Being familiar with grief, the sort that disrupts your life in a major way, I was curious to hear Ms. Samuel's insights. And she has some good ones.

However, Ms. Samuel is neither a writer nor a story-teller. The stories she picked to share didn't always work very well for the section she put them in, and it often had the feeling that she picked stories that really impacted her, but didn't actually best encapsulate and demonstrate the point. Each section had a reflection portion at the end, and while they were helpful, felt like they should have been the point rather than the afterthought. The entire structure of the book just doesn't quite work.

So, yes, there is some good information, but it wasn't as accessible as it could have been.

This book was requested for editorial background reading. We did include the book on BookBrowse and in our "Publishing This Week" newsletter to about 26,000 but decided not to review/feature in full.
https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/12877/grief-works

Grief Works by Julia Samuel is obviously a book about grief. She breaks the book into sections and looks separately at grief caused by different situations: when a partner dies, when a parent dies, when a sibling dies, when a child dies. Each section has a few case studies from her twenty-five years as a psychotherapist dealing with bereaved families, as well as some statistical information on that particular type of loss.

The sections that I found particularly helpful were those about facing your own death, "what helps: the work we need to do to help us grieve and survive effectively" and one specifically addressing how friends and family can help one dealing with a loss.

Everyone will eventually be in a position to grieve or know others who are grieving. This easy to read and practical book shows the things that help and the things that don't help the person grieving to move forward.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Scribner Publishing for allowing me to read an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Written for the lay person and probably aimed at those experiencing grief, GRIEF WORKS is an approachable and manageable book of grief tales with some theory woven discreetly through. I imagine that those who are in the early midst of their grief journey may not read this cover to cover but dip into it and read the elements that they want. The book is in sections looking at different types of grief experience, such as, those who have experienced the death of a partner, or a parent or a child. There is a good section on facing your own death. The style is generally appealing in my opinion and told from a first person point of view.

There is an early introduction to how grief might look or be experienced and although this was a brief narrative, it was described well. This book uses stories of those grieving from the early acuteness to the later, equally acute but long-term experiences. The stories are in-depth and rather lengthy but there is no lack of detail. The highlight of this book was the concept of thinking of 'pillars of strength', I thought this was an interesting way of thinking of managing the pain and the journey.

I am an academic in this field and this book is not written to inform me theoretically, however, I could see myself recommending this to those new to the subject, to people I research with and to friends and family.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through netgalley in return for an honest review.