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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.
mlcollette's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely love this memoir! Claire Bidwell Smith brilliantly crafted the chronology of her story through Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief. It's heartbreaking, it's beautiful, and it's oh-so-real. It's one you won't want to put down, and one you'll never want to end.
lynnski723's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the concept of the way it was written. It is made up of 5 parts - each a phase of grief. Within each part are 3 chapters, each a different time period in her life. That is what I think took away from the book - bouncing around between the various stages. It actually made it hard to follow at times.
I have experienced the loss of loved ones, however, I am fotunate enough to still have both my parents so can't fully relate to the author's loss. This might be a reason why I have rated this only 3 stars when it seems to average slightly over 4.
I have experienced the loss of loved ones, however, I am fotunate enough to still have both my parents so can't fully relate to the author's loss. This might be a reason why I have rated this only 3 stars when it seems to average slightly over 4.
scf2ke's review against another edition
2.0
The dramatic way in which it is written is almost too much to handle, rendering what could be a heart-wrenching story (and an apparently true one, at that) to be instead a cheesy melodrama