Review - A Little Hope by Ethan Joella

A quick note: I am moving away from star ratings here and on my instagram and will instead be making recommendations based on other reads, tropes, or feelings the book evokes.

There are books you read for comfort, and then there are books that quietly sit beside you and ask you to remember what it means to be human. Like Five Star Stranger, A Little Hope is firmly in the latter.

This novel feels less like a single, linear story and more like a collection of deeply connected lives, almost essay like in the way it explores grief, kindness, loss, and small acts of hope. The characters don’t feel written so much as recognized. They could be your neighbors. Your coworkers. The stranger in front of you at the grocery store whose life you’ll never fully know.

What made this book land so powerfully for me is how closely it mirrors real loss. Loss to cancer. Loss to addiction. Loss to the quiet, internal darkness that no amount of love can always reach. Joella doesn’t sensationalize any of it. He simply lets it exist on the page, the way it exists in life; unresolved, unfair, and deeply human.

There were moments when this story felt too close, too familiar, and yet I couldn’t look away. That’s the quiet strength of Joella’s writing. He doesn’t demand your attention. He earns it. In the end, Ethan Joella proves something rare: he writes people with such care and truth that they linger. He writes humans better than most of us manage to be human and sometimes, that’s exactly the kind of book we need.

You will love this book if you enjoy deeply personal stories of flawed but real people. If you like to ugly cry, feel like you're visiting Mayberry and like the title, you have a little hope, even in the hard times. If you enjoyed Rebecca Yarros The Last Letter, The Measure by Nikki Erlick, or Drowning by TJ Newman.

Disclaimer: Psst! Just so you know, some of the links sprinkled here are affiliate links. If you decide to click and treat yourself, I might get a little high-five in the form of a commission at no additional cost to you. Cheers and happy reading!

This book was previously reviewed by Becca here on Paperback Treasures. You can check out her review below.