Author: Lisa Manterfield
Publisher: Steel Rose Press
Year: 2017
Genre(s): contemporary, drama, spiritual
Part of a Series: No
Rating:
Why I read it: Once Upon a Book Club selection
Summary: Kat returns home from studying in Wales, where she fled after the untimely death of her first love, Gabe. Her brother and his husband have adopted a baby girl from China and the family is gathering to welcome the little girl, Mai. When Kat meets her she gets the oddest sense from her, almost as if Gabe has returned to her. Is reincarnation real? Has Gabe returned in the form of her new niece? Does he have a message for Kat? Will she be willing to listen—and comply?
Review: The book is a pretty interesting study on grief and how people process it. Or how they don’t, in the case of Kat. She thinks she’s doing okay, that she’s moving on but time and time again, it’s proven that she hasn’t really dealt with or moved on from the death of her boyfriend Gabe a couple years prior to the start of the book. Kat really has just been faking it and trying to mimic those around her, really unable to talk about what happened.
I got pretty angry at Kat’s family at multiple points in the book. Kat is not entirely blameless in the state she ends up in toward the end of the book but it appeared to me that she really had no support system. She suffered two losses very close together—her father died and then her boyfriend a few years later—and it seemed no one really made sure she got the help she needed to deal with both. And it seemed no one was actually willing to let her talk about how she was feeling. Her mother and brother (as well as her brother’s husband) had moved on and seemed to regard Kat as “broken” or “wrong” for not doing the same. So she thinks she’s wrong for not moving on, something she realizes is ridiculous when her mother’s new fiancé essentially tells her that there’s no right way or timeline for dealing with grief. What still angers me is that I don’t think they realize the role they played by the end of the book either nor does the book suggest how Kat was going to deal with her issues.
That’s probably why I only rated this with three stars—there’s a big climax that should have serious repercussions but it didn’t seem like anyone was really going to deal with that, including Kat. She just had a new lease on life and a new view…but she still needed help. Professional help.
So, yes, I did get invested in the story and in Kat. The author definitely created an intriguing and human character who is failing to navigate her grief. So much so, she starts to believe her niece is the reincarnation of her late boyfriend. It’s an interesting premise and Manterfield explores it pretty well, letting the reader decide if Kat is delusional or not.
Bottom line: An intriguing read about grief that maybe ends a bit earlier than it should.
Sex: An interrupted episode
Moonlight Musing
Do you believe in reincarnation?
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