Helpful Score: 2
"Turns out, in the opinion of most medical experts, your grieving process shouldn't last longer than six months. And if you aren't over it by then, there's something clinically wrong with you. What the hell?
âIt felt callous to be expected to resume life as normal six months after losing someone whose existence had been so indelibly intertwined with yours. ... That was one of the reasons I became a death doula - my grief felt more at home in the company of others who were grieving, whether it was loved ones or the dying person themselves grieving a life they knew they could have lived better."
- Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover
The Collected Regrets of Clover will be one of my top books in 2023. I loved this quiet story about a 30-something woman who's experienced a great deal of loss in her life and feels called to help others go through it. As a death doula, she's often the only person with someone in their last moments, and she respectfully records their final regrets and/or last words (hence the title).
Clover's isolated life gradually enlarges as she allows more people into it, and her story is ultimately hopeful. I really appreciated the cast of secondary characters and the lessons they help Clover learn.
A book about death won't appeal to all readers, but grief is my unofficial reading theme of 2023 since my father died in January. I'm finding it very powerful to explore this significant event that happens to everyone but most are reluctant to discuss.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for access to a review copy of this emotional novel that is very worthy of its lovely cover.
âIt felt callous to be expected to resume life as normal six months after losing someone whose existence had been so indelibly intertwined with yours. ... That was one of the reasons I became a death doula - my grief felt more at home in the company of others who were grieving, whether it was loved ones or the dying person themselves grieving a life they knew they could have lived better."
- Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover
The Collected Regrets of Clover will be one of my top books in 2023. I loved this quiet story about a 30-something woman who's experienced a great deal of loss in her life and feels called to help others go through it. As a death doula, she's often the only person with someone in their last moments, and she respectfully records their final regrets and/or last words (hence the title).
Clover's isolated life gradually enlarges as she allows more people into it, and her story is ultimately hopeful. I really appreciated the cast of secondary characters and the lessons they help Clover learn.
A book about death won't appeal to all readers, but grief is my unofficial reading theme of 2023 since my father died in January. I'm finding it very powerful to explore this significant event that happens to everyone but most are reluctant to discuss.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for access to a review copy of this emotional novel that is very worthy of its lovely cover.
A great debut novel about grief and life's last moments of regrets, advice and confessions. I thought the book was insightful, if not a bit slow with characters I had trouble connecting to. The last 40 pages made the whole book for me.
