At 30,000 feet in the air, when you read a book like Tell the Wolves I'm Home don't forget your box of tissues. This is a lesson I am sharing with you about being prepared, and I was so very unprepared.
This book was incredibly powerful and intense. I cried. A lot. And laughed. I felt the pain of my own estranged relationship with my brother, from growing up and losing our father too soon to adulthood where we haven't spoken in nearly six years. The haunting that comes with grief and loss, the anger, the shame, the fear - and uncovering so many secrets. I'm adding this book to my birthday list because I want to own it. It has left an imprint on me in ways I cannot yet describe (although the people on this flight are looking at me like I've lost my damn mind because I can't stop crying).
The complicated relationship with June and her uncle Finn, his sister Danielle (her mom), June's sister Greta, their father. And Finn's true love, his partner. Reading Toby's version of his love for Finn, of the torment that Finn suffered from Danielle's conditions and older-sisterly-ways (translation: the "I couldn't have everything I dreamed of, so you can't have it either" plotline). I just....my heart is heavy and full and grieving so many things. To have his family cast him out because they....they made him choose between Toby and his nieces, because why? Because misery loves company?
Well that's all bullshit - it's a powerful read, and please be prepared to want to scream "no!!!" and "it's not fair" and be wowed by the healing in the end.
And be prepared to confront your own secrets, your own grief, your own truths - I for one will not be keeping misery company. I will love my children more fiercely, love myself wholly, and celebrate each breath I take as a wonderful, abundant joy regardless of what anyone else thinks.
Don't wait until it's too late to say the things in your heart or repair damage that has been done. You never know when those moments will be taken from you, and regret is the heaviest burden to carry of them all.
Happy Reading - and don't forget the tissues.
--Jennifer
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