Review of Me, Myself and i-Chart

Me, Myself and i-Chart by Jonathan Ardell —êêê stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book for the review. 

Warning: There are spoilers and hints of spoilers in this review.

My latest book to read has been Me, Myself and i-Chart.  The story is told from the point of view of Richard, who is hired to be a quality manager in a remote factory in Alabama.  Richard isn’t sure he is qualified for the job, or that he wants to take the position after living in greater Chicago area.  But the perks of the job—and the charms of a lovely local—sway him and he is soon packing his bags and headed to the backwater.  But not all is as it seems, and soon Richard is in deep trouble.

The story is in first person and has two ‘voices’.  Without going into spoilery details, I’ll simply say that the in-story reason for the voices, told in two different fonts to differentiate between them, is explained clearly.  The story is told in an engaging, easy-to-read style, and the scientific jargon and math is explained in layman’s terms.  I didn’t really struggle with the technical details, and that’s really not my strong suite.  The story was often witty and because it was set in prior years, it was refreshing to be reminded of how things were before cellphones.  The characters are interesting, particularly Richard (which is great, since he is the one that really has to be).  The supporting cast is particularly strong, and I suspect that they are based on types of people the author has met before.

I had some issues with the book.  There is a lot of backstory in the book; I’d guess about a third of the story was background, and not just on Richard.  There was quite a bit told about the history of the facility, Fab 9, which didn’t feel pertinent to the story being told.  It was also a bit jarring because at times, Richard recounts the story as if he’d witnessed these events when he did not.  Another problem is that the story has a number of foreshadowing which verge on spoilers.  By the climactic scene, I was already aware of how it would play out, in general, which had an impact on my suspense.   The last major issue was the two voices that the story is told in.  As I mentioned before, there are two different fonts, one for each voice.  The voices narrate the story together; I found them a distracting at times.   Sometimes I’d see the font change and my eye would skip down; other times, I thought that the font didn’t match the voice.  Integration of the voices into a unified narrative would help the flow of the story and limit the reader getting distracted by the switches in font.

These issues aside, I enjoyed reading the story.  It was quirky and fun, and I found it engaging.  It took a subject that could be dry and difficult and created an interesting adventures story (tinged with romance).  All in all, well worth a read.  

At this time, Jonathan is trying to find an agent or a publisher, and I hope he does.  I'd like to see this book published.