The Grief Keeper

This is a compelling, touching story about love, family, immigration, loss, and race that challenges our understanding of so many timely issues. The story is about two sisters seeking asylum in the US. After being caught crossing the border and facing deportation back to certain death, Marisol is faced with a difficult option. She agrees to be part of an experiment on PTSD in order to keep herself and her sister Gabi safe. She becomes a “grief keeper” whose job is to take someone else’s pain away so they don’t have to suffer. The story is beautifully and tightly written with such realistic portrayals (even of the futuristic “stuff”) that you will find yourself pulled into their lives and rooting for them throughout the story. The main characters are well developed and very compelling. The connection between Marisol and Gabi and the relationship between Marisol and her “donor” are powerful and uniquely special. I especially liked that this was such a thought-provoking, engaging, and humanizing treatment of the complex issues we face on both a personal and societal level. While I believe everyone should read this, the “heaviness” of the subjects make this better suited for older teens and beyond. Once you get pulled into the story, you won’t be able to put it down.