Review of Hello Stranger.

Joy. Heart. Laughter.

That’s what you get when you read a book by Katherine Center. And the author wouldn’t have it any other way. In her essay “Read for Joy,” Center explains, “When I talk about reading for joy, I’m talking about reading from the heart.”

Katherine Center continues the joy-heart-laughter triage with her newest novel Hello Stranger.

Sadie is a struggling portrait artist living in the rooftop storage room of an apartment building owned by her best friend’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kim. Sue Kim is the bestie all of us introverts secretly yearn for, someone who “always optimistically, energetically, and joyfully searched out ways…to extrovert” while at the same time offering unconditional love and support. And Joe is Sadie’s annoying neighbor who just happens to turn up and offer the exact help Sadie needs when she finds herself in a difficult spot.

And speaking of difficult spots, Sadie undergoes lifesaving brain surgery, which is successful but results in prosopagnosia, or the inability to see faces. Throw in a once-in-a-lifetime national portrait competition (can you even paint a face if you can’t see it?), a sick dog, a father from whom Sadie is largely estranged, a toxic step-sister whose raison d’être is to torment Sadie, and you have the makings of a rollicking good time. Or one of those just-one-more-chapter resolutions that turns into an all-night readathon.

Hello Stranger delivers on its heart and joy promise. Your heart will grow two sizes, reformed Grinch-style, as you embrace the funny, indomitable protagonist Sadie who refuses to abandon her dream or the lure of love. You’ll welcome joy at those times Sadie triumphs, cringe when she epic-fails, and cheer when she dusts herself off.

So we’ve covered heart and joy, but we mustn’t forget laughter. Hello Stranger contains oodles of smile-worthy moments and some laugh-out-loud, don’t-read-this in a-hushed-hall guffaws. Most of the laughter takes place in scenes with Sadie and Joe, which is exactly where you want it.

[One slight flaw in the plot is a scene of implausible coincidence, but I had so much fun reading said scene (think heart and joy) that I’m willing to overlook some pesky statistical improbability.]

I’ve recently become a Katherine Center fangirl (okay, so technically not a girl for some decades now, but whatevs), and Hello Stranger ranks in the top tier of my favorite Katherine Center novels.

Hello Stranger will be out in July, so pre-order it now and you’ll be able to fill your soul with heart, joy, and laughter this summer. But that’s a few months away. In the meantime. you can get started reading Katherine Center with another one of my favorites, What You Wish For.

Enjoy!

I received a copy of Hello Stranger from NetGalley.