Unexpectedly, Milo: A Novel

Written by Matthew Dicks

Narrated by Will Damron

The author of Something Missing returns with another hilarious and sneakily profound tale about a man whose behavior is truly odd, but also oddly relatable.

Milo Slade, a thirty-three year old home healthcare aide, is witnessing the rapid dissolution of his three-year marriage to a polished, high-powered attorney named Christine. Though Milo doesn't quite know the root of his marital problems, he inevitably blames himself, or more specifically, he faults the demands his obsessive compulsive personality place upon him—the need to open a jar of Smuckers grape jelly or sing “99 Luftballons” in front of an audience, to name just a couple.

Yet Christine is still none the wiser about these inexplicable quirks as Milo has painstakingly hidden them from her and everyone else for years. No one knows the true—and in his mind more insidious—Milo, and such is the root of his profound loneliness, especially now that he and Christine are living apart during a trial separation.

Then one day Milo stumbles across a video camera and tapes, left behind in a park. He watches the first tape, which is a heartfelt confessional by a young woman who begins to reveal her secrets, starting small at first, and finally revealing that she blames herself for a tragic death of a friend. But not all the details add up and Milo is struck with the urge to free the sweet confessor from her guilt. He is, after all, an expert in keeping secrets…

In typical screwball fashion, Milo sets out on a cross-country journey to crack the case, but quickly gets sidetracked as his un-ignorable demands call. But it is during these sidetracks that the true meaning of his adventure takes shape. Milo is weird, but as he discovers, so is everyone else. Unexpectedly, Milo is a humorous and touching novel about finding oneself, embracing the journey, and, unexpectedly, love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Sep 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781978628816

Matthew Dicks

MATTHEW DICKS is a writer and elementary school teacher. He has been published in the Hartford Courant, featured at the Books on the Nightstand retreat, and is a Moth StorySLAM champion. He is the author of three previous novels, Something Missing, Unexpectedly Milo, and Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, an international bestseller. His novels have been translated into more than 25 languages. Dicks lives in Newington, Connecticut, with his wife, Elysha, and their two children.

Reviews for Unexpectedly, Milo

[mrs_mcgreevy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unexpectedly Milo is unexpectedly awesome! Milo Slade suffers from OCD and has spent his life hiding his affliction from others. He's been startlingly successful; even his wife has no idea. But now his marriage is breaking up and he's struggling to figure out how to fix it when he happens upon a video camera and some tapes. The tapes turn out to be the video diary of a woman who believes herself responsible for the recent death of her best friend and also for the presumed death of her childhood best friend who she helped to run away and who was never seen again. Milo decides to try to find the missing girl and reunite the two, and this is the story of his quest. Funny, sad, heartfelt, and absolutely just right.

[christineellei · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In his first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, Mr. Dicks introduced us to Martin Railsback, a different sort of thief, with OCD. In this book we meet Milo Slade, a health care worker with OCD-ish tendencies, which complicate his everyday life and are, quite possibly, at the root of his current crumbling marital situation. One day Milo finds a video camera complete with a collection of sixteen tapes on a park bench. As he begins to watch the tapes, ostensibly in order to locate the owner of the camera, he realizes he is watching a video diary and the lovely young woman has just confessed to be the cause of her friend’s death. As the tapes progress, Milo and the reader discover that she is harbouring secrets about many things. Milo, knowing the depths of despair one can sink into because of secrets, decides to rescue this young girl. As he embarks on a journey to make this happen, Milo and the reader meet a cast of quirky, lovable characters and travel through some interesting adventures, mostly brought on my Milo’s unexplainable needs. After all, popping the seals on numerous jelly jars, singing karaoke (99 Luftballons – in the original German) and needing to deflate all the tires on your own car can cause a few stares in polite company!

In reading this book I found myself getting a little annoyed with the repetitiveness of the author’s description of Milo’s issues, until I realized it may have been a tool he used to allow the reader to have just a little taste of Milo’s state of mind. Overall, this was a fun book. I liked the message that “no matter how weird you think you might be … in one way or another, everyone else is too!” Personally however, I enjoyed Martin Railsback more and wish that his character had been brought back for this second book. Oh well, maybe there will be a third book from Mr. Dicks and we can reunite with Martin then.

[jovilla_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Milo is a funny and quirky guy. He has OCD which results in several odd and compulsive behaviors, such as popping open jelly jars, singing a certin song in karaoke, bowling a strike, and others. He goes to a lot of trouble to conceal these behaviors from others. We meet Milo as his marriage is at a rocky point and he finds a stranger's video camera with recordings in a park. I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

[rschipul_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quick and easy read. Cute story. With a very large, overstated message of be yourself and you will be happier. Liked the ending very much.