Hi all,
I’ve had a complicated fear of death my entire life. It’s manifested in various different ways. I am agnostic and not super into spiritual woowoo stuff or meditation either. I will be dealing with the loss of my dog soon but find most of the books around this too be too religious or “rainbow bridge” stuff that I can’t believe in. The books don’t have to be specific about pets as my fears go beyond that. But this will be a huge shift in my life as he was my first on my own as an Indipendent adult and has been with me through a lot for 15 years. It’s a complicated case where he has had some isssues his whole life but I still love him dearly. I’ve heard some people get into physics stuff to accept death. I don’t know. I know nothing will make it better but I’m struggling to find something to make sense of it all. Suggestions don’t even necessarily have to be explicitly about death but maybe anything to tackle existential anxiety and shift how I perceive the world. I dunno.
by prettybadatreddit
9 Comments
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
“The Presence of Absence” by Simon Van Booy
These books have absolutely nothing to do with dogs but they both helped me feel very comforted about death in general so maybe they will help:
Fiction: Under the whispering door by TJ Klune
Non-fiction: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Best of luck to you, OP. The loss of a loved one is never easy. My heart goes out to you.
Sorry to hear about your dog.
I have a couple of suggestions for you, both from the same series.
Terry Pratchett wrote about grief and loss in some interesting ways. One of the recommendations is the series of books within Discworld that follow DEATH – he’s a character you see, enjoys the occasional curry, thinks cats are nice and has the occasional existential crisis.
The first book in the sub series is called Mort.
Also in the Discworld series is ‘The Wee Free Men’ – it follows a young girl who decides that she is going to write her own story, despite what the world might have decided she should be. She decides she’s going to be a Witch. Along the way she deals with a variety of challenges – managing a clan of small blue tattooed warriors who enjoy drinkin’, fightin’ and stealin’ ends up being the least of her problems – including coming to terms with the recent passing of her grandmother who she loved dearly but didn’t quite understand.
These books (Discworld generally) have some amazing characters, great stories and are packed with humanity and hopefulness – and some righteous anger.
I hope you find something that works for you, whatever it is.
“The year of the magical thinking” by Joan Didion.
The Universe vs Alex Woods. Deep exploration of death and friendship.
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The obvious choices of Old Yeller or Where the Red Fern Grows
And, a little unconventional, but Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward is about hurricane katrina but there is a young man and a dog he loves dearly as a theme throughout the book
I’m sorry about your dog OP ❤️
As someone with a senior dog also in his final stages, sending you love. I am an atheist and found the way Gus Moreno spoke about death and grief in This Thing Between Us to be very comforting. The subject matter is quite dark, so perhaps look up the triggers / plot, but it’s a very short read and it might be exactly what you’re looking for. I hope you find comfort somewhere soon. ❤️
So sorry about your dog.
Maybe *A Monster Calls*?