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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Though this book is not long, it’s taken me ages to work my way through its grief. This book is so moving, so incredibly tragic, and easily the best thing that I’ve read this year.
Make sure to keep tissues nearby and to take as much time as you need because it is well worth the effort.
Make sure to keep tissues nearby and to take as much time as you need because it is well worth the effort.
challenging
emotional
sad
fast-paced
I had to read this book so fast because to linger meant to be torn apart by the author’s experience and grief. I wish I could have read more slowly to better marinate in the beauty of her writing. Maybe someday I will read it again.
Oh, my god, just unbelievably sad. Steel yourself, this one is not messing around or attempting to veil the devastation. Steel yourself, and read it.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Poignant and painful memoir about the authors tragic loss of her husband, children and parents in an unexpected tsunami in Sri Lanka. Beautifully written. Author married to actor Fiona Shaw. Audiobook is narrated with a lovely and soothing timbre.
An unimaginable tragedy happened, and I'm truly sorry. However, just as I didn't give Bohemian Rhapsody five stars (it was the music that everybody was giving the five stars to, not the movie itself, sigh!), I'm not giving this book five stars, because it wasn't a five-star book for me. The author describes the terrible tragedy and its immediate aftermath, then she talks about her toxic (non-)coping mechanisms (self-harm, getting drunk & high on pills and harassing the new tenants of her former house), and then she delves into endless reminiscences about the good old halcyon days. Eight years after the tragedy, she still wallows in pity and mostly seems to spend her days sitting around, reminiscing. Not judging, completely get that, but still, this makes the book feel like something that should have stayed a private journal, because if somebody takes this at face value as a depiction of how to cope with something, then oh lord. The vibe of the first few pages is "I'm sorry for what happened to you," and by the end of the book, the author does not really allows for that to change in any way, there is no movement forward, just never-ending brooding about the past.
Fun fact I just found out about: the author is now married to Fiona Shaw, the actress who played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies.
Fun fact I just found out about: the author is now married to Fiona Shaw, the actress who played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies.