ALC Review: This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
This Story Might Save Your Life
Author: Tiffany Crum
Narrators:
Julia Whelan
Sean Patrick Hopkins
To Be Published: March 10, 2026
Audiobook: 10 hours 39 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: January 7-12, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different “against all odds” survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy, they’ve been the best friends everyone wants to befriend—and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy’s husband, Xander, they’ve built a lucrative empire.
The problem is, their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander’s one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple’s disappearance is the incomplete, previously unseen first draft of Joy’s memoir. Benny will stop at nothing to find them, even as the police zero in on him as their prime suspect.
Millions of devoted listeners think they know the “real” Benny and Joy. But as the hours tick by, and the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive, not even the most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets their favorite famous BFFs have hidden from the world—and from each other.
Jessica’s Review:
This book! It was my first five star read of the year and I know it will be in my ‘Top 10 Reads’ of 2026. Where, exactly? Close to the top if not my top spot! We will have to wait until the end of the year to see where it ultimately ends up!
Anyways… This book! It’s pretty much everything I love in a book and a debut novel too!?!?! This Story will be one of THE books to read in 2026. I listened to an advanced copy and it is perfection! We have two main narrators: Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins. They portray Joy and Benny as BFF’s with such precision! You can just feel the chemistry and more with these two. Both Julia and Sean Patrick are in fact Joy and Benny.
With the audio we also get podcasts, Benny and Joy’s dual POVs, voices of tipline callers and even some occasional special effects added in. Everything just makes this audiobook a MUST LISTEN to for 2026!
This novel really is everything. You just love Benny and Joy: Their present and backstory. I was transfixed for the entire novel! And the directions this novel goes in.. I would have never expected. The fact that this is a debut novel for Crum, wow, she is on my list to see what is written next!
As you can tell from the book description, Benny and Joy’s podcast is a survival podcast that takes off. We have Joy who suffers from Narcolepsy, and as a listener I learned a little about it. One of their podcasts Joy asks a question: “What is the most dangerous home appliance?” I am proud to say I guessed that one right in one guess! And one of the tipline calls mentions Snellville, Ga… I was shocked to hear that city’s name! I looked it up and the author is now local in Georgia! And Snellville is the area I grew up in. Being Crum lives in my state, this is another reason I will be keeping up with her and what she writes. I love supporting local-to-me authors! And the fact that Crum was able to get Julia Whelan as a narrator for a debut novel???? I’m ready to see what Crum brings us next!
And I will have to buy myself a physical copy of this book to go with my favorites….
Many thanks to the audiobook publisher Macmillan Audio for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review. It was a great pleasure to listen and review this one!