I might be in trouble / Daniel Aleman
What it is: a Matryoshka doll of a story
Did I like it: da

I found this book in the bookshop and even though I didn’t think it fit any category of the new reading challenge, I was too tempted and bought it anyway. Because I was desperate for it to fit a category, I checked the author and found out it’s registered as his debut adult novel, after having published two YA books. A debut is a debut, so here we are: first category of this year’s reading challenge checked! This category was suggested by GR via email. Thanks, GR, for making me discover a new author!

I might be in trouble is a darkly funny story about David, a struggling author who wakes up next to a dead body. It’s not any dead body, it’s that of the man he went out with the night before. It had been the best date in a long time and he had high hopes to develop a relationship but that’s all come to an abrupt ending. The obvious thing to do is call the police, but David spirals out of control, and instead calls his literary agent, Stacey. Stacey is a tough lady who had several of her husbands die on her, and she has edited several detectives and murder mysteries, so she knows stuff. And so, they decide to bring the man back to his hotel room, where he can be found by a maid.
High jinks commence but it’s not just an update of Weekend at Bernie’s if that’s what you’re thinking or fearing. Because, when David wonders out loud how he’ll ever get over what they’re doing, Stacey calmly suggests he writes a book about it. Although hesitant at first, David cannot focus on anything else and so he starts to write the story of twenty-something Daniel, who wakes up in bed next to a dead body.

Between the high jinks and the new book, the story dives into David’s personal life, focusing on the relationships with his family and his ex-boyfriend. This part of the story creates some much-needed character development but it also at times slows the story down. What drives the story more than anything is David’s anxiety, and although it was well-written, if you’re not an anxious person reading it, it takes away a lot of the tension.
The blurbs for this book had me go in with high expectations and for me, the story doesn’t quite meet up to those; it didn’t make me gasp out loud, and I don’t think it’s a thriller, page-turning or not. I do think the setup was solid and I found it to be an entertaining and fast read.