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My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything
A funny and heart-warming story about what it means to follow your dreams, featuring an unforgettable father-son relationship and the working-class community they live in. 12-year-old Alex hatches a plan that he's sure will get his parents back together. All he needs to do is get his dad to finish the novel he's always talked about writing. Then his dad will be back to his old self ... can't be too hard, right? So, Alex tricks his dad into thinking he has a writing sabbatical and works out a way to take over his dad's postal route, giving his dad time to write his book and become the successful, happy man he needs to be . But Alex quickly learns postal work is a bit trickier than it might seem; there's the school bullies who throw his letters in the canal, an overly suspicious boss, and a lot of angry dogs to get through. Not to mention Willow, the girl on the canal who starts to help Alex but has a dark secret that might derail everything... As the weeks go by, Alex starts to appreciate how much his dad means to the people in the community. But the lies are piling up, and as Alex's ruse starts to fall apart, he needs his dad more than ever - successful author or not. From the Carnegie nominated author of THE SOUP MOVEMENT Perfect for fans of Frank Cottrell Boyle and Ben Bailey Smith Based on Ben's own experience working as a postal carrier!
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 6, 2023
11 people want to read
About the author
Ben Davis
96 books10 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 8, 2024
Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Divorce, explosion, death of a person in the past mentioned, bullying
Score: Six and a half out of ten.
I own this book. Find this review on The StoryGraph.
What a unique book. I've never read one like this before. I didn't hear of My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything by Ben Davis, and assuming no library had it, I had to buy it for myself. I glanced at the blurb, which made it seem intriguing. I read it a few days after my purchase and when I closed the final page, it was flawed, but enjoyable.
It starts with Alex, living with his presumably divorced parents, when he comes up with a plan in the opening pages to turn everything around. Alex's master plan is to return his father to his previous, happier state before he had to work as a post officer and all he has to do is to convince his father not to work for four weeks as long as he finishes the novel he started writing, adding a story within a story, and Alex will work for him. I don't know how that would work, but his father blindly accepts the deal. The overarching message here is you can't go back to the past and you must move on, though that doesn't appear until the closing pages, but the execution is heavy-handed. Davis could've made the moral more subtle to improve the reading experience. The pacing is enough to keep the narrative going, but the writing style is more tell than show. There isn't a lot of detail.
I liked Alex as a character but it was difficult to relate to a desperate boy who would do anything to make his father happy again. Alex's plan leads him on an adventure in the middle of nowhere alone, until he meets another character, Willow, but she was mostly in the background, like other minor characters like Alex's sister, Indie. It felt disjointed to switch from one story to another since one of them was more realistic and the other was more rooted in science fiction. Perhaps having dedicated chapters to each story would've improved My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything. The conclusion is bittersweet as Alex's father finally publishes his novel, and Alex realises his parents will stay divorced and he must move on.
Trigger warnings: Divorce, explosion, death of a person in the past mentioned, bullying
Score: Six and a half out of ten.
I own this book. Find this review on The StoryGraph.
What a unique book. I've never read one like this before. I didn't hear of My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything by Ben Davis, and assuming no library had it, I had to buy it for myself. I glanced at the blurb, which made it seem intriguing. I read it a few days after my purchase and when I closed the final page, it was flawed, but enjoyable.
It starts with Alex, living with his presumably divorced parents, when he comes up with a plan in the opening pages to turn everything around. Alex's master plan is to return his father to his previous, happier state before he had to work as a post officer and all he has to do is to convince his father not to work for four weeks as long as he finishes the novel he started writing, adding a story within a story, and Alex will work for him. I don't know how that would work, but his father blindly accepts the deal. The overarching message here is you can't go back to the past and you must move on, though that doesn't appear until the closing pages, but the execution is heavy-handed. Davis could've made the moral more subtle to improve the reading experience. The pacing is enough to keep the narrative going, but the writing style is more tell than show. There isn't a lot of detail.
I liked Alex as a character but it was difficult to relate to a desperate boy who would do anything to make his father happy again. Alex's plan leads him on an adventure in the middle of nowhere alone, until he meets another character, Willow, but she was mostly in the background, like other minor characters like Alex's sister, Indie. It felt disjointed to switch from one story to another since one of them was more realistic and the other was more rooted in science fiction. Perhaps having dedicated chapters to each story would've improved My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything. The conclusion is bittersweet as Alex's father finally publishes his novel, and Alex realises his parents will stay divorced and he must move on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2023
Yet another amazing book by this author. The sacrifices made by Alex to keep his family together were one of a kind. Completely fell in love with the story, the messages throughout, and the friendship between Alex and Willow.
July 31, 2023
I loved this book. Funny and heartfelt and the postal element reminded me in a strange way of 'The Maintenance of Headway' by Magnus Mills who's one of my favourite writers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews