Let's call it "Book Review: Shuttle Driver & Office Girl"
1 Star – Do Not Recommend
If you like stories with a happy ending, this is NOT the book for you!
I thought it was a love story, and deceptively it started that way.
It’s about a girl meeting a boy at work and then they fall in love. They work in film production and he’s always making excuses to visit her in the office and chat and they get to know each other and fall in love. She describes how on their first date he grabbed her hand and held it tightly and she never wanted him to let it go. I liked this part of the story – cute!
Despite working long hours they manage to spend the rest of their time together and are both smitten. While they’re on vacation he reveals that he’s in recovery from an opioid addiction, but she doesn’t worry too much about it because he confidently assures her there isn’t any risk of relapse (and as a reader you believe he believed it too).
They quickly start planning their future together and decide to get married. It all happens very fast, but you’re rooting for them because they’re both so excited. They get married in a small beach ceremony with a few close friends and the rest of their family and friends via Zoom. This part was set in the early pandemic. Remember when you weren’t allowed to see anyone outside your household? Weird!
So they’re newlyweds and doing their best to survive the pandemic. They’re both out of work due to their industry being shut down so they’re spending all their time together and everything seems to be going well. They even take a mini honeymoon camping trip, with the promise that they’ll go to Hawaii for their real honeymoon once they’re able to travel.
Unfortunately, they never get to Hawaii because **Spoiler alert** then he DIES!
And that’s the end.
Can you believe this garbage?
I feel ripped off. Their story was cut so short, and I wasn’t given the ending I was promised. It’s as though this romance suddenly turned into a horror movie with zero warning.
Worst ever. Don’t recommend.
Anyway, there is an epilogue that goes into what happened. It’s all from her point of view of course, so you don’t know exactly what was going on for him. It explains how she finds him dead in their home and tries to resuscitate him, but she knows it’s too late. Ugh I hate even writing this because it’s so awful, but I feel like I need to warn everyone. THIS IS NOT A FUN STORY!
If you’re wondering why I kept reading, I hoped she’d save him, he’d be okay and maybe they’d live happily ever after… Was that so much to ask?
Instead, the paramedics confirmed what she already knew.
That he was gone.
She couldn’t save him.
She squeezes his hand, only this time he doesn’t squeeze back.
Heartbreaking.
You really miss the Shuttle Driver’s POV in this part of the book. You’re left with all these unanswered questions, and no one to ask. He was such a good character, and you miss his sharp jokes, hot-take rants, and how excited he’d get about making nachos. You’d think the author could have at least incorporated his ghost perspective or something… the book isn’t the same without him!
Instead, you’re in her shock and confusion at how this could have possibly happened. He hadn’t told her about his relapse, so she was really blindsided and in agony that she didn’t know how much pain he must have been in. You’re left with the understanding that the shame he was feeling must have been so powerful that it kept him silent enough to use alone while she was sleeping.
The coroner told her that he died from fentanyl toxicity and that he sought help. On his last day on Earth, he visited his doctor and received a prescription for some medication to help him. Unfortunately, it came too late. While he was awaiting this prescription, he bought drugs off the street which turned out to be straight fentanyl. He was already dead by the time the pharmacy called his phone to let him know the prescription was ready.
You are left to understand he wouldn’t have taken that risk if he wasn’t in tremendous pain and could see another option. He wouldn’t have wanted this to happen. He wanted to live and one slip up cost everything.
Only read this book if you want to be left feeling depressed, hopeless and angry. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and luckily none of my addictions come with the deadly risk of an unregulated toxic supply. Brutal.
I was so mad about the ending of this book that I did some research.
Turns out, this is based on a real crisis.
It’s been nine years since the B.C. provincial government declared a public health emergency due to opioid related overdose deaths from drug poisoning. Nine years of an emergency, can you believe that? And these preventable deaths are still occurring.
Since 2016, more than 16,000 people have died from this in B.C., and more than 50,000 people have died across Canada!
At first, I thought it was a major plot hole that he died from something that was preventable, but in Canada over 20 people are still dying from this EVERY DAY!
There are probably thousands of books out there just like this. Thousands of office girls grieving their shuttle driver.
Ugh. How depressing.
The fact the deaths are preventable makes no sense. If he had been able to access medication in time maybe he wouldn’t have bought those toxic drugs. Or if he hadn’t felt so much shame, he could have told her he was struggling and perhaps wouldn’t have used alone. Unfortunately, there is so much shame around addiction and using drugs that it keeps people silent. If only we could break down the stigma around substance use. There are other actions such as harm reduction and safer supply that can also be implemented to prevent these deaths.
It seems dumb that the systems don’t change to address these preventable deaths.
I’ve written this review, so you don’t need to read this book. But surely we can do something to stop these preventable deaths from happening?
After all, this could happen to literally any of us or the people we love!
Imagine the hand you love never squeezed back.
1 Star: Do not recommend.
PS. there was a typo on page 62, author wrote “your” but it should have been “you’re”.