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jcbelk02's review against another edition
4.0
While shopping at America’s Thrift, I found “The Rules of Inheritance” on sale for $1. I enjoy memoirs and thought the cover was interesting, so I bought it. Little did I know, this memoir would end up having a great impact on me. This book about the intricacy of grief and loss was extremely eye-opening for me, though I have never experienced much loss in my life. By recounting the loss of both of her parents to cancer, her own battle with grief, and what comes with losing someone important, Claire Bidwell Smith created a profound work of literature. By retelling stories from her own life categorized by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief, Smith identifies moments that she adverts from feeling her own grief, ending the book with “Acceptance”. Through this, she reveals that the only way to get through grief is to truly feel everything that comes with it.
As someone who lives with intense anxiety about losing those around me, I felt familiar with the sense of avoidance that Smith admitted to feeling for ten years after she lost her mother. After reading all of the book, I felt halfway prepared for whatever life throws at me in the future, though you can never truly prepare for the loss of loved ones. Smith portrays an important lesson about loss and grief in “The Rules of Inheritance”; there are no rules. The grieving process is not constrained to just five stages, and it is okay to feel your way through the darkness of losing a person you love. Smith’s storytelling abilities were touching, and she made even the grittiest parts of her life easier to read, simply because the reader knows that she lived through it. I felt comforted by the telling of Smith’s story starting as a teenager with no direction in life to growing up and finding exactly what made her happy and content, even with struggles in between the two.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this emotional, eye-opening book. I would definitely recommend this to people who have lost a loved one or those who fear losing loved ones. The stories that Smith tells about mental health, growing up, maturing (because growing up and maturing are two whole different things), loss, and grief are an extremely beautiful summation of works, and they would have a great impact on those who are interested in those topics and themes.
As someone who lives with intense anxiety about losing those around me, I felt familiar with the sense of avoidance that Smith admitted to feeling for ten years after she lost her mother. After reading all of the book, I felt halfway prepared for whatever life throws at me in the future, though you can never truly prepare for the loss of loved ones. Smith portrays an important lesson about loss and grief in “The Rules of Inheritance”; there are no rules. The grieving process is not constrained to just five stages, and it is okay to feel your way through the darkness of losing a person you love. Smith’s storytelling abilities were touching, and she made even the grittiest parts of her life easier to read, simply because the reader knows that she lived through it. I felt comforted by the telling of Smith’s story starting as a teenager with no direction in life to growing up and finding exactly what made her happy and content, even with struggles in between the two.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this emotional, eye-opening book. I would definitely recommend this to people who have lost a loved one or those who fear losing loved ones. The stories that Smith tells about mental health, growing up, maturing (because growing up and maturing are two whole different things), loss, and grief are an extremely beautiful summation of works, and they would have a great impact on those who are interested in those topics and themes.
betsyelwert's review against another edition
4.0
A little depressing at first. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it didn't keep jumping around to different years.
sundaydutro's review against another edition
4.0
"I'll immediately recognize in her that same need I had at age twenty-two. The need, not just to be loved, but to be owned."
freshprincessofmelayers's review against another edition
5.0
I cried heavy and hard. Which was embarrassing since I read this on an airplane. It was the perfect and accurate description of grief, which is to say that it is true to our feelings and varies by person. The book is honest and beautifully well written. The book accounts grief not sequentially but by stages of grief which I thought was remarkable and intriguing. This book was incredible and the story Claire tells is palpable.
chelseyroberts's review against another edition
4.0
A very honest, very touching memoir of an only child who lost both of her parents to cancer by the time she was 25.
daniellepaige86's review against another edition
4.0
So real. I felt the emotions that Claire felt. Powerful book.
theodorable211's review against another edition
5.0
I don't know how I haven't already reviewed the book that has been the most helpful to me in my grief process. Someone commented on my blog that I should read Claire's work, and I'm so grateful for that comment. This book talks about Claire's deep experience with grief, losing her mom to cancer at 18 and her dad by 25. I just lost my mom to cancer and am an only child like Claire, and so much of what she writes resonates with me. I recommend this book to anyone going through grief, and I've given it to friends after their own losses.
mizdoubleu's review against another edition
4.0
I think this will be a book I'll come back to again and again. I feel solidarity with Claire--I was born to older parents, with much older siblings, and raised as if an only child. Both parents have gone through serious health scares but have come through, though I know I'll be touched by loss sooner or later, in one way or another. We all are. The portrait of Claire's journey is moving, and I admire her honesty and her big heart. She's turned the blackness of her grief to gold, through writing this book and through her work as a grief counselor, to help others move through grief as gracefully, messily, honestly, as possible. There's a lot to learn here. Whether it's our own loss or a loss someone close to us experiences, I love what she says: "When I talk to grieving people, it's like looking at a negative image--the deeper the grief, the more evidence of love I see."