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deenmachine's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: War
lbelow's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Minor: Kidnapping
honeyvoiced's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Death and Kidnapping
bealittlebrave's review against another edition
4.5
I see myself returning to this.
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Kidnapping
nebraskanwriter's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and War
mscalls's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
anger566's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Kidnapping
adhdru's review against another edition
5.0
It feels strange to rate a book that is so much about emotion, pain, longing —grief. A book that is so personal, and yet so universal in this times of global pandemic.
There is so much I could relate to even though I'm on the other side of the world from where she writes, although my family is in a different continent from hers, despite losing a different parental figure. Reading this book reminded me of a quote from "The Deep", by Rivers Solomon: “What is belonging?” we ask. She says, “Where loneliness ends.” —in a way, reading Notes on Grief reminded me that I belong to grief and it belongs to me, and to the many others who have had the joy to love and the agony to mourn.
Quotes that felt like my soul was ripped out of my body, exposed and then retold to me by someone infinitely more eloquent than me:
"[...] utterly unraveling, screaming and pounding the floor. The news is like a vicious uprooting. I am yanked away from the world I have known since childhood. And I am resistant"
"Our Zoom call is beyond surreal, all of us weeping and weeping and weeping, in different parts of the world"
"[...] laughter is a part of grief. Laughter is tightly braided into our family argot, and now we laugh remembering [...], but somewhere in the background there is a haze of disbelief. The laughter trails off. The laughter becomes tears and becomes sadness and becomes rage."
"It was so fast, too fast. It was not supposed to happen like this, not like a malicious surprise, not during a pandemic that has shut down the world."
"Often, too, there is the urge to run and run, to hide. But I cannot alwys run, and each time I am forced to squarely confront my grief [...] I feel a shimmering panic."
"I back away from condolences. People are kind, people mean well, but knowing this does not make their words rankle less."
"'Never' has come to stay. 'Never' feels so unfairly punitive. For the rest of my life, I will live with my hands outstreched for things that are no longer there."
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: War
jenniferpalmblad's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent
annabunce's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Kidnapping and Grief