I DNF'd this book at 12% because I felt it was disrespectful to the victim this book is supposed to be about. In just the little bit I read the narration swung wildly from objectifying women, to describing a violent crime committed against the author's sister, to going into graphic detail about a war crime witnessed by a family friend.

There was a lot I enjoyed about this book and a lot I was not such a big fan of. (Also disclaimer I did not know who Kelsey Grammer was before I started listening to this.) I enjoyed getting to hear about the relationship he had with his family. I liked that he still feels close with his sister and feels her presence, despite her being murdered in the 70s. I enjoyed getting to hear about how he learned and grew as he grew up and dealt with the hardships he was exposed to.

What I did not like at all was the random personal thoughts disguised as political beliefs sprinkled in, and I really don't have a problem with people sharing their political beliefs but I do think there is a time and a place for it. A memoir about how your sister was murdered and how that is impacting your life is not the time or place to share that you do not believe white privilege is a real thing or that people who speak out about assault are making things up.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.


This must be listened to. This is something that can not be read. You can hear the emotion in Kelsey Grammer voice. I had not known of his sister and I enjoyed getting to know her, even though it was a sad reason.



Karen by Kelsey Grammer delves into the deeply personal and tragic story of the author's sister, Karen, who was brutally murdered at the age of 18. Kelsey was just 20 years old and studying theater at Juilliard in New York when his younger sister, a recent high school graduate, moved to Colorado Springs, where she was kidnapped by several men who had intended to rob the Red Lobster where she worked. They instead kidnapped Karen, raped her repeatedly, and ultimately stabbed her to death.

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, as well as the long and arduous journey toward healing. He bravely confronts the pain of losing a loved one to senseless violence, offering readers a glimpse into the complexities of coping with such a profound loss.

Karen also serves as a testament to Grammer's resilience and determination to transform tragedy into a source of inspiration and empowerment. In sharing his story, Grammer aims to help others who have experienced similar loss, offering them solace and encouragement on their own paths toward healing.

Karen is not merely a memoir of loss, but a powerful testament to the enduring strength of the human spirit and the capacity for hope in the face of such overwhelming and devastating loss. This book is a moving tribute to a life cut tragically short, a testament to the enduring bond between siblings, and a message of hope at a time when we need it the most.

I’ve heard Kelsey Grammer talk about his sister’s tragic murder before and the toll it took on his life, but Karen: A Brother Remembers digs much deeper. While it covers the terrible events of her death, it also gives a raw, honest look at how that trauma shaped the rest of his life — especially his relationships.

Grammer opens up about how his sister’s murder left him with deep guilt and grief, which had a huge impact on his love life. You can really feel how that loss made it difficult for him to trust, connect, and feel deserving of happiness. The book also sheds light on how a violent crime doesn’t just affect the victim’s family in the immediate aftermath — it leaves scars that linger for decades.

What made this even more powerful for me was Kelsey narrating it himself. Hearing his voice tell the story makes it feel so personal and intimate, like he’s letting you in on parts of his life he’s kept tucked away for years. It adds another layer of emotion you wouldn’t get from the page alone.

The storytelling jumps around a bit, which was sometimes a little confusing, but overall, it’s an emotional and important read. It’s a sad, heartfelt reflection on grief, resilience, and how some losses never fully leave you.

3.5*

Kelsey Grammer is not a trained writer and it shows in this novel. His writing style is very much a conversation with the reader and as he remembers his sister's life, he bounces all over his own. In fact I think there was more in this book about his life than his sister, Karen's. This was marked as true crime, which I typically love, but the true crime element of this book was few and far between.

Karen : A Brother Remembers is about Kelsey's Grammer's sister's murder according to the book description. Much of the book however is Kelsey discussing events through his life in no particular order or sense. He speaks of a past girlfriend's abortion as a murder. The past girlfriend has since passed and this is how he honors her and their love? He also speaks negatively of transgendered people. He repeats stories throughout the book and acknowledges that he does. It's very confusing and he speaks of his sister as being in love with her in a way that gives me an ick, skin crawling feeling.

I do not rate memoirs.

Thank you to #netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this ARC for an honest review. I cannot recommend this book.

I was given this audiobook of Karen, written and narrated by Kelsey Grammer, by NetGalley and publishers HarperCollins, in exchange for an honest review, which will be likely be my longest in quite a while.

Starting as honestly as possible with this honest review, this was a somewhat torturous audiobook, not for the faint-hearted. Grammer’s particularly tragic story is the kind of thing that you discover in passing; an article maybe or a post that has someone comment anecdotally that, for example, sharks killed Grammer’s half brothers. This audiobook was listening at times to pure, undistilled pain. Heartbreaking isn’t just a word here, it’s a visceral feeling of loss that stops you in your tracks and makes you want to call anyone you know and like and say, I appreciate you, or as the Grammers learned to say, I love you.

It's shattering, how senseless crimes leave scars and wounds that won't heal and at times, Kelsey writes impeccably.

However, this audiobook meanders wildly. Now, it may be time to list the problems I had with this.

• Relevant information: How do we evaluate what goes in an autobiography and what is left edited on the Word document? An editor, usually. This book contains a great mound of information, which leads me to part 2.

• Some of the anecdotes are in Grammer’s words, wrangling and in mine superfluous, hence the need for an editor. Grammer invites us, via Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, to consider how he includes the audience in this process. I don’t like breaking the fourth wall in plays or films. I felt this technique should only have been included in the intro of this book. It takes you out of the narrative action.

• He edits throughout the book. This is an investigation into the heart, mind, body and soul of Karen. As he discovers new things or inaccuracies, he lets the audience know. Couldn’t this be done more engagingly? Maybe a corrections section at the end. It feels like it was written and not revised, even though he tells us in his asides that there have been at least five or six drafts. It feels close to amateurish, even if these discoveries are being made in real time.

• Confused narrative techniques. Karen is a focus, but so are many uncoordinated elements of Grammer’s life. He believes in truth, whether it’s commenting on women’s attractiveness or his love for Goose, the dog who is anecdotally referenced across many chapters. Btw, there are no headers, just chapters. The editor in this book evidently had no say, which weakens and dillutes the story, as we rehash various elements. Grammer should trust that the reader is listening and will retain the information. This non-linear story would have been better served by having chapter focuses on certain characters and other chapters that act as asides. He freely admits throughout asides, btw, that you may be confused. Well, disarm us of the confusion, Grammer.

• Grammer is from a different generation, this I get, but the book expounds this. It functions at times as a Kelsey Knows Best or...

• A Help Guide: The World According to Kelsey. Where the book most suffers, however, is that Grammer...

• is obsessed with including his opinion in moments that don’t require it. For example, his righteous anger towards his sister’s assassins invites us to say that he feels that they need to stay in prison. He then says to us that if you disagree, then you have no heart. You see, I think if we’d picked up this book, we’re already connecting to the emotional substance of it all. It’s not helpful to have him leading, as he does several other times with other current issues. Trust that the readers can make their own takeaways without negotiating with us about how to think and feel.


In so many ways, this affected the book. I’m rounding up the whole thing to 3 stars (generously, I argue) partly because the end – about how Grammer’s faith had helped him reach a higher ground in dealing with this terrible tragedy – was profound, inspiring and a true step towards his healing.

Btw, if you were wondering if he referred to the negative connotations towards the name Karen, he covers that too. I agree that the term is an assault towards the Karens of this world (it turns out a Reddit post from an ex-husband ragging about his wife, Karen, was a significant factor but Grammer’s attempt to subvert this current more is unneeded, after all we had Karen Carpenter, who was known to be an Angel and a Saint of the Karen variety.

In conclusion, Grammer is a singular talent (he sang People beautifully, he tells us sometime in the 70s) with an incredible voice, a definition of bonhomie. For that reason, his lust for life and nostalgia for everything in his life also gave this some charm amongst so much tragedy.

Although I've seen Kelsey Grammer in many things, I never knew much about him as a person. Although Karen is supposed to be about his sister Karen, Kelsey makes the story mostly about himself with his sister as a side-note, and he constantly references the paranormal as if Karen herself told him to write this book. I DNFed this after only a couple chapters.

If you're a Frasier fan like me, there's something uniquely moving about hearing that familiar voice narrate such a deeply personal journey. What really got me was how Grammer grapples with the ownership of tragedy. Does Karen's story belong solely to her, or also to those left behind picking up the pieces? You can hear raw emotion crack through his narration at times before he composes himself, which I believe adds a layer you just wouldn't get from the print version. Also, the stream-of-consciousness style works perfectly as an audiobook, though I suspect it might be a bit much on the page. It would likely feel a bit erratic.

When he discusses his rage at the possibility of Karen's killer receiving parole, you feel that impossible tension between forgiveness and justice. No easy answers there, which feels refreshingly honest.

Karen's simple mantra — "If we love each other we should say so" — might be the takeaway that sticks with me most.

This one is Worth your time if you've followed Grammer's career, but might not hit the right notes for people not familiar with him.

In Karen, Kelsey Grammer presents a deeply personal and emotionally raw tribute to his sister, whose tragic murder in 1975 left an indelible mark on his life. Through the audiobook—narrated by Grammer himself—the listener gains intimate access to the weight of grief and trauma he continues to carry. His voice, tinged with sorrow and reflection, adds an authentic and haunting depth to the narrative.

Grammer does an admirable job of honoring his sister’s memory, providing insight into her life while unflinchingly confronting the horror of her death. His storytelling is honest, heartfelt, and clearly shaped by decades of emotional processing. It’s a powerful testament to sibling love, loss, and the enduring scars left behind.

One structural critique, however, lies in the book’s non-linear storytelling. The decision to jump back and forth through time may resonate emotionally for some, reflecting the nature of trauma and memory. However, for others, a more chronological approach—from birth to death—might have strengthened the narrative flow and made Karen’s life story more cohesive and impactful.

Ultimately, Karen is a courageous act of remembrance by Grammer. It’s a moving, if at times uneven, memoir that succeeds in illuminating both a beloved sister’s spirit and the long shadow her death has cast on a grieving brother’s soul.

This felt more like Kelsey Grammer talking about the bodies of women he encountered instead of focusing primarily on his sister's story. It felt icky. So I couldn't get through the book without rolling my eyes over and over.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC audiobook.
I have been a huge fan of Kelsey Grammer for MANY years.
This book absolutely broke me. You can hear and feel the pain in every word he spoke. Karen will be in my heart and in my mind every single day for the rest of my life.

In Karen: A Brother Remembers, Kelsey Grammer opens his heart in a moving tribute to his sister, Karen, who was tragically murdered in 1975. Told with emotional depth and quiet strength, the memoir is both a remembrance and a reflection on grief, love, and the long shadow of loss. Grammer’s narration of the audiobook adds an intimate, powerful dimension. His voice—measured, sincere, and deeply personal—guides listeners through memories of childhood, the pain of Karen’s death, and the lifelong process of healing. The result is a raw yet graceful exploration of sibling bonds and the resilience of the human spirit. Honest, affecting, and beautifully told, Karen: A Brother Remembers is a poignant listen that stays with you long after it ends.

I almost always enjoy things that Kelsey Grammer is a part of, so I was very interested when I saw he had written a memoir about his sister, Karen. More specifically, about her kidnapping and murder several decades ago, an event about which I previously had no knowledge.

I listened to this audiobook, and I loved hearing not only Kelsey's words but his voice, as well. This book was very much written in a stream-of-consciousness style, and I don't think it would have worked if not relayed with his own inflections and emotion.

The book was a little repetitive for me, but I think that is to be expected within this style, and it felt very much like a catharsis for him. Although he lost his sister nearly fifty years ago, you can tell how much her life impacted his and how strong his bond still is with her. I also really enjoyed learning more about Grammer's own life, as I did not know many details of his personal story.

I am typically a fan of celebrity memoirs (especially when the audiobooks are narrated by the authors), and I'm glad I gave this one a try!

Karen: A Brother Remembers by Kelsey Grammer is meant as a true crime autobiography of Kelsey Grammer's sister Karen's rape and death. But ultimately reading like a Kelsey memoir as he works through his grief of loosing his siter. And while this could have been great, we unfortunately get a story that is unfocused, meanders in through the course of his life, and provides very little information about his sister. To put the icing on this cake, some of the language he uses to describe women is so dated, that it borders on misogynistic and takes away from the obvious grief he feels for his sister and any sympathy you could feel for him.

I was excite to listen to this ARC because I thought that Kelsey Grammer would have a great voice for audio narrations and there he did not disappoint. He did a fabulous job with the narration itself, It's just the content for me that fell flat.

Thank you to HarperCollins Focus | Harper Select for the opportunity to listen to this ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3 stars
Publication date: May 06 2025

#HarperCollins
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Sorry to say this will be a DNF for me (at least for now…). I came into reading this with high hopes, as I loved ‘Dr. Frasier Crane’ and was not aware of this horrible tragedy that he endured, and never spoke of… but I just can’t keep reading.

You can hear in his voice how broken he still remains, 50 years after the brutal murder of his sister, but it is just so hard to get through. As he is narrating, he mentions several times how he’s just writing, and not thinking about how it all comes out…. And you can tell. The story, though heartbreaking, feels very disjointed…and like it was just all thrown together. Not thought out, edited, and then published.

Additionally, he begins with the murder, and then goes back to them growing up, as kids. But int the middle of this he speaks of his first wife, then his current wife, and then jumps back to the murder, and then them growing up. So, it’s VERY hard to follow… and very sad.

I may come back to read it again at a later date, but for now I’m shelving it at just under 40%.

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsFocus for an ARC of the audiobook in exchange for an honest opinion.

3⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me.

Karen by Kelsey Grammer. This has not yet been released, but look 👀 for it on 5/6/25.

Being as this is a DNF for me, I will limit my review to Goodreads and NetGalley.

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Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins and author Kelsey Grammer for gifting me an advanced audio copy of Karen. In exchange I offer my honest review.

It’s evident from the start that the death of Kelsey Grammer’s sister Karen left an indelible mark on the actor’s life. His pain, loss and grief were palpable. However in working through his grief the story was quite erratic, jumbled and messy. Karen was more about Kelsey and less about his sister and her brutal abduction and murder. And for some reason, I found Kelsey’s voice, monotone- devoid of emotion which added to my overall discomfort with this memoir.
Whilst others may find this book comforting and helpful sadly I did not.

Unfortunately this was not for me. Kelsey Grammer comments in this memoir several times that the writing style and format will not be for everyone. There was no continuity or organization - it felt more like stream of consciousness. This was a very self-referential memoir as well which took me out of it. This work felt more like Kelsey Grammer working through his life and trauma, not as a memoir meant for mass consumption. The comments about women made me feel icky at times…

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for access to this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Select for the digital copy of this audiobook; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Fifty years ago, actor Kelsey Grammer’s sister was brutally raped and murdered. The two were very close, and despite more than 40 years in the public eye, he had never really talked about the tragedy. Until now. Grammer lovingly wrote this biography/memoir to show how so many of his life events and decisions swirl around his thoughts of his sister.

What the reader gets is a book full of philosophical musings about What If, as well as a memoir that reads like a stream of consciousness. Grammer starts with Karen’s murder and then slowly goes backwards in time, telling stories about his sister and himself. He also jumps around in the timeline, which at times is confusing.

With the audiobook narrated by Grammer, you can hear in his voice how he still hasn’t healed from the loss of his sister. He clearly has still not gotten closure, but maybe by writing this book, he’ll get there. It’s a compelling listen, very detailed and graphic about Karen’s murder, and I hope he finds some peace after pouring out his emotions in this book.

'Karen' is a tragic and thought provoking memoir written and read by Kelsey Grammer. His telling of his sister's murder and memories he has of her throughout their lives together is an emotional roller coaster. Listening to Kelsey Grammer narrate his work and express his innermost feelings can at times be emotionally raw as well as enlightening.
Kelsey Grammer's sister, Karen, was raped and murdered in the 1970s by three men who were going to rob the Red Lobster were she worked in Colorado Springs. This is just one aspect of Karen's and essentially Kelsey's stories. Kelsey Grammer writes on Karen's murder, the investigation, and the trial that followed. However, it is but a moment in their life stories. He intertwines both his and Karen's childhoods, adolescence, family relationships, love interests, mutual friends, college years, interactions with Karen's spirit through the use of a medium, ad infinitum.
Attempting to list all the memories would not do the story justice. At first, the multiple stories and the way Grammer writes and narrates his continuous train of thought was difficult to follow. Names were dropped along the way and trying to keep track of them all, especially in listening to the audiobook, was exhausting. Grammer explains his writing styling as how he remembered events, how one event triggered memories from the past, both his and Karen's, as well as being partially inspired by the writer Henry Fielding and Fielding's writing of 'The History of Tom Jones'. This tedious and overwhelming style makes it difficult to keep track of all the people involved and the sequence of events. Especially when it comes to remembering facts about the chronology of Karen's murder.
As much as Grammer bogs down 'Karen' with his own story, his raw emotion in narrating the audiobook draws the listener in. Kelsey Grammer's narration brings loss of a loved to the forefront of the emotional self. His anger, his sadness, his serenity, his innermost self is brought through his narration. Writing with his stream of consciousness brought their stories to life. The emotional intricacies could not be expressed by any other narrator besides Grammer himself. As difficult as the stories were at times to follow, Grammer's narration is worthy of nomination.
Grammer repeats the word 'remember' and it is in remembering that not only he but the listener can bring their own losses, memories, loved ones to life in their own way. It was not just a telling of both Karen's and Kelsey's stories but a reflection of life and loss. Of how an individual can help themselves through remembering. Grammer's ability to reach the listener and bring their own story out of his keeps the listener going from one chapter to the next. It is not so much to know 'what happens next' but rather 'what emotion is going to be felt next'.
Overall, 'Karen' is a stream of Kelsey Grammer's memories with intense emotional feeling. It would be a feat to keep track of all the people, places, stories and memories without the assistance of a white board stretching the length of the country which Grammer relates in detail. If the listener is looking for a typical true crime story, 'Karen' is not it. If they are looking to get a glimpse into Kelsey Grammer's life, also Karen's, and the depths of his character along with an exceptional narration, then 'Karen' is what they are looking for.