What Remains of Elsie Jane

"What Remains of Elsie Jane is an exploration of grief that manages to avoid self-seriousness. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me blush, sometimes it made me do all three on the same page." —EVA JURCZYK, author of The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

"What Remains of Elsie Jane reads like a side-splitting obituary. A poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, weird, and heartbreaking window into being bereft and being in love. This book is a striking reminder that there can be beauty in devastation." —EMILY AUSTIN, author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

"To read What Remains of Elsie Jane is to encounter a raw, sometimes angry, and always messy grief. Wakelyn captures a woman falling apart and putting herself back together in the dynamic voice of her complicated protagonist. In her multiverse-curious widowhood, Elsie is unrelentingly hopeful without being cheerful, loving without being good." —LIZ HARMER, author of The Amateurs and Strange Loops

"A remarkably intimate portrait of grief. The narrator’s unique voice is at once relatable and unhinged, the powerful pulls of rage and love on full and magnificent display." —LILLIAN NATTEL, bestselling author of The River Midnight

"What Remains of Elsie Jane is a fearless exploration of the ravages of loss, of the many ways it can shred a person’s dignity and reduce an otherwise loving and whip-smart mother, sister, and friend to an inert lump of sorrow. This is a truly amazing book. In her struggle to survive one of life’s most devastating blows, Elsie Jane observes keenly and uncompromisingly how the oblivious and often silly world moves on without her. Hers is a cautionary tale, one we would all be wise to read closely, for it applies to everyone who loves another and asks us to imagine the unimaginable.” —TERRENCE YOUNG, author of The Island in Winter