The surreal, whimsical tale of Seven at Two Past Five by Tara Basi might be compared -- if it can be compared to anything else ever written, that is -- to Alice in Wonderland, given how ridiculously abstract the encounters by the main character are. Abi is seemingly your average, everyday button-maker, practicing her craft lovingly, carefully and studiously one monotonous, repetitive day after another. But on one of these days, she receives a sort of summons declaring her buttons to have "disturbance potential," setting poor Abi on an aggaravating, albeit necessary, path to justice.

We've all been there, waiting at the DMV or the Social Security Office, really any government office where impatience, aggravation and sarcasm are the norm. These frustrating experiences of our own make it very easy to empathize with Abi on her quest through a biased and impartial bureaucracy, especially when you imagine her as she imagines herself, a humble, hardworking member of the working class with no social life and no family. One thing she does know is buttons, and she is unwilling to let such claims of "disturbance potential" go unaddressed.

It is obvious after a certain point early on in this book that the entire subject matter is a metaphor for something much bigger than is written on the pages. Tara's creative approach to addressing life's biggest philosophical questions is unmatched. I couldn't help but be absorbed with every page, feeling Abi's frustrations and despairs as if they were my own. We've all been in vulnerable places in our lives, through which immense soul-searching has been necessary to either sink or swim. It is this kind of existential crisis Abi faces, and faces mostly alone.