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alisonburnis's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This is the rawest memoir I’ve ever read - which makes sense! - and Deraniyagala manages to stick you into her feelings and pain completely. It was incredible. This memoir starts with the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Deraniyagala is with her family - husband Steve, sons Vik and Malli, and her parents - on the beach in Yala, a resort trip during their visit home to Sri Lanka. The tsunami sweeps them all away. Derainyagala never sees any of them ever again.
This is a grief memoir, so buried in trauma and pain. It is hard to read. There are small threads of hope, but they are slow to appear, which again, makes sense after such a devastating loss. I cried over reading about her agonizing grief, and the way her trauma wouldn’t let her perform grief the way she thought she was supposed to do. But I cried more as I read about her slowly learning to be with the things her family left behind, and let their memories back in.
This is a grief memoir, so buried in trauma and pain. It is hard to read. There are small threads of hope, but they are slow to appear, which again, makes sense after such a devastating loss. I cried over reading about her agonizing grief, and the way her trauma wouldn’t let her perform grief the way she thought she was supposed to do. But I cried more as I read about her slowly learning to be with the things her family left behind, and let their memories back in.
nrousselet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
crossinthepnw's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
abbeyholland's review against another edition
This was a really intriguing memoir when I read about it but it’s just not for me. I hate rating people’s life experiences and memoirs low because how can I judge and decide if someone’s personal life and experience is good or bad? I will say the writing was lovely and I really felt for the author but 95% of this book is just relaying of memories of the authors children and as someone without kids I didn’t find it very interesting or moving in the way it probably should have
gamecocksara's review against another edition
5.0
Haunting & beautiful. I can tell this one is going to stick with me.