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Unabridged Digital Audiobook
Runtime: 10 hours, 59 minutes
Read by Soneela Nankani
Having lived through the last year, I think it’s safe to say that most of us understand what it’s like to be going through life and end up broad-sided by a massive change that we just didn’t see coming. In the audio edition of Kristin Bair’s Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything, one woman faces her life-altering experience with fear and rage.
The story begins as Agatha Arch’s world is falling apart. The writer, wife, and mom from a small New England town goes out to the shed one afternoon and finds her husband in a compromising position with the neighborhood dog walker. In a fit of rage, she takes a hatchet to the shed, chasing the two inhabitants out of hiding. And once her husband leaves, taking their two sons with him and the dog walker, Agatha finds herself alone with her thoughts—and her overabundance of fears—unsure of how to move forward with her life.
Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything is the story of this scared, angry woman’s struggle to adjust once her family—the one thing that kept her grounded—is torn apart. She catches her husband with a much-younger woman, and he then professes his love for the other woman and immediately moves into her home, taking their two sons with him. It’s really no wonder that she comes a little…unhinged.
You would expect the main character in a book like this one to be a relatable character—or at least a sympathetic one. The kind of character that you can commiserate with and laugh with while cheering her on. But, unfortunately, Agatha isn’t really that kind of character. Even before her husband’s betrayal, she was known not just for her plethora of bizarre fears but also for her scathing comments on the local moms’ Facebook group and her less-than-neighborly treatment of her neighbors. Though she obsesses about what she would call a group of friends—if she were ever to have one—she treats everyone with something bordering on contempt.
Of course, things do eventually start to turn around for Agatha—but, by then, it’s just too late. She’s an unlikable character whose constant griping and snipping makes for an irritating and exhausting experience.
Most of the time, the story of a character who fights her way through difficult times makes for an uplifting and often inspiring read. But Agatha’s bizarre behavior and generally prickly demeanor makes this one fall flat.
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