YOU'LL LOVE IT HERE

A grieving woman finds herself banding together with the eccentric residents of her dilapidated Calgary, Canada apartment complex.

After Mona Bucket’s boss encourages—if not forces—her to take an extended leave from her job at a marketing firm, she’s at a loss. Her job is all she has going for her—she’s still reeling from her father’s death, her relationship with her mother is tense, she lives in a building that has more strange smells than amenities, and she has no social life. A solution presents itself when Irene, her landlady at Valleyview Apartments, falls and injures herself. Mona can become the building’s temporary super, which she’s happy to do since it’s sort of her fault that Irene fell (it’s a long story). But Mona isn’t motivated by mere guilt—Irene’s niece Lana Winston, a realtor, says that if Mona helps her fix up the building so she can present it to potential buyers, she can guarantee Mona an apartment in a much nicer building. Mona is desperate to get out of Valleyview (which has neither a valley nor a view), where she lives alongside tenants she gives nicknames like “Fancy Widow” and “Old White Perve.” She agrees to help, but in the process of getting to know the residents, she begins to find the sense of belonging she’s been seeking. There’s also a burgeoning relationship with Sami, whose family owns the diner across the street—and who would be crushed to know Mona is working to displace the residents of the building he loves. Just as she did in her debut, I Hope This Finds You Well (2024), Sue creates a funny but heartbreaking portrait of a lonely woman longing to be known. As Mona learns the stories of each building resident, she begins to see that they’re more than their nicknames. They all deserve friendship and love—and that includes Mona, too, if she can learn to accept it. Sue has a gift for portraying flawed but likable main characters who can’t help but make the wrong decisions even as they crave connection.

A lovely look at finding belonging in the most unlikely of places.