Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - The Grief Keeper

"The Grief Keeper" is the story of Marisol, a seventeen-year-old girl, who flees El Salvador with her little sister under threat of death. Once in America Marisol is offered the chance to win asylum by participating in an experiment; taking another person's grief. What she does not expect is falling in love with the girl she is saving.

This novel was personally difficult to read, but completely relevant and impactful. So many details were packed into 300 pages, all contributing to amazing character development and storytelling. The book is in the first person and often includes Spanish, I ended up looking up the words as I went along, and I recommend doing the same, it added another layer of depth. My response to "The Grief Keeper" was visceral, and although not all of the technology in the book exists, the societal views that would allow the experiment to happen do, making the book terrifying. Please check triggers before reading.

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lowsmee's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

The highlight of this book is the relationship between Marisol and Gabi. The ending was a huge miss for me.

The sisterly love could not balance out the coercion, torture, emotional manipulation that came after it. I loved so much about the book but I couldn’t get past these 4 things.

1. I’m disgusted by the fact that Marisol gets taken in by the same people who were willing to sacrafice her to preserve their own family.

2. Her relationship with Rey has it’s moments but they are overshadowed by Rey’s willfull ignorance around how the cuffs work. I don’t buy that she just didn’t notice how Marisol was getting worse at the same rate that she was getting better.

3. I don’t think the author fully addresses why transferring grief and trauma from one person to another is a bad idea. There was an opportunity to highlight the importance of our interpersonal relationships in processing grief but she only hints at it.

4. Indranie uses her identity as a justification for kidnapping and abuse and it works.

The non YA sequel should be focused on Marisol processing the fact that she survived her own very special version of Get Out, and allow her to be angry at the people who decided she wasn’t anything more than a receptical for their fragile, white daughter’s grief.

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steviaplath's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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oliverreeds's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i really enjoyed this book because the characters were very well-written; however, the plot seemed like a loose association to give the characters room instead of a fleshed out plot. the idea of being a "grief keeper" seemed important at the beginning but slowly lost it's importance. i thought that the story would be based around the main character taking more than one person's grief over the book, but she stayed with only one person which, to me, made the book feel incomplete. the addition of the flashbacks as well seemed inorganic. i don't know what they added to the main character, and i wanted to know more about gabi as well and how the past was affecting her. the climax of the book was also so close to the end and didn't leave time for proper emotional coping with the reality of the situation. however, i loved the characters so much! i feel like they operated like real people (even though i wish marisole had been more vocal to rey about things she was upset about) and i enjoyed the romance element that was added in. oh, and i also wish the side characters had been in more scenes. they were only in one, which i felt didn't make them important to the novel as a whole especially because they were such interesting characters.

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morganperks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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tahsintries's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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cheesepuppy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

4.5

I hated this book as much as I loved it. It was a beautiful read. I looooved the flashbacks that let us have a glimpse into the past.

The author did a wonderful job explaining and making me believe in this technology that doesn’t really exist. The concept was interesting. I hate what was done to the main character in both her own country and US. I thoroughly enjoyed and hated this story

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