At the end of August, Amy is scheduled to take the exam to become an EMT. She’s hoping the third time taking the exam will prove successful so she can essentially start a new phase of her life. In the meantime, she works as a chambermaid at a yacht club. It’s a demeaning job, but she doesn’t mind—she sees it as a noble service she provides the guests.
Apart from Roula, the exacting head housekeeper, and her flaky boss, Amy essentially talks to no one. She has her study guide and her Florence Nightingale book for company. But when Gary, her landlord, asks if she would sample his cooking skills before his Ukrainian fiancée comes to America, she jumps at the chance for companionship.
As the summer progresses, Amy becomes increasingly nervous about the exam, so she creates a program to trick her into thinking she already passed, which blurs the lines of her reality a bit. And as she spends more time with Gary, she increasingly begins thinking in ways she shouldn’t, even though she knows everything will change when his fiancée arrives.
Have you ever read a book with a character whose behavior is so awkward it makes you cringe, and almost feel bad for them? Nobody, Somebody, Anybody is that kind of book. Amy is lonely but Amy is odd, and it’s a chicken-egg thing that made me think. I found myself reading like I was watching a horror movie, just waiting for something awful to happen.
This was a well-written book but Amy’s behavior both made her sympathetic and kept her at arm’s length. Definitely one that would be good for a book group, because you'll want to talk about it with someone!!
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