A review by sixelad03
Welcome to the Grief Club: Because You Don't Have to Go Through It Alone by Janine Kwoh

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

It’s not the kind of book I normally give my opinion on, but when I saw it on NetGalley, I knew right away that I wanted to read it. Over the last decade, I have lost my parents and four grandparents. Six losses that I have experienced in completely different ways, but whose wounds I still carry, more or less healed, to this day. 

 

At the beginning, I started reading this book with a kind of preconception, was it another one of those books where they tell you about grief in generic terms, naming the sacrosanct five stages as the only way you should feel after a loss? I was pleasantly (if I may say so) surprised to find that this was not the case. 

 

In all honesty, I wish I’d had this book with me at every loss I’ve experienced. It would have helped me understand the things I was feeling. Maybe I wouldn’t have tortured myself so much by realizing that it was normal to feel differently about every loss. Of course, I’ve since become aware of this, thanks in part to therapy, but it took me years to push the door of a therapist when I have a book (or since my e-reader) in my hands every day. 

 

If someone I know were to, unfortunately, join the grief club today, I would tell them about this book and lend them my ear to listen and my shoulder to cry on (if they need it, because the opposite is OK too). 

 

I would recommend it to anyone, even if you are not part of the club, it might help you understand that loved one who is part of it. 

  

Thanks to NetGalley, Workman Publishing Company and Janine Kwoh for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.