The Past and Future Walk Into an Elevator…
A thoughtful twist on the Scrooge effect, Just Emelia by Jennifer Oko offers a modern and introspective take on personal transformation that feels both familiar and refreshingly original. In place of Dickens’s cold-hearted miser reckoning with his mortality after ghostly visits from the past, present, and future, we meet Emilia, a 47-year-old woman in emotional free fall, grappling with grief, regret, and the slow erosion of self that can follow decades of caretaking, compromise, and silence.
The story begins on the anniversary of Emilia’s mother’s death, a day that becomes the catalyst for an extraordinary reckoning. Instead of being haunted by spirits, Emilia is confronted by two versions of herself: Em, her defiant, grief-stricken 17-year-old self, and Millie, a pragmatic, world-weary 77-year-old tethered to choices not yet made. Each persona reflects a different emotional truth Emilia has buried: youthful fury, aging fear, and the deep loneliness that spans both.
A Surreal Journey Through Grief, Growth, and Self-Forgiveness
Oko’s narrative plays out like a stuck elevator both literally and figuratively as Emilia is transported through pivotal moments in her life. The structure is tight, yet dreamlike, allowing space for surreal, sometimes whimsical storytelling while anchoring the emotional stakes. Each stop on this elevator becomes a mini-reckoning: a reminder of choices made, words unspoken, and the ache of lost possibility. The device could feel gimmicky in less capable hands, but here, it’s executed with grace and psychological depth.
What sets Just Emelia apart is its theme: learning to be kind to yourself. Emilia isn’t cruel or stingy to those around her. Instead, her miserliness is internal. She withholds joy, forgiveness, and tenderness from herself. Watching her come to terms with the patterns that have shaped her life is cathartic.
Middle Age, Meet Your Match
Oko navigates the emotional terrain of middle age with honesty and nuance. She writes with empathy about the quiet disappointments that can accumulate over time, the “what-ifs” that echo louder as we age, and the difficulty of choosing hope when despair feels safer. Humor and wit are threaded through the story, too, which soothes the existential dread.
The physical elevator Emilia experiences, one filled with sharp jolts, blackouts, steep drops, and sudden moments of clarity, mirrors what many readers may feel as they reflect on their own lives. Will Emilia change? Can she? Do we believe her transformation is real and lasting? Oko doesn’t offer easy answers, but she leaves us with something better: the possibility that it’s never too late to reclaim your story.
When you turn the final page of Just Emelia, you may feel as if you’ve traveled a long way, and not just with Emilia. As we witness one woman’s awakening, we are invited to consider our own.
About the author
The New York Times Book Review called Jennifer Oko’s first book, her memoir Lying Together: My Russian Affair (published under her maiden name, Jennifer Beth Cohen) “simply riveting” and twice named it an Editor’s Choice. Publisher’s Weekly called it “sharp, fast-paced… a fascinating glimpse inside the world of news gathering and contemporary Russia” and The San Francisco Chronicle said it was “a heady cocktail… a quick, juicy read.” Soon after, she wrote her novel Gloss as something of a swan song to her tenure as a morning television news producer. It also received nice praise, with Marie Claire comparing it to Carl Hiaasen’s Lucky You and The Chicago Tribune saying it was “a rare treat.” Gloss was optioned to be a television series. After Gloss, Jennifer completed Head Case, a comic mystery about psycho-pharmaceutical trafficking, that she swears is not autobiographical in any way. Her novel Just Emilia is published by Regal House Publishing.
Just Emilia is available on Bookshop, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble
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Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist
Books: In the Context of Love | Gordy and the Ghost Crab | Sleepwalker
New novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, coming fall 2026 from Regal House Publishing
Connect with Linda on social media: LinkTree