Carlock has endured a seemingly overwhelming amount of tragedy, from her parents’ vicious divorce when she was eight, to her own two divorces to the year and a half in which she lost several family members, including her ten-year-old daughter, Libby. This was “the worst pain I had ever experienced,” she writes, and she addresses these losses with earthy candor. Her slow healing, especially all she’s learned about “grief, resilience, and post-traumatic growth,” informs the TRUST method at the heart of the book, a distillation of her guidance for others into a mnemonic device she’s crafted for simplicity, noting “Grief leaves most people feeling like they’ve lost about fifty IQ points.”

The book is compact and approachable, offering an inviting, honest, and sharply plainspoken survey of what the author has learned as she pulled herself “out of the suck,” with neither genre, memoir nor self-help, fully dominating. While the guidance is sound and the revelations often moving and insightful, the brisk storytelling by design emphasizes Carlock’s own experience, with touching material about her love for her family and thoughtful consideration of her own “deeply, deeply personal” choices involving medication and treatment. Throughout, she makes clear that one guiding voice is not enough—readers facing grief should seek out support and professional help.

Takeaway: Lessons and hard-won insights from a life facing grief.

Comparable Titles: Megan Devine’s It’s OK That You’re Not OK, Joanne Cacciatore’s Bearing the Unbearable.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A