The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: The Things That We Lost
Author: Jyoti Patel
Published: January 2023
Genre: Literary
Themes: Greif, family.

One sentence summary: When losses in the family are hidden under the rug, cracks form and secrets start to spill.

One sentence review: This is a literary fiction you need on your shelves.

Review:

Avani has never dealt the traumatic loss of her husband, Elliot. After a shock death, she’s convinced no one understands and so Elliot isn’t spoken about in the family by her request.

As her own father passes, Avani’s son Nik becomes even more desperate to hear about the father he never knew. Cracks from between their relationship and new truths find him searching in others for answers about his late father..

This book broke me. It’s so beautiful and so moving and it ruined me in such a good way.

The pain that Avani has held on to for so many years is devastating and written so beautifully. Nik’s callousness and teenage rebellion is understandable but heart breaking to hear how it ruins Avani. Theirs is a tender and delicate relationship and one that will stay with me some time.

The Things That We Lost is Patel’s debut fiction, which also won her Merky’s New Novel Prize and it’s easy to see why. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting the author and listening to them speak on panels which was an absolute pleasure.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, I’d love if you could take a look at my patreon and consider supporting my content on there too.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 20/11/2024