Book Review: Grief is for People

Grief is for People
By Sloane Crosley
Review by Rosa

Through collating two vastly different traumatic events- a home invasion and the death of a close friend- Sloane Crosley explores the social hierarchy of grief and how it is often overlooked in regard to friendships. The division of her story to mirror the five stages of grief highlights all the discombobulated feelings that come with loss and the necessity, yet difficulty of working through them. However, despite its tragic subject matter I would not describe Grief is for People as overly dark or grim. Crosley utilises her humour, wit, and brutal honesty, and takes the awfully inevitable and incessant experiences of loss and writes them into being reassuring for those who are riding the waves and insightful for those who have yet to. Overall, this memoir feels like a deep and meaningful, albeit exposing, conversation with a friend where you laugh and cry and uncover that it is possible to continue to live, love, and grieve, in intense and equal measure.

For those that enjoyed A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.