Losing a parent is hard. This I know. But losing two, when you’re an only child, is devastating. Claire Bidwell Smith lost both of her parents to cancer when she was a young woman, and her new memoir, The Rules of Inheritance, follows her through her life as she deals with these tragic losses. The book begins at the age of fourteen, when first her father, then her mother are diagnosed within weeks of one another.

The book is not chronological, but instead uses the five stages of grief to illustrate the emotional journey her parents’ deaths take her on: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. She deals with her grief in self-destructive ways, via emotionally abusive boyfriends, drinking, and dropping out of school. It seems like it would be difficult to keep track of the narrative when you’re hopping back and forth in her timeline, but once you get a feel for what she was going through at each point in her life, it’s not too hard to follow along. And the book pulls you along, through those five stages. You know the last stage is coming, and the ending of the book does not disappoint.

As one might guess from the subject of this book, it’s not terribly uplifting. I had to read the book in small doses, just to keep from being too affected by it, but the compelling story and beautiful writing kept me coming back for more.

If you’ve read this memoir and want to talk about it (or go read it now so you can join in the discussion!), we’ll be discussing it over the next few weeks at the BlogHer Book Club.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.