Thank you to Lucy Easthope, Hodder & Stoughton Audio and NetGalley for access to this ARC.

In Come What May, Lucy draws on her own experiences and major historical disasters to offer a thoughtful guide on how to navigate life in the aftermath of crisis. Building on the collective trauma of Covid-19, she acknowledges that we are now all too familiar with disaster, and uses this book to challenge how we think, act, and recover in the months that follow. Alongside powerful reflections, she provides practical calls to action and step-by-step guidance to help ensure we are better prepared for whatever comes next.

Going into this book, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I had never heard of Lucy before. A few chapters in, I realised she’s actually from the Wirral, like me, which instantly made the book feel more relatable. The part about quicksand especially stood out. I swear every child from the Wirral grows up with that fear!

Even without that connection, I absolutely loved this book. It was not only informative but also deeply reassuring. Knowing that even in the most chaotic, life-altering moments there is a pattern, and a way forward, felt incredibly grounding.

Lucy’s use of real-life examples to support her insights was both powerful and sensitively done. At times, I found myself reflecting on actions I’ve taken during crises that, looking back, may not have been all that helpful. But Lucy doesn’t judge. Instead, she offers realistic, compassionate alternatives that anyone can apply.

I also learnt a lot about past disasters I had never heard of. For instance, I’ve lived just 30 minutes from Wrexham my whole life, yet I had no idea about the mining explosion there. Lucy’s reflections on the aftermath of events I do remember were eye-opening as well. I realised how little I had thought about what happens once the headlines fade.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will carry its lessons with me for years to come. It’s a guide I know I’ll return to whenever life takes an unexpected turn.

I previously read, and was thoroughly inspired by, Lucy's first book, When the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster. This book is a perfect companion without treading over old ground. It is more practional in orientation than the case-study approach of the first one, as here Lucy focuses on the key take-aways and principles that can be extrapolated from disaster experiences, Together, these nuggets form a comprehensive toolkit for managing personal and wider crises in future. I'm sure to return to it often, and I made lots of notes! The audiobook is also ready by Lucy herself, which is a bonus for me - I follow her on social media, but I hadn't heard her speak before.

'Come What May' is a well written account of what humans (singularly and as a society) experience after trauma occurs. This is laced with author Lucy Easthope's own experiences, which are numerous and varied, due to her job as an Emergency Planner. Lucy consults to set up plans in-case of incident, as well as working with survivors in the aftermath. Hearing about the work she and recovery workers do was highly interesting and got me wanting to know more about these roles, which are often not spoken about within communities.

Lucy leads the reader through what can happen in the aftermath of experiencing a traumatic event, backing herself with models, psychological principles such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and her own wealth of experience. The chapters are well laid out and it is useful at equipping the reader with a greater understanding of their own needs in times of crisis.

For me, I feel I would have really enjoyed hearing a little more about Lucy herself. The subject matter covered felt a wide topic for one book and I think could actually have enough depth to be separate works. I'd love to hear a memoir all about her role; and a separate take on her personal traumas and advice, touching lightly on where these lessons were learned. It feels like it spans both a helpful guide to the impact of trauma and an overview of coping with the aftermath of various world events/ global disasters. I gained a lot of insight into how to psychologically process the markers of our shared lives, such as the pandemic and terrorist attacks; but to me it didn't quite go far enough to help translate this into the more everyday, such as relationship breakdown, loss of a job or personal grief. I really liked the sections where I heard Lucy's life experiences with these more personal matters and would have loved more of this. This would have helped it feel more emotionally connecting and potentially resonate on a deeper level.

This is a book full of knowledge, clearly well-researched and very human feeling. I personally listened to the audiobook, so may have felt slightly different with a physical copy, which I could 'dip' back into more. As an audiobook, it felt lot to digest as a singular narrative.

I'd certainly recommend this book for people who are impacted by societal events. I can bring to mind some individuals who would really benefit from the messages held here. For me, it didn't go as emotionally deep as it could, because of the breadth of content and so might not be as impactful for those looking for specific advice on how to handle something deeply personal and affecting.

The content is important as a topic and it was fantastic to see the wonderful, unseen, work that goes on surrounding our day to day lives.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review.

This was an insightful, interesting and sensitively written audiobook about disaster recovery and coping in the aftermath of major traumatic events.
With grateful thanks for Hodder and Stoughton Audio, Lucy Easthope and NetGalley for my advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I found this title, whilst hugely helpful, to be really quite heavy, I had to read it alongside another title which is something I never do. The content should be weighty though, that also reflects the authors intentions I suppose.

A lot of the content was quite triggering and anxiety inducing for me personally, but it’s often important to sit in your trauma, and perhaps this book found me at a time of self reflection and realisation, I needed to hear a lot of it, and it helped me make some decisions. I’d need to open up some really personal things to explain myself properly here. So I suppose I’ll just say, I’d recommend this to anyone who needs a little push of a reminder to try to help yourself.

I appreciated hearing the authors own words in her own voice, her nation was excellent.

My rating is middle of the road as no real reflection to the author or the writing, it’s an important book, maybe I’ll come back as a better version of myself with a higher rating at some point.

Huge thanks to Hodder & Stoughton Audio via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC 🎧