiety and phobias, and prefers to self-medicate with sex and cuddles as opposed to medication. He’s sold his car-detailing business (more from boredom than anything else), abruptly broken off his engagement (to a twat who wanted to be married for things and not married for love), and failed at his half-assed attempted suicide.

He does what any newly-single guy does: he barely survives an anxiety-riddled drive home to Los Angeles, tells his parents he is not getting married, literally forces himself to meet his best friends for a drink, and then has a full-blown panic attack on the airplane to his non-bachelor party. Ultimately, he decides to move back to LA, where his best friend has offered him a job at his company, and where his psychiatrist gets him back on medication. Then he meets Sophia Syros: a beautiful woman from the other side of the tracks with an uncanny ability to help him deal with his anxiety.

As Wade manages to transition from home-bound to weekend roadtrips with Sophia, his life has taken a marked change for the better. Then, much like that “too good to be true” adage, Sophia gets devastating news about her health, and Wade transitions from boyfriend to caretaker.

The characters are well described and believable. Wade approaches his phobias with a sense of wit that I enjoyed. His ex-fiancee is really the sort of person everyone can understand a guy not wanting to marry. Wade’s friends are so believable – they want to help, they want to understand, but anxiety is the type of thing that you just can’t fully understand unless you’ve lived it. And Sophia hasn’t had the best life, but is patient and caring and really takes the time to learn about Wade’s mental issues and help him out. Both Sophia and Wade have a chance to see each other, truly, at their best and worst, and neither of them walk away. Somehow, they really are the perfect partner for each other. It’s very admirable.

I got to say, I wasn’t really sure what to think with this one. I thought maybe it would be too serious, too much on the love-story angle, too much on the personal-growth angle . . . I just wasn’t sure. But this book had just enough humor to keep it from getting too deep. And when things did start to get dark and dreary, Wade somehow transforms from a anxious homebody to a reliable adult that makes it all tolerable.

Overall: 7/10

*I received an ARC from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Discussion

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