I highly recommend this resource for those who need it. It gave me lots of insight for grieving and processing my brother's death, but gave perspective on other people I've lost as well. It's not difficult or technical, so it is easy to read in that way and parts feel like she is just talking to you which is nice. It incorporates experiences from a lot of people and she brings in lots of other resources. I just finished so I haven't done the exercises in the back yet but they look promising. 

It's about dealing with the death, it has lots of information on varied reactions and kinds of relationships people have with their siblings. There's a lot of good information about grief itself and how people react. It's not about "getting over" or staying stuck -- there is a lot about how you see yourself and on continuing the relationship with your sibling and connecting with others about them.

There's not a ton out there about sibling loss so I am glad that I found this one. I tried reading it last year (just a month or so after he died) and I couldn't get past the first chapter (to be fair, I only got through audiobooks that month anyways - and I still hadn't finished any books about grief I had picked up after losing my stepdad two years prior). In some ways, I wished I had tried to read it a bit sooner but I still am really glad thay I have read it now.

I read volumes 1 and 2 back to back after having the luck of seeing them together at the library. So this is a review for both of them.

This is very good but the cover is deceptively cute. Most of the plot revolves around the very real neglectful/abusive home life, particularly focused on Boo's alocholic mother. I do think it was handled pretty well over all. Parts were maybe more smooth than what would be realistic, but not to the point of being fanciful or totally unbeleivable.

I enjoyed both of the characters and loved that there was a strong found family. The art style was cute, and I liked a lot of the choices they made both incorporating the daydreaming and when they added other elements to show things like PTSD.

I get the impression that some people don't vibe well with the cute-sy blending with these harder topics -- either it's seen as too harsh or it's belittling the hard topic. But I have been really loving this sort of thing, the more stories like this in YA and MG. I find it really cathartic as an adult, an easier way to process things personally. And certainly I am glad they exist for kids that this would be age appropriate for.

Overall, I ended up really liking it. Just don't let the pastels fool you into thinking it will be all fluff lol

I am putting my review for volumes 1 and 2 on vol 2. TLDR is I really liked it but be aware that it is more intense than the cute covers would have you believe

Thank you to Feminist Press for sending me an ARC of this book!

This was a really incredible book. It is a memoir that is also an examination of our healthcare system and care generally in our culture. There is so much in here from discussion of the tender moments of care to our ideas of motherhood, to colonization, to transness, grief, and forgiveness. Anyone interested in carework or abolition, or anyone who has had experience in a hospital on any side of the equation should really read this one.

The author examine how both patients and nurses experience violence in the current healthcare system, delving into their experience as both patient and nurse. They also speak about their experiences of alcoholism and domestic abuse, influenced by the dissociation required of their job. We also see some of the horrors particular to the first couple years of the COVID pandemic, including the death and lack of resources, but also the ways that nurses were treated. 

They also talk about how they have healed. Kink spaces allowed them a way to regain autonomy after abuse, be in their body. And it reoriented parts of how they understood care, impacting how they negotiated with patients in ways they hadn't before but ultimately there was only so much their job could allow for. This relearning and reorientation as they came to coin "the sexuality of care" - inspired by both Audre Lorde's writing on erotics and in living and materially experiencing what care is and orienting towards it in all aspects of life.

They end with a look into how healthcare could be realized outside of the current medical industrial complex (and the work that they did with others to come to these ideas). All along, they cite many really great texts on care and abolition. It is very nuanced and well written. I highly recommend it!