Debut novelist Ava Robinson takes a close look at the bittersweet realities of sobriety in Definitely Better Now, a (late) coming-of-age story of 26-year-old New Yorker Emma and her attempts to start fresh after completing a whole year of sobriety.
For 365 days, Emma has been focused: on work and on not drinking. Ready to feel like a "fully polished, emotionally stable version" of herself after her first year in AA, she's looking forward to something like starting over. It turns out, though, that nothing magical happens on day 365 of sobriety.
Robinson has created a mid-20s heroine standing on the precipice between young adult and fully grown adult, a woman stepping into herself and into a life without alcohol. Definitely Better Now points out not just how alcohol-steeped modern American culture is, but the complexities of sober living: how rigid recovery can feel, how demanding it is, and how focused on "men of a certain age" the literature can be; as well as how to learn to trust not just a sponsor but one's own self; how to live with multiple truths--especially when some of them are ugly.
Within this, Robinson nestles a romance that feels The Office-esque, with workplace dramas, coworker gossip, employees at a company that does something vague and uninteresting, and a cute, charming guy in IT who might actually like Emma for who she is, if she can just figure that part out. Witty, funny, and full of heart, Definitely Better Now is a not-to-be-missed debut that encourages anyone, sober or not, to embrace the messy imperfections of a life worth living. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer