I truly enjoyed this debut novel and can’t wait to see what Cary Gitter writes next! This was an interesting take, but also realistic look at grief, especially when someone dies unexpectedly. Everyone process grief in different ways and watching Cammy flounder in being back in her hometown, not having her life be on the path she was hoping it would be by the time she is 30, and dealing with her father’s passing felt completely raw and honest. It was also an accurate at least for me, way of looking at the Jewish custom of sitting shiva and making sense of how religion plays a role in moving forward after a loss.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up
Being Jewish and a Jersey Girl, I really wanted to love this book!!! Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me.
I found the main character, Cammy, to be insufferable, her behavior, abhorrent, and none of it seemed to have anything to do with the grief of losing her father.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Cammy's forced to face both her past and her future when her father dies thanks to sitting shiva. She's got a little more to her than the usual drifting 20 something woman we see in novels these days. For one thing, her internal dialogue is relatable as is the situation. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An interesting portrait of grief and nascent healing.

Cammy is a 29 year old aspiring writer living in NYC who is drifting from temp assignment to temp assignment. One night at a party, she gets a call from her family's rabbi informing her that her father has unexpectantly passed away. She returns to her hometown in Northern NJ for the funeral and 7-day shiva, but she's unwilling to participate in the rituals after the burial and ends up acting out in a series of incidents.

Cammy's grieving process and ultimate redemption are the subjects of this well written novel. Having been close with her father and combative with her mother, she feels a profound loss but is unable to deal with it. While Jewish grieving rituals are designed to help the bereaved, they don't work for everyone. The book does a good job of showing this as well as the life lessons that Cammy learns along the way.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Cammy Adler is struggling. At twenty-nine, her dream of becoming a writer has yet to take shape. The closest to it has been getting hired for temp jobs, copywriting for various companies. Despite living in a basement, at least she has made it to New York City, away from her childhood home in northern New Jersey. When she receives a call from her family's rabbi, she learns that her beloved father Cy has passed away. Although her relationship with her mother, Beth, is strained, she quickly returns across the Hudson River to support her as they prepare for the funeral and the seven-day mourning period - known as shiva. Being back home intensifies Cammy's feelings of failure. The last thing she wants to do is sit shiva. She'd rather smoke weed than sit at home eating kugel and brisket, talking to her annoying Aunt Miriam. Cammy reconnects with friends from her past, including her best friend Fran and Nick, her high school crush. While Cammy feels like a disappointment, her behavior during the shiva further strains her relationship with her mother.

In Cammy Sitting Shiva, Cary Gitter has written a touching and often humorous story of a young woman seeking to find herself after a profound loss. Cammy's actions during this solemn period of mourning border on the unforgivable, yet everyone grieves differently. She has hit rock bottom, and for her sake, as well as her mother's, Cammy is someone we want to see make it through this difficult period. While the book focuses on a Jewish family and its traditions, the experience of losing a loved one is universal, as is the feeling of being lost in life and feeling like you've let everyone down, especially yourself. This is a hopeful story of redemption that will make you want to call your family.

Felt very relatable. Some of the main character's spiral felt slightly too much but overall a great story.

Thanks to Netgalley, and the publisher, for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was completely different than I expected. Cammy went delightfully off the rails, and it felt like something that might actually happen.

Everyone grieves in their own way(s). We all know this. However, what happens when we grieve by creating chaos??

I would recommend this book!!

I love this book and couldn't put it down! The story is both hilarious and sad and I love how the author structured the novel around each day of shiva. Readers of all backgrounds will love it and you don't have to be Jewish to laugh and cry along with Cammy as she mourns and tries to figure out her next chapter.

Initially I really liked this book. The first few chapter were witty and complex. However, as the plot developed I found Cammy more and more unlikeable and the writing felt like the author was trying to hard to be witty and insightful. The quick turnaround and redemption tour was not satisfying after all that.

This was not for me. A very interesting exploration of grief. It’s interesting to have the gender bent concepts in this book. There were parts of Cammy that really felt unexpected for her character. But through the lens of gender bent it makes more sense. I really hated cammy in this book took me way too long to read. Even though I read Jewish own voice as this was not for me.

Cammy Sitting Shiva is a profound emotional journey through grief, acceptance, and embarking on a ‘second act’. It was relatable with likable and realistic characters- to the point I had to go back and confirm it was indeed *fiction*. I am impressed and awed by the fact this is Cary Gitter’s first novel, and could feel his love for his late father within the text of his novel.

Absolutely following this author for future releases! Highly recommend Cammy Sitting Shiva.

I really enjoyed this book! I found Cammy extremely relatable, her path of self destruction after losing her Father unexpectedly is a reality I know too well. I genuinely laughed out loud (shout out to Rabbi Wiener) & empathized with Cammy’s sadness & feeling of losing control (if she ever even had any) of her life. I’m not Jewish, so I learned a lot about the rituals & I found them to be very interesting. I could see how they’d be very soothing in a time of great loss. All in all, I think if you’re looking for a real, sometimes deep & sometimes make you belly laugh book - this is the one for you!

I DNFed this at 25%.
I had read some good reviews and thus wanted to read it. Im not quite sure why this book didn’t work for me but it didn't. The protagonist seems a bit insufferable (not because her dad dies, but observations she makes, conversations she has etc)
I’m not sure the author captured the essence of a woman, perhaps this book would have worked better with a male protagonist. Either way a pity.

Cary Gitter’s debut novel is a darkly humorous and distinctly Jewish exploration of grief. The story follows Cammy, a 29-year-old woman who has recently lost her father—not due to complications from surgery, but as a result of neglect while he was in rehab for an illness. Shiva is the period during which family and friends mourn together for seven days after a loved one dies.

Cammy makes some poor decisions during this time, which is understandable since she is grieving and not thinking clearly. This story made me both laugh and cry, and I found much of it relatable. Gitter is a fantastic and quirky writer! I’m looking forward to seeing more of his work.

Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC.

Cammy Sitting Shiva is an enjoyable summer read about 29-year old Cammy who is floundering in her NYC life and heads back home to Bergen County, NJ for her father’s shiva. Right off the bat, this book is filled with millennial Jewish humor. In particular, the author’s description of Cammy’s mother was rather humorous and relatable.

I am also a sucker for the work within a work trope. I did find that the main character had verisimilitude as well as unlikable behavior, and that her autobiographical play in the book captured her audience’s reaction which was mirroring my reaction to reading about her. I did find the main character’s irreverence towards religion humorous, though. I also enjoyed the main character’s Redemption Tour at the end of the book, which felt as authentic as her behavior in the beginning of the book. I look forward to future books from this author!

Sitting shiva, which is generally observed in the mourners’ home for seven days, is a regimented and sacred Jewish ritual meant to ease the suffering of those left behind. Family and friends gather to remember the dead and support the living. It is a solemn custom, most especially for those who are devout or adherent to tradition. But there are some within the faith who grieve in their own way. Cammy Adler is one of those people. In Cary Gitter’s debut novel, Cammy Sitting Shiva, readers meet Cammy while “adrift at a party the night her dad died.” She is a directionless thirty-something, living in a Queens basement, and is just about making a living as a freelancer. She is also not expecting to go to New Jersey to console her mother, Beth, whose husband, Cy, suddenly dies of pneumonia after surviving a minor procedure. Cammy is forced to leave New York to go to her childhood home, where conflict quickly ensues.

Full review coming out in Hadassah Magazine in the coming weeks.

Giving this book five stars, rounded up from 4.5 (even 4.75)

WOW. This is *the* new quintessential read for any twenty-something’s — especially but not only the Jewish ones! — drifting through life, uncertain of the path forward or experiencing grief or complex parental relationships. Certainly not a light beach read, yet I devoured it in under 24 hours, on my honeymoon no less. Chock full of love and tenderness with a totally engrossing plot.

The thing I struggled most with reading the book is the book’s depiction of Judaism and rabbis. On the one hand, YES, it perfectly captured the complex feelings (and apathy!) so many liberal Jews feel toward their religious heritage. I loved that. I also loved the push it gave me, as a budding twenty-something rabbi, to build something better than the fictional Rabbi Wiener. On the other hand, though, I find it sad to think about this book possibly reinforcing stereotypes about Judaism.

Overall, this was an almost-perfect book for me, and I am so grateful to NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review. And that review can be summed up by: I will be forcing all my friends to read this the second it comes out!

First of all I really loved the cover and the art style of it. People that liked Shiva Baby will definitely like this one — an exploration of a messy, realistic Jewish woman in her twenties trying to cope with grief and her identity told in the span of time she’s sitting shiva. Being Jewish there was a lot of familiarity and relatability here but I think there would be for non-Jewish readers too, and Jewish customs and terms were well-explained for those that might not be familiar. This was sort of a late twenties coming of age story, a subgenre I really love and that was well done here, with a lot of vulnerability and heart.

I compulsively read Cammy Sitting Shiva. The novel is funny, often darkly so, as you follow along the titular character's journey of finding her way through grief after suffering the loss of her father. For such a serious topic, the novel never feels too heavy. It moved me to tears, of course, but I also laughed a lot. I think it's so wonderfully Jewish to utilize humor in this way. Cammy is a bit of a mess, understandably, given the circumstances. And though she makes quite a few destructive choices, it made me root for her all the more.

I have mixed feelings about this book but ultimately gave it 3.5 stars rounded up.

There is another review that said it best, the book should really be called Cammy [Not] Sitting Shiva. She could not want to be anywhere else. Occasionally, the characters felt like caricatures and acted in ways I personally find semi-unbelivable. But then put together and with the way the story ends, it all comes together and I felt satisfied.

The book captured the complexity of grief (and specifically Jewish grief) well.

Thank you Alcove Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.