Get a Life, Chloe Brown

Get a Life, Chloe Brown is a 2019 fiction romance novel by Black British author Talia Hibbert and published by Avon Romance. The novel is an #OwnVoices text, as Hibbert herself lives with fibromyalgia. Get a Life, Chloe Brown challenges conventional notions of the romance genre as it illustrates one experience of living with chronic illness and disability. The novel shows that those living with chronic illness and disability are deserving of loving relationships. The novel also illustrates how past trauma in romantic relationships can affect one’s present, navigating the complexity of romantic love, and exerting control over one’s life when living with chronic health issues.

Plot Summary

Told in alternating third-person perspectives, Get a Life, Chloe Brown tells the story of how Chloe Brown and her building supervisor, Redford “Red” Morgan, fall in love. After a near-death incident, Chloe decides to make some major changes to “get a life.” Chronically ill with fibromyalgia, Chloe makes a list of items that will push the boundaries of her bravery. The items include such things as go camping, enjoy a drunken night out, and have meaningless sex.

Her first order of business is to move out of her parents’ mansion and into her own flat. Red Morgan supervises the complex. He is an artist who recently left the art scene in London after ending his relationship with an abusive ex-girlfriend, Pippa. Red and Chloe do not get along right away, as Red struggles with class anxiety after his experience in London and therefore views Chloe as stuck-up and snobby. Similarly, Chloe feels anxious around Red because of his cool confidence, while Chloe is often aloof towards those around her to protect herself. Chloe also feels wary around Red because she often watches him painting in his living room at night, behavior she knows is wrong but excuses as carrying out one of the items on her list: “Do something bad.”

Chloe and Red come together when Chloe gets stuck in a tree trying to rescue a cat whom she names Smudge. When she finds she cannot get down from the tree, Red helps her and the two begin a wary friendship. Chloe, a website designer, offers to build Red’s art website in exchange for Red giving her a ride on his motorcycle, another one of the items on her Get a Life list. Red agrees to this deal and finds himself growing increasingly attracted towards Chloe, who likewise warms up to Red.

Chloe then asks Red to help her with other items on her list (barring “have meaningless sex”), which include a drunken night out and camping. When Red agrees, he asks Chloe to tell him more about her past and the reason behind creating the list in the first place. Chloe shares with Red that a bout of pneumonia resulted in long-lasting chronic pain and illness, which caused her friends and fiancé to leave her because they did not believe or understand the extent of her illness. She explains that the list is a way for her to get her bravery back. Red not only believes her but finds himself falling for her and wanting to support her in ways her earlier relationships failed her. The two nearly kiss, but Chloe panics and ushers him out of her apartment.

Per their agreement, Red takes Chloe out for drinks at a local club, which Chloe at once hates. She asks Red instead to show her what he likes to do, and the two go to a local art gallery run by a friend of Red’s from London. After, Chloe reveals that she used to spy on Red while he painted, and instead of finding this off-putting he admits to her that he already knew, and finds it funny and charming, especially now that they know each other. These admissions lead to Chloe and Red’s first sexual encounter on a darkened street corner.

As they get ready to go home and continue where their encounter left off, Chloe’s aunt Mary interrupts them and asks Chloe who Red is. Nervous about having to define the nature of their relationship with Red standing there, Chloe tells her that Red is “no one,” which hurts Red. Chloe tries to apologize but Red refuses and the two head home in silence.

Red’s anger towards Chloe in part inspires him to begin attending therapy. He realizes that he had such an adverse reaction to Chloe, even after she sincerely apologized, because the experience reminded him of how Pippa treated him. Pippa made Red feel like he was no one, and therefore he reacted similarly to Chloe’s statement.

Meanwhile, Chloe understands that she made a mistake and decides to leave Red alone. She is also upset to learn that Smudge in fact has an owner named Annie, and Chloe must meet up with her to return Smudge. Choe is surprised to find that she likes the quirky Annie, and later the two begin a friendship, the first friendship that Chloe has made outside of her family.

Red arrives at Chloe’s apartment four days later to tell her he forgives her. They admit their feelings for one another, but instead of jumping into sex Chloe tells Red she is not feeling well, and he shows her that he just wants to spend time with her. Red takes care of her that evening and spends the night for the first time.

The next morning, Chloe and Red again come close to having sex, but Red tells her he does not want to rush anything with her. As the intimacy of their conversations and relationship develops, Chloe makes important edits to her Get a Life list, which include crossing out “have meaningless sex” and adding in its place that she wants to keep Red in her life.

This desire is reaffirmed for Chloe when on their camping trip, Red shows Chloe the extent to which he cares for her and wants to accommodate her needs. He chooses a campsite placed strategically close to the cars and does everything in his power to make the experience romantic and memorable. That night, Chloe and Red have sex for the first time and Red explains his history of experiencing abuse in relationships. As Red often does for her, Chloe affirms that Red is not damaged or broken because of what has happened to him and creates space for Red to be vulnerable. Without telling each other, both Red and Chloe realize they have fallen in love.

Chloe and Red return to her apartment the next day with the intention of spending the day together. Chloe’s sisters, Eve and Dani, knock on the apartment door as she and Red lay naked in bed. Chloe leaves Red in the bedroom and goes to speak with her sisters, trying to convince them to leave as they interrogate her about where she has been and whether she has Red hiding out somewhere in the apartment. As they tease her about carrying out the items “have meaningless sex” and “go camping” from her list, Red overhears this and is at once thrown into a spiral of anxiety and anguish. His fears are not allayed even as he hears Chloe tell her sisters that she has removed meaningless sex from the list and instead added Red to the list.

Red misinterprets this to mean that Chloe views him as an item to check off a list or as someone to manipulate, and when Chloe eventually returns to the room, he unleashes his insecurities and anger onto her. Chloe does not convince him that being on her list is not a bad thing, and Red tells her that she has been using him for the entirety of her relationship and that he wants nothing to do with her. Chloe begs him to trust her, and when he says he cannot, she tells him to leave.

With them sitting on either side of Chloe’s closed apartment door, Red realizes how wrong his assumptions were, and tries to recant everything he said. Chloe now refuses to listen, too hurt. She explains that no one should have enough power over her to make her break like this and tells Red that even though she cares about him she cannot be with him anymore because their argument means they will continue to hurt one another. Red tells her he loves her before leaving, determined to prove to her that their love is not a mistake.

Over the next week, Red sends thoughtful gifts with special meanings and a book with a note written in it for her. Chloe refuses to read the note, thinking that Red is no longer interested in her and has written the note as a goodbye to her. As the gifts continue to arrive, Chloe realizes that he still has feelings for her and goes to see her grandmother, wanting to be with Red again but too afraid of getting hurt.

Chloe’s grandmother, Gigi, tells Chloe that love is not safe or perfect, but that it is worth it. Chloe admits to Gigi that she is in love with Red but that she is afraid to pursue him again after their argument. Chloe says she is the kind of person who feels things too deeply to be able to have love in her life. Gigi tells Chloe how wrong she is, and how she is braver than she gives herself credit for. Chloe realizes that in creating her Get a Life list, she is brave, and with this realization decides to go back to Red.

Chloe and Red reunite and agree that they will continue to work on their relationship together. They see that their argument was not a sign that they should not be together, because relationships go through challenges and even pain at times. Red assures Chloe that he understands the difference between normal disagreements in a relationship and abuse, and that together they can create a healthy relationship. They admit their love for one another and get back together.

In an Epilogue that takes place a year later, Chloe and Red are in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, a place they both said they wanted to go to early on in their relationship. Before entering the building, they video chat with Chloe’s family, who is watching Smudge for them while they are on their trip (Annie having given Smudge to Chloe and Red as a housewarming gift). Chloe reflects on the past year and how many places she and Red have traveled together, and how she has achieved a life even better than the one she outlined in her original list.