The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards is a poignant, occasionally gut-wrenching memoir of loss, grief, and betrayal by Jessica Waite. Due out 30th July 2024 from Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
How well does anyone -really- know the people closest to them? That's one of the fundamental hard philosophical questions the author is forced to confront when her husband passes away very unexpectedly and suddenly whilst out of town. In the midst of a haze of raw grief, she discovers that he's been living a double life for -years- during (and before) their marriage, involving drug abuse, paid sex, affairs, and financial skullduggery leaving her even more vulnerable and angry than she otherwise should've been.
The book arose from her journals and attempts to write her way through the grieving and betrayals, and process some of what she was going through. So much of her writing is raw and honest. The book has definitely tapped into the current zeitgeist and there's immense buzz around it pre-release. It's marketed as non-fiction, either way, it's very well and effectively written.
Four stars. Quite emotional and difficult to read in places. The last half of the book is an odd combination of the author trying to make sense of her new reality and looking for signs of redemption or communication from her late husband and came across as a bit woo-woo for a straight grief memoir. Still at the end of the day it's a well written book in a popular genre with massive pre-publication publicity and will undoubtedly do very well.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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