Reading Karen by Kelsey Grammer, I really enjoyed his meandering style of remembrance. The book bounces around and that is just how our minds work. It can be hard to follow at times, but you catch up fast, and his charming and insightful delivery keep the narrative flowing.

Through this memoir, Grammer poignantly recounts the memories of his sister and the impact her loss had on his life and family. With raw honesty, Grammer explores the profound grief and devastation that followed Karen's death.

Thank you for the opportunity to review. I enjoyed this immensely. As a huge Kelsey Grammer fan, I thought I knew everything, including the story of his sister. Boy, was I wrong. It’s a completely different experience hearing it come straight for Kelsey himself.

Y’all know I hate to leave a book before it’s finished (what if it gets better?) but I’m 44% through the audiobook and I just. Can. Not. Listen. Anymore. Having lost my own sister, I was interested in hearing this story. While I’m hoping this was cathartic for Kelsey, it should not have been published. It’s beyond stream of thought; he corrects himself throughout and acknowledges that he’s being repetitive.

For diehard fans, maybe this is for you. Be aware that he’s misogynistic and makes judgements of the readers who don’t agree with his stance on abortion or what should happen to Karen’s killer. (I disagree with one and don’t feel strongly about the other. It’s not his view that I’m referring to but his callous judgement of anyone who disagrees with his position.)

DNF

Unfortunately this one was not for me. I wanted to like it and kept trying on audio, but Grammer's stream of consciousness style was too much (or I guess I should say too little structure) for me.
He defends it as his way of sharing the story, but to me it feels like it is a journal that would never be made into a book if it weren't for his fame.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC.

This was billed as a true crime memoir - Kelsey Grammer telling the story of his sister's brutal murder and his journey to come to grips with his grief. I have a huge amount of empathy for Grammer - his pain and emotions are palpable in his narration of this audiobook, even though the murder took place decades ago. He shares his experiences of remembering the events surrounding the murder and his attempts to learn more about what happened. The storytelling is very much stream-of-consciousness. Unfortunately, as a book, this didn't really come together for me. It's very repetitive ("Karen was beautiful, I miss her so much" was repeated over and over in every chapter), and it seems as though Kelsey put to paper anything that popped into his head when he was thinking about his sister and then just left it that way, focusing much more on himself than on Karen's story. I was surprised to learn that Kelsey Grammer was raised in the Christian Science church, and he seems to have a strong faith. However, this faith does not seem to offer him a path to forgiveness or healing when it comes to his sister's killer, and the trauma seems to be unresolved, just as the story remains unresolved for the readers. A ghostwriter or a better editor would have made this a more readable book. It was difficult to get through and ultimately, I would not recommend this.

First, I will start off saying that I am a huge fan of Kelsey Grammer, so that will impact my review. If you are a fan of Kelsey Grammer, I think this is a great book to understand him, his sister, his life, and his mind and heart better. Let me also state, I don't know that this would be a good book to read, but it is an amazing one to listen to. I listened to the audio and absolutely loved it.

Before writing my review, I did read some of the other reviews, especially those with low ratings, and I was very surprised by the reviews, especially by those who listened to the audiobook like I did. The audiobook is the best because it is read by the author and he has the most amazing voice in general, but when you hear him tell the story there is so much more to it.

I am going to address some of the issues other readers had with the book: First, some did not like the writing style. Personally, I loved it. It was conversational. If you want to feel like you are listening to Kelsey talk about his sister and his life, this is the book for you. You almost feel like you are listening to a friend. Some didn't like that it was not in chronological order, but again, it is conversational, and it is told in a very conversational way. I liked when he would mention something and then come back to it, that happens with friends. You might hear the same story again, each time there is a new facet to the story.

Some people also said that he didn't talk enough about his sister with one reviewer saying that he should have called the book "Kelsey." Ouch. I think that it does talk quite a bit about his sister and his love for her. There is not a single minute of this book where you cannot feel the love he has for his sister and the grief he has felt every day since she was killed. If only we could all be loved so much.

Others said that he either focused too much on spirituality and religion and others said it wasn't enough. I thought it was raw and real. He talked about his Christian beliefs while also seemingly contradicting them while talking about speaking to a medium who said she could contact Karen. I think this shows the depth of grief that he has. It is very real. You can be as Christian as ever and still want some sort of sign after the death of a loved one. And sometimes there are things that you can't explain. I felt so connected to him as I read this and I had experienced some of the same things after the death of a friend.

It sounds cliche, but this book made me laugh and made me cry. It was a beautiful book that makes you feel like you are friends with Kelsey and hearing him tell you the story of the loss of his sister and how he lived on, but never fully whole. I really humanizes an actor who we often view as larger than life.

I felt so bad for him when he said someone had once told him that he hadn't had that hard of a life. He has been blessed in so many ways, but I know I would not want to endure the losses that he has endured. He has been blessed, but he has still had a hard life and overcame so much grief.

I highly recommend the audiobook. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio ARC. And thank you to Kelsey Grammer for opening his heart and his life to us. It was a tragic story beautifully told.

I struggled a bit with this one. It sounded so intriguing at first. I had no idea what happened to Kelsey Grammar’s sister. But it just felt so disorganized and about him more so than just his sister. (Which wasn’t a bad thing but it didn’t keep my attention as much.) It also just felt a little too long, and had too much rambling.

A devastating account of the loss of Grammer's sister, Karen. This was a tough read. The audio is done by Grammer and his emotion is so evident after so many years. A beautiful tribute to Karen.

I REALLY wanted to like this book. Enjoy watching Kelsey Grammer. Sadly him reading this memoir about his life and his sister’s tragic murder was just meh. It was actually boring. It was somewhat due to his way of reading that the audiobook was especially dull. I love it hat he was honoring his sister’s life.

Such a tragically beautiful tribute to his sister. There are no words for when someone loses a loved one in such a horrific way.

Karen: A Brother Remembers is the deeply personal memoir written (and narrated) by Kelsey Grammer, in remembrance and celebration of his younger sister, Karen, who was brutally raped and murdered at just eighteen years old. Kelsey does not hold back in this memoir: he is graphic, emotional, and his grief is so evident, that it makes for a difficult read at times. It’s very different from other “true crime” novels. Rather than focusing on Karen’s case, Kelsey very much focuses instead on her life, his, and how even in the years since her death, their lives remain deeply interwoven.

While I greatly respect Kelsey’s approach in this book, it felt a bit long to me, causing me to stop reading around halfway through. There is quite a bit more focus on his life than there seems to be on Karen’s and while well-written, it was not what I was expecting when I picked up this read.

Thank you to Kelsey Grammer, HarperCollins, & NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

Are you a memoir reader? Check out Karen by Kelsey Grammer. It was a great read. It's available now.

I typically love memoirs and listen to them often. I was very excited to Kelsey Grammer narrate this story about his sister and their lives growing up. You could hear the emotion in Kelsey's voice and it was completely heartbreaking to hear him tell the story of his sister's murder and how it affected his life and the life of friends and family. As a narrator, he does an amazing job.

My problem with the book is that it is way too long. He goes off on tangents which I would not mind so much if he did not keep mentioning it. The story does not go in chronological order and he mentions it on several occasions. He is repetitive about other parts of the story as well. Overall, it was interesting but way too long.

Karen by Kelsie Gramar is an intriguing story that explores its main character with depth. While I didn’t completely fall in love with the book, I found the story itself compelling enough to keep me turning the pages.

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook copy in exchange for my review.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author, Kelsey Grammer. Anyone familiar with Grammer and his long time character, Frasier Crane, knows he has a voice made for audio.

I think it is also important to acknowledge a few things about this book that will make it difficult for some readers/listeners (and these are likely why this book has such varied ratings):

1. Kelsey Grammer, as a person, can be considered very controversial to many people who have been exposed to news about him for the last 30+ years. These things may linger in the back of some reader/listener’s minds.
2. It is stylistically written almost like a diary or therapeutic journaling exercise. There is a lot of “stream of consciousness rambling” type writing.
3. Grammer goes on SO many tangents in this book that have nothing to do with his sister, but instead, things to do with himself that were brought to his mind when recalling times with his sister
4. This book is about a gruesome rape and murder of an 18 year old young woman. It is very sad and may be triggering to people.

All of Kelsey Grammer’s own baggage and writing style aside, this is an absolute tragedy and my heart goes out to everyone who loved Karen and the other victims of these heinous murderers. I hope writing this book brought Grammer some healing from this part of his life. May Karen Grammer rest in peace.

In Karen, Kelsey Grammer delivers a deeply personal and haunting tribute to his beloved sister, whose life was tragically cut short. The book is part memoir, part true-crime meditation, and fully rooted in grief, memory, and enduring love.

Karen lives within Grammer, and with him, every day. The narrative floats between past and present, capturing snapshots of their childhood, the warmth of their bond, and the unbearable weight of living without her. Grammer recounts their lives with a reverence that feels both raw and poetic, working backwards through memory and loss.

Co-written with Winfred Proffitt and Daniel Van Loon, the book offers a structure that mirrors grief itself—fragmented, searching, and emotionally vivid. It’s a story about growing up, about the unbearable aftermath of trauma, and about learning to manage life without the person who made it feel whole.

Karen is a powerful, vulnerable, and beautifully written tribute that invites readers not just to understand what happened, but to feel what was lost.

Unfortunately, this book simply did not work for me. The story is tragic, for sure. I was deeply interested in Kelsey's life experiences and the stories he had to tell. I enjoyed the little snippets of daily life that he shared. The actual writing and editing is what lost me. The stories jump all over the place and are so disjointed that it was extremely difficult to follow. It appeared that Grammer was going for a stream of consciousness style of writing; however, it simply did not work for me. While you could feel the emotion behind some of the things he was saying, the writing needed a lot more editing to truly be able to follow and not get taken completely out of the story. I loved Frasier and was excited for this one but it just was not well-written enough to work for me.

Kelsey Grammer pours his heart out into this memoir and true crime drama. The things he describes that happened to his sister are un fathomable and gut wrenching. For a purely emotional telling of the lives lived and the life that was gruesomely taken away, get ready for Karen.

This is a tough review to write since I really enjoy Kelsey’s acting and listening to his voice. But I cannot say that I enjoyed this book - not just because it is (somewhat) about the brutal murder of his younger sister Karen, but because of the way it is told. The book jumps back and forth in time as he is writing the story, and it is sometimes difficult to know if he is talking about people from his past or present life. He tells many stories about his family life growing up and also tells stories about many people who have passed through his life in many different ways, like teachers, friends, roommates, lovers and colleagues. It’s similar to being in a one way conversation where the speaker is just talking about whatever comes into his head. He claims that all the information he is sharing is related to the story of his sister’s short life, but I have a hard time connecting many stories to her.
I want to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins Focus for access to the audiobook.