Review: All About Us

All About Us by Tom Ellen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

After fifteen years together, and four years of marriage, she doesn't really know me at all. If she did, then surely she wouldn't still be here. 

All About Us is a Dickens' A Christmas Carol inspired story told in first person point-of-view from a drowning in life Ben. He's thirty-four and contemplating having an affair with a woman from his past that he can't help thinking what could have been if they'd gotten together. He's been with his wife Daphne for fifteen years, married for four, and while she has a successful career, Ben's writing has never taken off. When reader's come into the story, Daphne's getting ready to go to her work Christmas party and they're clearly tired of one another as they bicker and snip. Ben decides to call his friend Harv to get a pint at the pub and while he's sitting there wishing he had a deeper friendship with Harv where he could discuss his marital problems an older man comes up and tries to sell him a watch. Ben tries to refuse but the man just gives the watch to him and walks away, Ben then notices the watch doesn't even work as it is stuck one minute to midnight. When Ben gets home and passes out, he gets the surprise of his life when instead of waking up in his flat in 2020, he wakes up in his old dorm room in 2005. 

As this story plot is pretty well known, the reader is aware of the journey Ben is about to go on, it's more about the discovery of why Ben feels the way he does in 2020. Ben is obsessed with the idea that if he'd only ended up with Alice, a girl from college that he was good friends and the one he is contemplating the affair with, instead of Daphne, his life would be different in a better way and that even Daphne's life would be better. When he gets to revisit and relive certain moments in his past, he discovers he didn't always remember them correctly and that his self-absorbed and self-pity ways kept him from missing important details and connecting with people, especially Daphne. 

Ben's father left when he was young, leaving his mother to take care of him and this made the biggest impact in his life; Ben wanting to be a writer like his dad and his self-pitying tied into thinking he'll never be good enough. It's a bit wallowing at times, especially in contrast to his wife Daphne and how she gave all the emotional support in their relationship but part of the reason Ben is going on this Christmas Carol journey is for him to see and realize this. 

The writing and the pace flows steady but there were times I missed more depth to characters, this is very much Ben's story and his alone. He's not necessarily a character you root for, his midlife crisis and how much Daphne gives in the relationship compared to him, make that difficult. I also thought the future Ben gets to see made everything a bit too easy for him for when he goes back to his present. However, it's a good story to remind others to not fall into the traps Ben does and try to live life in less self-absorbed and more honest ways.

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