Words and Their Meanings

When the most vital person to your life is reduced to picture frames and memories that fade, it seems impossible to find meaning in anything. Anna O’Mally loses her love for writing and channels Patti Smith to brave the cruelty of life as someone stronger once her beloved uncle Joe passes away. But, she made a promise to her family that she’d let go and try to live again by his one-year “deadaversary.” After uprooting secrets and bracing the weight of loss for so long, can Anna learn to breathe against her guilt and forgive?

I was enamored with the way the words on these pages gripped my shoulders and shook my heart. Death is the most difficult thing to accept and I admired the way this story doesn’t ask us to try. Instead, it explores what’s left of a person, how hard we hold on to our version and how fragile that is—how quickly it can change. I was filled with the heaviness of her blame, the jagged edges of her façade and the way her world erased so entirely until I was just as prone to sinking. This is the kind of book I want to drown in.