A review by kschilke
The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith

5.0

For anyone who has lost their parents at a young age, the author writes in such a relatable way. Even the structure of her novel shows the trajectory of grief. Her book sections are organized by the “traditional” stages of grief, and her chapters bounce back and forth between the decades and her age. To someone who may not have experienced the death of a loved one, this structure may be off-putting. But for someone who has, it reads like personal experience. She lost both parents before she turned 30, and her narrative goes back and forth between post-loss and pre-loss—because grief is not linear.
I came across this book after reading her more recent “Anxiety: The missing stage of grief,” and it was interesting to read The Rules of Inheritance afterwards knowing it was the window into her life and her future career in counseling.