Book Review: What We Never Had (The Big Smoke)

"I recently watched Mike Birbiglia’s movie, Don’t Think Twice, and one of my favorite lines was, “Your twenties are all about hope and then your thirties are all about realizing how dumb it was to hope.” We’re shown this kind of mentality throughout What We Never Had. The main character Josh—though not quite thirty—is starting to develop a similar outlook on life. It is mentioned, but never fully developed, about how he came back to Los Angeles to try and make it as an actor, but it didn’t pan out. He failed years before the story takes place and now we’re watching him readjust his expectations for life. The acting element is a small piece of the greater narrative and while we don’t get the full story we’re not supposed to because the core of Zach Wyner’s novel is what comes after."