Emergency Exit Only (Michelle Upton, HarperCollins)

For the past 10 years, Amelia Harris has preferred to gaze at the fire escape doors opposite her desk at Queensland Office Supplies, rather than take any chances with her work colleagues and potentially upset them. When she has a near-death experience at age 35—the same age her dad died—she quits her job and bursts through those same fire exit doors. With no long-term plan and some existential dread, Amelia decides to do what a lot of people wish they could: write a list of dream jobs and spend the next few months working through them to find the perfect career. Amelia soon finds herself living out her professional fantasies (zookeeping, floristry), exploring new opportunities (wedding planning, journalism), and more. Emergency Exit Only is an encouraging and fun novel for those feeling lost in life; it reminds us that it’s never too late to try something new. Although light-hearted at first glance, the book provides an authentic portrayal of mental health difficulties by touching on some heavier topics, such as depression and complicated grief, and alongside the strong message of following your dreams, there is a heartfelt tribute to family ties, the relationships that bind us and appreciating what we already have. Michelle Upton cleverly uses references to Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist throughout, to mirror Amelia’s journey. This is an inspiring novel for those who enjoyed The Midnight Library, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Rachel Johns’s books, as well as Upton’s first book, Terms of Inheritance.

Read our interview with author Michelle Upton about Emergency Exit Only here.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Lisa Schuurman is a Melbourne-based book reviewer, editor and writer. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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