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jisimpson's review against another edition
5.0
Holy crap, can Claire Bidwell Smith write. This is hands down the best memoir -- best book! -- I've read in years.
exlibris_emily's review against another edition
5.0
This is a really honest and touching memoir... Anyone who has lost a parent and experienced the void of grief really should read this. Well written and deeply moving.
sjreinardy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
eml898's review against another edition
5.0
I really loved this book. Sometimes difficult to read because of the pain she experiences - it is always honest and heartfelt
ela_lee_'s review against another edition
3.0
The last two chapters saved this book and rounded my two stars up to three. It was a lot less about the loss of her parents and more so about her past young (kinda lame) relationships.
The whole book held a very juvenile, teenage-angst vibe and I’ve never heard the word “cigarette” mentioned so many times. It read like a string of similar essays smooshed together to make a book that got repetitive and didn’t follow a timeline. I really wish the whole book was like the last two chapters - more about Claire’s current life as a hospice nurse and her input on the ways death affects us, especially at a young age. Still interesting enough to read, but definitely found her writing style irritating.
The whole book held a very juvenile, teenage-angst vibe and I’ve never heard the word “cigarette” mentioned so many times. It read like a string of similar essays smooshed together to make a book that got repetitive and didn’t follow a timeline. I really wish the whole book was like the last two chapters - more about Claire’s current life as a hospice nurse and her input on the ways death affects us, especially at a young age. Still interesting enough to read, but definitely found her writing style irritating.
connieaw's review against another edition
4.0
The touching story of a young lady that loses both of her parents to cancer, but also a story about her love for them and her incredibly painful journey through grief.
ljs316's review against another edition
5.0
Finished this in a day if that says anything about what I thought of it...
laurelinwonder's review against another edition
5.0
I finished this book this morning & have been sitting on my thoughts all day. Trying to think how to vest convey the beauty, the poignancy, the catharsis of this book. One reviewer said that anyone who has ever lost someone will find themselves in these pages, I keep coming back to this thought, because I found myself between so many of these lines. Not necessarily the actual events, some but not all, but in the way Smith felt. As someone who has lost many, including a parent to Cancer, and even this week my aunt to the same disease, it's like being forced to look deeply into a mirror. Now, for those concerned about trite, Lifetime style memoir, you need not worry. Smith has written this with such style, such lovely prose. And, better yet, a cyclical memoir that relies on repetition, and does not follow some set timeline. Instead Smith weaves in and out of time, in a way that just makes sense. The lack of linearity meant that as I read, I had to go over and over previous events & recall the time periods, this mimicked what grief can do to the mind. Each section of this book has such keen observation both in that place in time & the present of Smith's narration. If you have lost someone, and this loss is a part of you, then this is the book to visit. I hope the tumors of Jennifer Lawrence playing Smith in the film are true, because it will be perfect. READ this book.