Scan barcode
schray32's review against another edition
5.0
This book is tragic, full stop. The ability of the parent to write this book so beautifully after the tragedy is what is so amazing. I feel like he did an amazing job of sharing this experience.
katscribefever's review against another edition
4.0
This memoir hit me in a way that I did NOT expect. It wasn't written from a religious standpoint, but it did have very spiritual overtones that seemed to take the author by surprise as much as it did me. Greene writes about his experience with senseless loss from a place of visceral honesty that must've taken a kind of courage I can't even imagine.
briannethebookworm's review against another edition
4.0
At only two years old, Greta Greene is involved in a freak accident while spending the day with her Grandma Susan. Her parents, Jayson and Stacy, are plagued with grief and thrust into an unimaginable situation, one that they believed only happened to other people. In the aftermath of Greta’s accident, Jayson and Stacy must learn how to navigate the emotions surrounding the loss of their daughter and find a way to continue living their lives with purpose.
I listened to this one on audio, narrated by Jayson Greene. I think the fact that the author narrated his own story made the novel more impactful for me. It was a heartbreaking story, and it was amazing that Jayson and Stacy were able to handle their loss with such grace. While the loss of a child sometimes tears parents apart, Jayson and Stacy looked to each other for support more than ever. A tragic story that gives us perspective and teaches us about the journey of grief.
I listened to this one on audio, narrated by Jayson Greene. I think the fact that the author narrated his own story made the novel more impactful for me. It was a heartbreaking story, and it was amazing that Jayson and Stacy were able to handle their loss with such grace. While the loss of a child sometimes tears parents apart, Jayson and Stacy looked to each other for support more than ever. A tragic story that gives us perspective and teaches us about the journey of grief.
knitter22's review against another edition
5.0
My husband's family lost their oldest son to malignant melanoma when he was 29-years-old, and this tragic event served to divide the family's story sharply into before-Jim-died and after-Jim-died. Every one of the remaining four siblings changed, some more markedly than others, and as you would expect, the real changes were most apparent in Jim's parents. They rarely talked about it, but I wish they were both still alive because I would give them this eloquent memoir, Once More We Saw Stars.
It's the story of how Jayson Greene and his wife Stacy lost their two-year-old daughter Greta in a horrible, completely random accident, but it's also the story of their grieving and going on. I had heard Jayson Greene interviewed and decided that I couldn't read the book because of how much sadness I thought it would contain, but Greene is a gifted writer. He manages to convey how absolutely heartbroken, bereft, and overtaken by grief he and his wife are, and yes, there is plenty of sadness, but his writing is so beautiful that there is also plenty of honesty, hope, and resilience. I especially appreciated how much of an observer he could still be, even in the depths of his grief, and how respectful and accepting he was of the different ways he and his wife expressed their grief. I think Once More We Saw Stars may well be among the top five books I read this year.
I am the reminder of the most unwelcome message in human history: Children - yours, mine - they don't necessarily live.
It's the story of how Jayson Greene and his wife Stacy lost their two-year-old daughter Greta in a horrible, completely random accident, but it's also the story of their grieving and going on. I had heard Jayson Greene interviewed and decided that I couldn't read the book because of how much sadness I thought it would contain, but Greene is a gifted writer. He manages to convey how absolutely heartbroken, bereft, and overtaken by grief he and his wife are, and yes, there is plenty of sadness, but his writing is so beautiful that there is also plenty of honesty, hope, and resilience. I especially appreciated how much of an observer he could still be, even in the depths of his grief, and how respectful and accepting he was of the different ways he and his wife expressed their grief. I think Once More We Saw Stars may well be among the top five books I read this year.
I am the reminder of the most unwelcome message in human history: Children - yours, mine - they don't necessarily live.
erinkayata's review against another edition
5.0
This book was unbelievably beautiful. Wow. What a gift to be able to take such a tragedy and turn it into a story of hope with lessons on love, death, parenthood, and more. I feel honored to have read this.
lizaroo71's review against another edition
4.0
I first heard about this book when I listened to an interview with Greene on Just the Right Book podcast (How Do We Write about Grief? - the podcast page is no longer available). Greene's two year old daughter, Greta, dies after she is hit in the head by a piece of brick that falls off the side of a building. Greta is sitting with her grandmother when this happens.
As a parent, it is inexplicably difficult to fathom the loss of a child. Even more difficult to imagine processing that grief and turning it into a book. But this book doesn't steep itself in melancholy; rather Greene gives a peek into his coping process and how it gets him to the other side.
This book reminds me of [b:An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination|3291844|An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination|Elizabeth McCracken|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437749017l/3291844._SY75_.jpg|3328337]. In this book, McCracken gives birth to a stillborn baby. She writes in an honest and pragmatic manner. Greene's book is written in a similar fashion. This doesn't mean there isn't emotion present. There is, but you aren't overwhelmed with the heaviness of the loss. Rather, we walk through the loss with Greene and he shows us the other side of grief. Not the absence of grief, for it will always be tugging at the edges, but rather that the incomprehensible can and does get conquered.
As a parent, it is inexplicably difficult to fathom the loss of a child. Even more difficult to imagine processing that grief and turning it into a book. But this book doesn't steep itself in melancholy; rather Greene gives a peek into his coping process and how it gets him to the other side.
This book reminds me of [b:An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination|3291844|An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination|Elizabeth McCracken|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437749017l/3291844._SY75_.jpg|3328337]. In this book, McCracken gives birth to a stillborn baby. She writes in an honest and pragmatic manner. Greene's book is written in a similar fashion. This doesn't mean there isn't emotion present. There is, but you aren't overwhelmed with the heaviness of the loss. Rather, we walk through the loss with Greene and he shows us the other side of grief. Not the absence of grief, for it will always be tugging at the edges, but rather that the incomprehensible can and does get conquered.
robbie779's review against another edition
3.0
Not as good as everyone is saying it is. Took me a few weeks to finish it.
lewzor's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful, despairing, hopeful, and true-to-life, I cannot imagine what the process of writing this novel must have been like. I admire Greene for his ability to share the worst parts of his life--and, consequently, the worst parts of himself--with the world, as he speaks on the unspeakable experience of losing a child. Because of the sensitive nature of the book, it's difficult to review--to criticize any aspect of it feels too personal. What kept this book from resonating with me on a higher level is the obvious privileges of Greene and his family, and the fact that these privileges are rarely acknowledged. It sounds insensitive to speak about privilege during such a horrifying ordeal, but Greene's experience with grief is distinctly upper-middle class: he and his wife are given ample time away from work, are able to afford travel to various retreats, psychics, and therapists. There's nothing wrong with using the resources available to you in order to cope with such a major loss, but I do feel there was a lack of self-awareness when it came to these experiences--understandably so, as this was such a difficult time in the author's life--and there were times when I felt as though a wall had gone up between author and reader as a result of these privileged experiences. This is a raw retelling of a family dealing with the ugliness of life and learning to find beauty once again.
pamplemouse's review against another edition
5.0
Jayson Greene and his wife Stacy face an incredibly public, terrible loss (one that was written about in most newspapers in New York City; one that no one, no parent should have to face, but that parents, that people, do). Greene writes eloquently, powerfully, beautifully here about the loss and its aftermath, about grief, about his grief specifically. There are many memoirs about grief; the best ones are specific about the author's grief. Greene's memoir is not an exception here. This memoir is powerful precisely because it is unflinching in its look at the way Greene faces his grief and his anger, even vulnerably recounting and reflecting on some of his more uncomfortable moments of anger (such as a verbal quarrel he has with a grief support leader). This book will kind of rip you apart. What I mean is, be prepared to fucking cry when you read it. But Greene is a tender and beautiful writer.
nssutton's review against another edition
5.0
Searing, devastating read of every parent’s worst nightmare, but also a beautiful ode to Greta and Greene’s relationship with his wife after their loss. I couldn’t look away and read it on a rainy deal in between squeezing my girls tighter and looking into their eyes a second longer.