Welcome to Litsy!

Well that was... odd!
A writer-mother has conversations with her teenaged son, who has committed suicide: sounds pretty devastating, right?
But they mostly quibble over semantics. ? I wasn't up for being swept away by floods of tears but I was expecting to feel *something*. It's desolate enough, in it's own way, and has left me with a "what was the point of it all?" kind of emptiness. Maybe that was the point?

This is a heartbreaking book of conversations with a mother and her deceased son. It is a unique perspective on death and suicide, not focused on complete understanding but about coming to terms with the loss. It is beautiful written. 5/5

I expected a book detailing a woman‘s inner dialogue with her son, who died by suicide, to be a gripping, affecting look at grief. Instead it‘s inane and pointless. Their “conversation” doesn‘t have anything to do with his death or her grief but are instead circular arguments about nothing. This one is a disappointment.

This was a short book but felt like it was 400+ pages. It‘s a grieving mother‘s imaginary conversation with her son who has committed suicide. Sadly I didn‘t like anything about this book. In particular the dead son had an awful personality and I didn‘t appreciate the way he spoke to his mother. I just wanted it to be over quickly. If it wasn‘t for the Booktube Prize judging, I probably would have DNF-ed it.

a poignant read. i felt like a witness to a deeply persona grief and healing process.

I was not a fan of the writing style or the very pompous son. The idea of this story was intriguing but wasn‘t conveyed well in my opinion. While this was a short read, it took me ages to finish as nothing within could hold my attention. But alas, I made it and am swiftly moving on to the next.

I‘ve never had a child or lost a child and I think that made this book harder for me. Grief is slippery and so is this novel. As the speaker converses with her dead son about language and the nature time, I found myself getting lost. A good character introspection, but if plot-driven novels are your jam, skip this one. #netgalley Book 6/12 for #bfcr3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘m muddleheaded, I thought, because I could go on thinking but would not reach any clarity: Which, between hope and fear, had made life unlivable for him? I‘ve never called life unlivable, he said. I‘ve never lived a single day without something that matters to me, something that I live for.

Kind of a qualified pick as I think anyone affected by a child‘s death, especially by suicide, might want to be very careful with this book. Also, though I know we‘re supposed to feel the mother‘s pain in this book, I also feel the son - the book son - is a smug jerk to his mother, truly mean. And yet she misses him very much. I ended up feeling bad for, but not liking, either of the characters very much. It is a short, rather intense read.

You always say words fall short, he said.
Words fall short, yes, but sometime their shadows can reach the unspeakable.

“Nothing can be called a big deal now, I thought. If every moment is the curtain call to the previous moment, yes, we can throw up our hands and say, What‘s the big deal? Where is the climax of this play? But big deals and climaxes only form a vacuum cleaner of time. It‘s the small deals and the nothing deals that shatter time into ragged pieces.”

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Whew, this one looks intense. From the library and due back next week, so starting it over lunch at work.

From the short story in the New Yorker: “ I had two small children then, both in preschool, but despite others‘ warnings, I did not feel susceptible to the various dangers that the world could dole out. If the world had a mind to harm, it would do so to the prepared and the unprepared equally.”

Such a heart-wrenching book. As a mother, it left me teary, thinking of those who have lost their loved ones. It's difficult to even think about it, what more talk and write about it. Albeit a little repetitive in some parts, overall it's an insightful, moving and beautifully-written book. Made me hold my little ones even closer.

Full review on my blog.

Thank you #Netgalley & #RandomHouse for a free #eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A conversation between a mother and son after that son‘s suicide will never make light reading, but this novel got at the true humanity of these characters to make me laugh as well as shed a few tears. ❤️