I thought the ideas in this book were interesting but I didn't like the cynicism and bitterness. If I were to rate how much I enjoyed it I'd rate it a 1 but the concepts were interesting enough that I bumped it up one star.

I've read one other book by this author and I've noticed that she likes to equate her characters to animals. In The Stone Weta, different scientists used survival tactics from the animals that they related to. Something similar happens in this book. Ruby, our main character, researches jellyfish. These creatures move with the current and are seemingly passive, but they trail poisonous fronds through the water for their prey to wander into. Ruby feels like she goes along to get along. She feels bad for her friends that have succumbed to Grief, but doesn't understand them. These Grief-stricken scientists relate to the bleaching reefs, to the long-extinct thylacines, to the tiny birds who were predated into extinction by invasive species. These Grief-stricken scientists are trying out new survival mechanisms, some of which include fighting back.

Again, the concepts in this book are interesting. What I didn't like so much: this book is a shriek of rage against everyone who is not absolutely and constantly outraged about the process of climate change. The scientists in this book think that no one at all cares except for themselves. They look with contempt upon everyone who is still trying to live their lives because they don't see how anyone can continue on with this utterly tragic (I say absolutely unironically) extinction happening. It seems that this author has a degree in science communication. If that's the case, then she should know that if you are trying to connect with an audience, you need to give them something to hope for, something that they think they can do. Treating your audience as a bunch of idiots who can't see what's plainly in front of them or telling them that it's all too late to do anything to change future outcomes is no way to motivate them to action. Maybe the author is tired of trying to educate and just needs a way to scream her own grief into the world. I didn't find it helpful, though.

I usually do not enjoy short stories, because most of the ones I read left me with something to be desired. Mostly, shallow worldbuilding or characters.

So you can see how I've had a bias against The Impossible Resurrection of Grief from the get-go.
I f*ing loved it. I immediately bought it and read it twice in a row. There was just something about the way these characters handled the grief of losing entire species of animals that tugged at every kind of string in my body, not just my heart strings.

Instant favourite, no questions asked.

@Stelliform Press and NetGalley: Thank you so much for this ARC!

What It's About: As ecosystems die, Ruby bears witness to the phenomenon known as Grief, which always ends in suicide. At the same time, she investigates potential resurrections of creatures long extinct.
Why I Requested It: Cade wrote another short story called The Mussel Eater, which I read in January of 2021. I enjoyed that story so much that it inspired me to read other works by Cade, including this novella. Plus the thylacines on the cover caught my eye.
Pros: The beginning is the one thing I solidly like about this novella. There was something about it that felt seamlessly immersive yet conveyed a forlorn tone. The jellyfish in the beginning scenes were also well utilized, with the atmosphere they created but also what they represented to each individual character. If this had been a short story, I probably would have a liked it a lot better.
Cons: After the thylacines were introduced that story came to a bit a halt, and felt like it lost direction. There was something with birds, but honestly I couldn't tell you what happened between the thylacines and the end of this book. Speaking of which, the ending was what really pushed the rating of this from a 3 star to 2 star. I have quite a few issues with the ending, but to sum it up without spoilers, the ending came out of nowhere and suddenly took a much darker tone. It was jarring, I didn't like it, and it kind of retroactively ruined everything that came before.
Finishing Thoughts: This was a disappointing read, not only because of the author's potential as a writer but because there was so much potential at the start of this book. Unfortunately, all that potential fizzled out and concluded with an ending that I really disliked. Maybe my opinions will change if I ever do a reread, but as it stands this was not one of the 2021 releases that impressed me. That being said, I will still keep an eye on what Octavia Cade is writing, as well as what this publisher is releasing.

This is a short novella, told in the first person, focussing on the narrator's life as she tries to solve the mystery that's presented to her after her friend commits suicide in front of her because of 'the grief', a strange type of depression/psychosis brought about in people by the rising climate catastrophe.

Honestly, it's a really interesting premise, but I had 2 main issues. Firstly, I really didn't like the narrator. I think we're not entirely supposed to, but beyond the standard "she is flawed and needs to learn about herself" journey we're taken on, I also found her pretty boring. Added to that, she makes really poor choices and is rescued from the consequences in improbable ways.

Second, this feels more like an outline treatment for a longer piece of work to me. There were just so many bits missing in the story that I was left not thoughtful at the end, just incredibly frustrated. Not for me, though I imagine others will enjoy it.

this was a wonderfully done and unique take on zombies, I really enjoyed how scifi this was and it really made me think. This felt what the Happening wanted to be, but this book did a much better job in this. I really loved reading this and thought it was such a unique take on things. Really well done.

Categorized as mystery/thriller and sci-fi/fantasy, I definitely think this book is more the latter than the former. Humanity’s grief over what we’ve done to the planet has manifested itself as “The Grief,” a depression driven to madness in which suicide is the only end. Ruby’s friend, now known only as “The Sea Witch” succumbs to the Grief and sends Ruby on a journey of self-discovery which questions everything she thinks she knows about herself, her life, her friend, and the world.

OMG I loved this book. It’s very melancholy (check out the title), but to me it was such a pleasant read. I loved the pace. If not for the sadness throughout, I’d call it almost whimsy. Cade has great command over language, and I love how she manipulates it such that it flows as flowy as the jellyfish tentacles Ruby loves so much.

It’s definitely a blatant commentary on climate change, but I didn’t feel as if Cade were hitting me over the head with a hammer. Through Ruby’s journey, we are encouraged to think about what we are doing to our world. Perhaps if we were affected as the characters in this world, we might take more action to stop the spread of the destruction and decay and, yes, grief.

This book is out now, and if you’re looking for something to wind down the summer, and if you dig books with a bit of mystery yet still chill books, check this one out.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for sending this book to me. A pretty difficult read to get thorugh when a lone during the pandemic due to the suicide content Otherwise a very interesting dive into grief caused by ecological losses resulting from climate change and human apathy.

TW: Suicide

This was an odd little book that I just don’t think I was smart enough for. I love science-y books, and books with a touch of the surreal, so the description immediately caught my attention. Also- jellyfish.

The first thing that I DO feel qualified to comment on- the cover is absolutely gorgeous- so kudos to the designer for that!

Now for the book:
Definitely an interesting idea- taking grief caused by ecological losses resulting from climate change and human apathy and turning it into….. almost a pandemic?? And one that typically leads to suicide? There’s some dark and twisty science/art/conspiracy here.

It’s a good story, but I got a bit lost with the dialogue. When conversation trends toward the esoteric, I tend to tune out a bit. But that’s on me and my preferences, not the stylistic choices of the author. Otherwise, the writing is solid and moves the story along at a pretty good pace. My one tiny complaint is that I’m not a book under 100 pages has enough room for the word “prevaricate” to be used as many times as it was here.

To sum up? A very creative story, a super-smart author, a less smart reader- but will definitely look out for anything Cade writes in the future.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy!

An absolutely fascinating musing on climate change, the loss of species, eco-anxiety and how to cope with it all.
This novella packs a punch.

In a way, this felt all too real. Learning about a new species that just died, art projects trying to mimic nature, controversial genetic enterprises. Having the contrast of Ruby, whose jellyfish are doing more than just fine with the changing weather, in contrast to her friend Marjorie who is mourning the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, makes it clear there is no hidden agenda or secret conspiracy concerning climate change. It's neutral in its destruction without being malicious.
What is more important is how the characters react to it.
Ruby kind of got lucky. But she is affected by what is happening and her helplessness is mirrored by so many people around her; it's infectious. Literally. Grief is a new illness that is slowly taking over the world. And it doesn't stop there. Ruby lost a friend, she's currently getting a divorce – life is still happening, falling apart and changing in this new world and she can do little else but go along.

We meet many different people who show very different coping strategies. Sorrow, apathy, anger; it's the same emotions and reactions we encounter when we talk about climate change in real life.


It explores a heavy topic and Cade does not hold back. But there is something about this story that feels hopeful and encouranges you to think of a better future.

In the not-so-distant future, humanity is afflicted with a psychological phenomenon called the Grief, an overwhelming melancholia brought on by collapse of ecosystems and the mass extinction of species. It manifests in various ways and with various obsessions: one elderly woman tries to bring back the thylacines, another man tries to recreate wrens with robots, and another woman becomes obsessed with plastic and calls herself the Sea Witch.

For our main character Ruby, she tries to stave off the Grief by fixating on the ever-resilient jellyfish—all while trying come to terms with her best friend’s suicide and her divorce.

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief by Octavia Cade is a beautiful and hauntingly surreal eco novella that blends sci-fi with Anderson fairytales. Without flinching, Cade poignantly tackles not only our relationship with animals, but our relationship with other people as well.

This novella asks so many fascinating questions. What is the cost of losing a species and what is the cost of trying to bring it back? It almost reminds me of that one line from Jurassic Park where Ian says, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

I just wish we had more time to explore the answers.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

all in all this had great potential, it unfortunately doesn’t live up to it. it was confusing in a barbaric sense where i felt like i was reading bits and pieces of different books excerpted to be shoved into this one. i wish i could enjoy it but it really wasn’t good at all and i found nothing but the cover to be appealing. maybe it has its audience but that’s not me, sadly.

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is a troubling novella, in which New Zealand scientist-author Octavia Cade explores the moral considerations surrounding and human emotional implications of species extinction.
In a not-too-distant climate ravaged future, research scientist Ruby specialises in the study of jellyfish species. She's fortunate, in that the species for which she feels both a personal and professional fascination are able to adapt to warming waters and other environmental effects caused by human-induced climate change. Many of her colleagues have not been so lucky, in particular her friend and colleague Marjorie, who once studied reef ecosystems and has witnessed the death of the Great Barrier Reef due to climate change.
Marjorie, who now identifies as The Sea Witch, has become afflicted by a progressive experiential depressive illness labelled as Grief, an devastating diagnosis that is spreading throughout the world as individuals face the reality of a world forever changed for the worse.
"That was always the hardest part of Grief, the realization that the absence, and the loss, was total." (Location 1090)
While some descend into Grief, others emerge as "new resurrectionists", attempting to reinstate, or at least replicate what has been lost, by means of biological technology, animatronics or hologram. Through Ruby, accompanied by her estranged husband George, Cade explores the scientific, human and moral implications of this. How do we choose which species are worth saving (or worth resurrecting)? Do we have any right to choose, given that it is we who have initiated their destruction? What are our motives in attempting renewal - is it for the benefit of the species involved, or our own?
"The Reef had been iconic, and nothing had been done to stop the pale skeletal death. That iconic was a statement of worth itself, because who were we to judge which absence was the most distressing, or the least deserved? Hard to make that judgment without mirrors, but we did." (Location 625)
Octavia Cade's writing is intelligent and immersive, successfully evoking the simultaneous wonder and incipient horror of what Ruby witnesses. She employs familiar motifs from fairytale and fable, emphasising the inevitability of human hubris when faced with the limitations of the natural world.
The Impossible Resurrection of Grief was a disquieting read, but really thought-provoking in its consideration of both past and present attitudes to the natural environment. I'd recommend this short novel to readers who enjoy high quality cli-fi, as well as those who are concerned by both colonial and modern capitalist attitudes to humans' dominion over the physical world, in some cases including other humans.
My thanks to the author, Octavia Cade, publisher Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I’m going to keep this review brief, a short review for a short book. This novella was a disappointment for me. I haven’t read a ton of what I’m now seeing called climate fiction. I really don’t even read a lot of science fiction, so I was prepared to feel a little out of my element here. I went in with an open mind, truly I tried to. Unfortunately, I found this book extremely confusing the whole way through.

There are some great concepts here. I love the idea of Grief being this specific iteration of depression in an age of colossal climate failure. That was really interesting to see talked about. I enjoyed the storyline of people trying to resurrect plants and animals and biospheres that were lost, with middling success. This should have been really compelling, but again, the actual storytelling was a huge letdown.

I felt like I was reading snippets from a much longer book. I think this really lacked a lot of exposition and transition pieces. I was frequently having to flip back trying to orient where we were or who certain characters were, sometimes without finding any explanation. I couldn’t focus on the writing at all because there was such a lack of comprehension as to what was happening. There were some scenes and descriptions that felt promising which is why I say I feel like I was missing parts of the book. Had the entire book been fleshed out in that way, I think it could have been really strong. Were it not for the unique premise and these small bits of promise, I'd probably be giving this one star instead of two.

I don’t want to harp on this too badly. I can see from other reviews that it really did work for some people, but I’m sad to say it didn’t work for me.

Thank you Stelliform Press and NetGalley for an e-arc.

CW: suicide, depression, self harm, minor body horror

“The shift in climate that we’d ignored for so long, that we’d only given lip service to preventing…when it came it took so many of us with it, took us with floods and droughts. That was a small thing, really, and we were practiced at looking away, so long as it only happened to other people, in other places. But when it started taking what lived with us-the birds and the beasts and creatures that we loved, the green world that grew up around us, well. That was a loss we hadn’t prepared for, for all we had allowed it…encouraged it, even, though our choices.”

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is a story of loss over everything else. Loss of self, loss of familiarity, and a loss of environment. It explores the response of humanity as it struggles with the mass exodus of ecosystems. This results in ‘The Grief’, an all-encompassing depression that typically ends in suicide.

I truly did love the premise of this incredibly short speculative fiction story. That being said, I really would’ve enjoyed seeing this fleshed out a bit more. The storytelling is dark, different, and thoughtful. This book would be great for readers that enjoy Jeff Vandermeer or other sci-fi/speculative fiction works. My only real qualm with Resurrection is the length. There’s just so much more needed, at least for me. It’s a 3 star read for me.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Octavia Cade has carved out a niche within climate fiction that she has called “ecotrauma.” The Impossible Resurrection of Grief is heartbreaking and raw, a fantastic introduction to this newly named subgenre.

<B>I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review</b>: Here's how we start this tale:
<blockquote>The Sea Witch lived in an abandoned salt water pool. I knew her when she was called Marjorie and had the office next to mine at the University, but when the Grief came on her she stopped coming into work and set herself up at the derelict public pool with a stack of useless journal articles and a lifetime supply of plastic.</blockquote>
That's a high-octane start to what turns into a careening rush between ugly and awful, ending its trip at unthinkable.

And you will not be blamed for wondering why I now say: Get this book right now. Sit down, open it, and then let Author Cade do her wicked, caustic thing for/to you.
<blockquote>The jellyfish migrated through the lake during the day, and snorkelers could swim with them, with thousands of jellies, with millions of them, and see in their lovely, delicate forms the histories of another life. They pulsed around me like little golden hearts, shimmering in the surface layer of waters, and it was as close as I've ever come to religious communion.</blockquote>
On a Palau dive a woman, Marjorie, becomes the narrator's very best friend. Marjorie's obsession is the Great Barrier Reef. The ladies, scientists both, bond over their love of and understanding for the ocean's many and wildly variable ecosystems, all under threat from Anthropogenic Climate Change (maybe you've heard about it?)—but few ecosystems are under greater threat than the Great Barrier Reef. Marjorie succumbs to a new thing, the Grief, a declining mental health state that invariably ends in suicide, that is becoming more and more prevalent among humans who, for idiosyncratic reasons, suddenly can no longer bear to exist in the changing world.

Our narrator, called Ruby as we discover about midway through the story, is apparently immune to the Grief. So is her Māori husband, George...not a scientist, an artist of science subjects, so it's really not science that saves or damns. But Marjorie retreats to behaviors so weird, so utterly foreign to her former self, and yet still sea-themed...she renames herself "the Sea Witch" from "The Little Mermaid" by H.C. Andersen, which is also what she named the expensive boat she bought herself before the Grief and burned to the water-line after it...that it's clear what the decline's end will be while remaining unclear what the hell she's going to do next. The next thing the Sea Witch does...well....

That is a thing of spoilers. The things Marjorie, I mean the Sea Witch, does or causes or abets, are...disturbing. I will leave it to you to read the under-100 page novella, instead of doing what I would love to do and relating the scary, freaky, incredible things that Ruby rips from pillar to post to attempt to make sense of, to attempt to explain to herself (and very possibly the authorities, though which ones and what she could convince them to do in a Grief-stricken world is unclear even to her) what Grief is doing to some apparent survivors.

Why I want you to get this book is really very simple: I need people to talk about it with! There are so many fascinating characters...Tasmanian Granny the Thylacine Jesus for one, addled by Grief but quite the scientist withal, and maybe the Sea Witch's relative...? Ruby goes to visit her at...well, because she gets a Message to, although George her husband isn't keen on it:
<blockquote>"Hurt's easy enough to live with," he said. "If there's an end to it. Break your arm and it hurts, but it heals soon enough and the hurt goes away. Even a small pain, if it never leaves...It wears you down," he said. "In the end it isn't the hurt that gets you, it's the exhaustion."</blockquote>
He's right; physical or psychic, it's the unending aches that cost one the most to survive. As for how that explains the Grief, and those who succumb, we don't know if it's causal or correlative, but Indigenous peoples all over are succumbing to the Grief in greater numbers than the population as a whole. Great grief is always a form of insanity, a melding of psychosis and depression, but Granny is extra no matter what yardstick we're using. The Sea Witch, if she's related, came by it honestly. Gawd...this climate-changed world of Author Cade's is one scary place! Resurrection is never a harbinger of sunshine lollipops and rainbows, anywhere, anytime.
<blockquote>"Some people said...{t}he coming of people like me, and what we'd done to Tasmania, the rest of Australia, and what we'd don in New Zealand...the same devouring, the same indifference to the pre-existence of other life. The same conversation, over and over, with different settings and different subjects." (Ruby speaking)
–and–
"I guess we all got better and better at killing. What a shock it must be, to find how efficiency in slaughter always takes the upward trajectory." (George speaking)</blockquote>
At the end of the read, Author Cade delivers a devastating truth to us, one that went straight into my commonplace book. Ruby is having the one conversation she most hoped she wouldn't have to have, and least expected to be remotely possible. In her newly cleared eyesight, she sees this: Self-knowledge was the clearest thing in the world. It was also the unkindest.

Unholy, misbegotten things always survive, don't they? Isn't that Evolution's sick little secret?

A surprisingly moving novella, I was not prepared for the vivid faunal imagery or moments of heart-stopping fear. A story about environmental trauma and a pandemic that has overtaken our future world in the form of overwhelming Grief, I enjoyed this original idea that as the Earth sickens and dies, so too do the humans who inhabit it, overcome with guilt and sadness at what they have done. The moments with the Thylacines in Tasmania were particularly shocking and scary. A great addition to the growing genre of "cli-fi".

“Can you watch something die and let it die?”

I was, of course, drawn to this book by the cover like so many others. This was a fascinating read, albeit too short. The author turns Grief (capital G) into something more, something deeper than depression but often treated the same way (mostly by ignoring it). The book itself takes place in the not too distant future where climate change has become unignorable, and examines the consequences of our ignorance now on our future. The fact that it was written in lockdown when the world was missing so much of nature makes it even more profound.

I would have loved to know more about the minor characters in this book. Grams and Darren, specifically.

Also, I’ve always hated jellyfish, but this author turns them into something almost beautiful and magical. So for that alone, alone, I’d recommend it.

An unsettling and beautifully written speculative fiction on climate change, grief, colonialism, greed and tech. This book grabbed me from the beginning with images of the ‘Sea Witch’ in an abandoned saltwater pool surrounded by plastic suffering from the ‘Grief’. The ‘Grief’ is a psychological illness that flourishes and evolves as everything else collapses; it is contagious and, sometimes, hard to spot. It usually ends in death. Not everyone reacts the same to every ecological death.

Through this short novella we see Ruby travel through Tazmania and New Zealand dealing with the loss of her friend and marriage, but not really reacting to the larger losses (and resurrections) around her. We see tech used in different ways to bring back what was lost- through genetics, robotics, and art? I found all of this intriguing, but ultimately too short. Each new encounter and character could have been developed deeper. There is such a rich story to be expanded upon here. The ending was abrupt and a little bit confusing. I read it twice and I’m still not sure what we should be thinking from that encounter. If Cade ever revisits this story I’ll be sure to pick it up.

I love that this story is a mirror we’re made to hold while answering the question “Can you watch something die and let it die?”.

Thank you Stelliform Press for the ARC.

I found this story intriguing but that it didn't quite stick the landing for me. I'm a sucker for cli-fi books and I really thought there were some good things explored here, but my emotional engagement wasn't quite where it needed to be. I do think the story raises some really interesting questions about guilt, what level of action is good enough, and what our agreed-upon ideas of 'sanity' are actually worth in the face of a world-ending crisis. If any of those themes are of interest to you, you may want to check out this story. The prose is really excellent and it's a quick read, but it's definitely for fans of a more literary story structure.