Hi, I know there’s a lot of recommendations in this subreddit for my request but reading through it all feels a little overwhelming right now.
I lost my wonderful Mum last week to cancer. She didn’t have an easy life. Left disabled in an accident at work, then prevented from getting the help she needed by her abusive husband. They finally split and just as she was getting to know who she was, starting to build her own life, and I was starting to get my Mum, she was diagnosed with cancer. Less than 1 and a half years from diagnosis to now. I cared for her the whole way through and held her hand as she left. I’m the only child as well.
I would love book recommendations, preferably fiction, to help. I just feel so lost and alone (even though I have family and friends). I feel angry at the life stolen from her over the years, I feel like the pain is going to eat away at me. I know I need to get back to real life again eventually but I just want everything to stop. I need something to read that makes me feel less alone, that I can escape into and feel that I can hopefully get through this (not necessarily in a overly toxic positive kinda way if that makes sense. It’s why I find the self help books on grief difficult… they seem to just be like “chin up! You’ll get through!”)
I hope this makes sense and I would really appreciate all recommendations.
by blairybearjessper
3 Comments
I’m so sorry for your loss, that sounds incredibly difficult and you were amazing for being there with her
For fiction that deals with grief in a real way without the toxic positivity bs, I’d suggest “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion – it’s raw and honest about losing someone close. Also “A Grief Observed” by CS Lewis is short but really gets into the messy reality of grief
Both authors don’t try to sugarcoat anything which sounds like what you need right now
I hope I’m not misunderstanding what you are asking for.. I would like to recommend A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness for you. It is a shorter novel about a teenager who is losing his mom to cancer and trying to process how he feels during it all. Reading what you wrote immediately brought this book to mind and I hope it helps.
Into the Wild and A Dog’s Way Home both really helped me when I lost my mom. I’m not sure why, but they just did!! So sorry for your loss.