A review by umrah
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

dark emotional lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Loss and pain in the world is unimaginable but I want them to try.

Short, yet emotionally heavy. Grief is the Thing with Feathers is about a dad and his two boys who've lost the Mum of their family. This book gave me a tingling, empty feeling, a kind of sadness yet not. The writing was lyrical and flowing, and frankly confusing at times. Like the confusion of life when you don't know what to do anymore, how to move on.

So, a crow comes to help. This book has a lot of references to Ted Hughes and his poetry, hence the crow is a kind of everything here. Thankfully, I personally haven't lost a loved one, so I don't know how accurate the portrayals of grief are. But you can really feel the lost, the forgotten, and the sadness. It's really there.

Beautiful and poetic.