For fans of The Guild, New Girl, Scott Pilgrim, Big Bang Theory, Veronica Mars, or anyone who has ever geeked out about something.
The odds of Dahlia successfully navigating adulthood are 3,720 to 1. But never tell her the odds.
Meet Dahlia Moss, the reigning queen of unfortunate decision-making in the St. Louis area. Unemployed broke, and on her last bowl of ramen, she’s not living her best life. But that’s all about to change.
Before Dahlia can make her life any messier on her own she’s offered a job. A job that she’s woefully under-qualified for. A job that will lead her to a murder, an MMORPG, and possibly a fella (or two?).
Turns out unfortunate decisions abound, and she’s just the girl to deal with them.
I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review.
I am going to continue reading Dahlia Moss if there are any future books with her in it. I’m just going to say that right there. It had everything I love: mystery, murder, a wacky roommate (who I could relate to), and all things geeky. I had a little fangirl moment while reading this book. I tried to find every geeky thing I loved and I was almost upset when I neared halfway through and there was no mention of Doctor Who. Good thing Wirestone eventually got to that bit of fandom.
Okay, to start, The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss is a geeky cozy mystery without the small town feel of cozy. It’s cozy in the sense that all the players are part of a community of sorts. Though it’s a broad community, geeks are well known for being fans of multiple things. (For example, I’m a huge Doctor Who fan who happens to play Dungeons and Dragons, loves My Little Pony, and I named my first car Pikachu). In the case of this book, the community was an MMORPG community. So, I guess it kind of was like a small town.
The first thing that came to my mind was the voice of Dahlia. She has a narrative that’s real. I felt like she was a real person. She wasn’t necessarily awkward, like you see in many geek female characters. She was a normal twenty-something geek woman trying to survive. She doesn’t have aspirations of curing cancer. She just wants to be able to afford something that isn’t top ramen. I can understand that.
Naturally, when someone offers up money, she goes for the job. No matter how silly the job is. Like, finding a spear . . . from a computer game. You can see that there is humor throughout this book. I was laughing through the whole thing.
However, that isn’t to say that the book was nothing more than a laughing stock. Dahlia does actively do her job and as the reader, I was trying to find out the truth too. My reading experience was invested in her solving the mysteries. The humor is what hooked me; the geek-awesomeness and mystery is what kept me reading.
This is a good read for a geek, a mystery lover, and a person who just wants something light and fun to pass through the time.
Casia's Corner 