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jlemke26's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written. Powerful. Heart breaking and healing at the same time.
heatherer's review against another edition
3.0
Really, 3.5 stars. Some of the writing in this book is beautiful, searing, and full of rich meaning. But it is uneven. At times I read sentences several times to try to get their meaning as the sentence seemed to contradict the rest of the context around it or the connection between one paragraph and the next was oblique. I’m not actually sure what makes the whole book hang together because it is so broken into vignettes. Having been a doula briefly, I appreciated some of the meaningful connections around birth, death, fear, faith, and earthiness especially. I would absolutely read favorite portions again, and I would love if the author wrote a more focused book. At the very least, I’m looking forward to talking about it with the friend who lent the book to me as there s plenty of material for discussion.
andi_h's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful memoir that examines not only the author's own life, but also the cultures in which she has found herself, life, death, and, as the subtitle suggests, what we do with fear. Rachel Marie Stone's writing is stunning, her voice both strong and gentle. I could have read another 500 pages simply because I enjoy her style so much.
coamyp's review
5.0
I tend to avoid thoughts of death, covering my eyes to the reality of how little control I have over my life. Here, Rachel Marie Stone pries those hands off my eyes, forces me to consider the reality of life and death, and still leaves me with hope. This book is a beautifully written meditation on mortality, childbirth, the trauma we bear in our DNA, and a God who is with us in the waters. Profound and wrenching.
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