The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards
by Jessica Waite
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Jul 30 2024 | Archive Date Jul 30 2024
Simon & Schuster Canada | Simon & Schuster
Description
Jessica Waite’s successful, charismatic husband, Sean, is on his way home from a business trip when he collapses in a Houston airport. Having begun the day as a wife, by noon she is a widow and the sole living parent to their nine-year-old son. The day after Sean’s funeral, Jessica receives a box of his personal effects and discovers the secrets her husband had been hiding—including drug abuse, compulsive spending, infidelity, and a massive porn cache.
Jessica hides these revelations from her grief-stricken son while also trying to erase Sean from her own life. She rids their bedroom of his belongings. She grants herself a “divorce.” She conceives a revenge plan to unleash on Christmas Eve. But when things start happening that Jessica can’t explain—like signs from beyond and strange coincidences pointing her in the direction of forgiveness— she is forced to choose: Endure the bitter aftermath of her old life? Or reconsider her views?
Written with dark humor in the vein of Liz Feldman’s series Dead to Me and Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards is a searing and hilarious memoir that asks the question: Does death signify the end of a relationship, or can there be an afterlife epilogue?
Advance Praise
"Jessica Waite is a lavishly gifted writer with a riveting tale to tell. The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards is a page-turning psychological mystery, an inspiring story of endurance, a guide to healing and redemption—and it’s all true. Treat yourself to this book when you’re in the mood for a fascinating, funny, thought-provoking, and inspiring read." -Martha Beck, bestselling author of The Way of Integrity (Oprah’s Book Club)
"When Jessica Waite discovers her husband’s secret infidelities after he unexpectedly dies in a foreign country, she’s rocked to her core. Does this mean she wasn’t “enough”? Shock, anger and revenge propel her through all the stages of grief in a rollicking seesaw of raw emotion until she finally arrives at acceptance. Forgiveness is at the heart of this memoir, but the way she gets there—plucking wisdom from the ashes of her revenge fantasies—is deliciously funny. Multi-layered and brilliantly written, this book is a tour de force!” -Plum Johnson, award-winning author of They Left Us Everything
“Horrifying and yet compulsive, The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards is a memoir that reads like a whodunnit. Waite’s intelligence and sincerity, as she ricochets between revenge and forgiveness, lifts this book above its sordid details into a compelling guide to re-inventing oneself after the devastating loss of a spouse.” -Sandra Martin, award winning author of A Good Death
Jessica Waite's The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards is a hell of a ride. By turns emotional, hilarious, and always very, very human, Waite gives readers access to the secrets that spilled into her lap after her husband's untimely death. Waite masterfully sets an example of how we might honor and cherish departed loved ones who enriched, damaged, and marked our lives forever. You will stay up all night reading this gem. —Christie Tate, NYT bestselling author of The Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
"For those who've experienced the strange land of intense grief and the crushing revelation of betrayal." —Lauren Carter, award winning author of This Has Nothing to Do With You
“I COULD NOT STOP READING. It’s got all the emotions: Falling in love. Shock. Hope. Rage. Heartbreak. For me, a perfect book about the depths of human love and loss. It is a marvel!” -Sarah Bamford Seidelmann, author of Swimming with Elephants: My Unexpected Pilgrimage from Physician to Healer
"With dark humor and impressive resolve, Waite finds her way back from loss and betrayal to forgiveness. A powerful and inspiring story, this one. Don't miss it." -Martha Jo Atkins, author of Signposts of Dying, founder of Dying School
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781668045541 |
| PRICE | CA$13.99 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 320 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Stephanie T, Reviewer
Jessica Waite portrays in this memoir how she deals with her late husband’s secrets and his passing — as well as how she deals with her grief.
This book was written with candour — full of raw vulnerability — though this book at times was heart breaking it also had dry humour ( the prologue really drew me in to the novel)— while one could be shocked by her dead husbands behaviour eventually it evokes compassion, concern and sympathy for those with mental health issues .
Ultimately this is a hopeful story full of resilience and renewal, and one woman’s strength to move forward , finding healing and acceptance in the face of betrayal.
Terri P, Reviewer
A memoir packed with heartrending revelations, damning the instigator and obfuscating the author’s grief over the sudden death of her husband, Sean, at the young age of forty seven. For Sean was, in fact, a bastard. A terrible one - being both a liar and a cheat and hiding terrible secrets that will take years for Jess to process and finally, reconcile.
Jess and Sean are somewhat used to trials, as they attempt to manage their family cross-border and long-distance - Sean as an executive working in Houston, Texas, and Jess raising their family back home in Calgary, Alberta.
Suffering from bipolar disorder, and exhibiting wild mood swings, it was long clear that life with Sean would come with emotional challenges. But nothing could have prepared Jess as she struggles to parent her suddenly fatherless nine-year-old son, Dash, amidst the staggering news of Sean’s fatal heart attack in Houston. As her life unravels, Jess must embark on her own healing journey, and it’s clear that this memoir, and the terrible facts (and related feelings) it acknowledges, will play a very important role in that process.
Written with incredible candor and such rawness and vulnerability (laced with dry humor where it is most needed), that Sean’s behavior cannot help but horrify, enrage and devastate the reader, as it evokes compassion and concern for those so deeply affected.
A heartbreaking read, but also, ultimately, a hopeful one, this is a story of resilience and renewal, and one woman’s strength to move on, finding healing in the face of ultimate betrayal.
A great big thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
