You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead
by Marieke Hardy

reviewed by James Butler

When Marieke came in to visit Avid on National Bookshop Day she signed my copy of You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead with "To the most handsome and popular man at Avid Reader." As such, you must take this review with a grain of salt as I am now contractually obliged to love her forever. But I digress.

Like the works of David Sedaris and Avid's own Benjamin Law, Marieke Hardy's You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead provided a series of hilarious, blush-inducing anecdotes that had me giggling and smiling stupidly on public transport and quoting lines in between fits of laughter to my housemates. (Namely, a scene where Marieke and her boyfriend refuse to wear paper underpants at a massage parlour thinking they were shower caps.) But as funny as these are, Marieke grounds them with a real sense of humanity - often afforded with a response from the friends, family and past lovers she writes about. What results is an unflinchingly honest and heartfelt homage to the people who make a person whole, all the while delivered in the same sharp-edged wit I grew to love after reading her blog Reasons You Will Hate Me. Superb holiday reading, and that's not just the dedication on the inside cover of my copy talking.