The Collected Regrets of Clover

I never hear of a Death Doula and I love that this is a thing. As a HHA I feel like we need to talk more about death. I will be looking into a death doula. And I had a lot of death in the pass few months. Clover has been faced with death several times in her young life but the death of her grandfather is the one that rocked her world. 

TWs: death/loss of a parent and family, terminal illness, grief

4.5 rounded up; A beautiful story about Clover, a death doula, who is there for those who are about to pass so they are not alone. However, outside of her job, she juggles different internal struggles and her own feelings. How do we live life to the fullest?

I absolutely adored this relaxing, yet deeply emotional book about a lonely death doula trying to learn how to live a fuller life. Though the book is completely unrushed in its storytelling, it reads easily and quickly. It explores heavy, thought-provoking topics, yet leaves the reader feeling light and hopeful in the end.

Clover Brooks has experienced much death in her 36 years of life, both in her personal life and as a death doula. Clover spends time with dying individuals so that they are not alone as their life expires. After each job ends, Clover records the last words of her clients as either regrets, confessions, or advice and tries to honor them through fulfilling some of their regrets or living by their advice. The problem for Clover is that she is not very good at living. She is a loner who spends her days watching romcoms in the apartment that is still cluttered with her dead grandfather's belongings.

My favorite part of this book is the relationship Clover has with her grandfather and her elderly neighbor, Leo. I actually wish the book were a bit longer and spent more time with these characters. Clover's grandfather is a quiet, serious man with insightful commentary to share about life. I loved every scene he was in. Leo is full of life and obviously cares deeply for Clover. He pushes her to leave the comfort of her small life in order to find joy. Each of these men impacts Clover's life in a positive manner.

The book's exploration of death and grief is done well. Clover's grief over not being present when her grandfather dies leads her to her chosen occupation of death doula. She isolates herself and withdraws into the apartment that is filled with his things. The author is sympathetic to Clover's grief but also reveals its negative impacts. She explores why people get so entrenched in their grief and comes to the conclusion that “Grief is just love looking for a place to settle.” This leads to the takeaway that there is nothing wrong with holding on to grief, but the story also shows that life must still be lived and joy can still be found.

To sum it up, I felt something while reading this book. It touched me. Though all aspects of the story are not perfect (I didn't care for the romance aspects), it was an extremely enjoyable and calming reading experience and therefore earns a 5 star rating from me.

I flew through this book. I thought it was going to take me ages because I tend to put off reading books that make me sad, but I think this book dealt with grief so well. I will admit I was upset for the first 75% of this book because I was not a fan of Sebastian at all and could not accept him for Clover. Hugo was beautiful. I wish he had made an appearance earlier, but I know this is more classified as Contemporary than Romance. lol. Claudia and Leo and Grandpa and Sylvie. I loved all of them. I loved Clover's notebooks and the way she kept a separate one for the three distinct utterances made by her clients. As a sentimental hoarder, I related to Clover a lot in her need to keep Grandpa's things. This was a beautiful read.

Sometimes a book tugs at your heartstrings just the right way, which means you spend a good chunk of the book having either an existential crisis or feeling intense emotional pain (in the best way possible). This is a wonderful story about life, death, and regret. I cannot recommend this highly enough. One of my favorite reads this year!

It was so good. I was honestly so sure I was going to despise Clover throughout the book but the way she begins to interact with the other characters (most of which I LOVE with some strong female leads) is so cute and you really start to feel for her as she begins to navigate the world and learn how her loss and rejections made her fearful of getting close to others and that's why she's like that in the beginning of the book
I know so many people who can find comfort in this book and I feel like it highlights so many important things when it comes to death, love, and regrets — I love love loved it so much and I'm going to keep it in my heart for a long time.

I did not expect to love this book nearly as much as I did. Initially, the lighthearted nature of the characters and dialogue made it seem like it would be a fun, comfortable read all the way through. However, I believe you'd be hard pressed to make it through this story without reflecting on your own experiences with grief & the big choices you've made regarding how to live life. Somehow Mikki Brammer's writing actually welcomed this reflection entirely without fear and instead with open (& comforting) arms.

I felt deeply connected to the main character because she was so clearly...human... I also appreciated that no part of this book felt like it was trying too hard to be convincing or epic in it's attempts to elicit an emotional response from the reader; yet, here I am drying tears well after turning the last page. Highly recommend.

This review is meant for me though I'm aware that others will be privy to my words.

I can't believe I had never heard of “The Collected Regrets of Clover” before this conversation I had with Caitlyn. She was excited to recommend this novel to me as she thought I'd really enjoy because it was about a death doula (I hate spoilers so that was all I needed to hear). She was reading it when her grandpa died and said that it made her think of how I would be a great death doula.

I LOVED Mikki Brammer's writing. What a debut novel. I mainly read nonfiction because I'm not much a of an “I read to escape person”; I want to explore life at depth. These types of novels are pretty perfect though. They are my version of a light read. It was predictable to me, but that was okay. I look forward to watching the movie—this has the makings of a Deadly NYC RomCom.