The kind of experience that you’d hope nobody ever has to go through at such a young age, but you know it happens frequently. Grief isn’t something you’re ever really prepared for. Knowing how to feel when someone close to you dies isn’t always possible, and when you’re just a child it could so easily be over-whelming.
Grace – known as Tiger – is close to her mother, but she finds her restrictions hard to accept at times. They have a huge argument. Something that happens daily for some. But for Grace, this becomes a key moment…as later that day her mother dies suddenly.
At 16 Grace becomes a ward of the state and everything she knows has gone. We follow Grace through her time in foster care; her sudden learning of a previously unknown family member who becomes her guardian, and her brief foray into the depths of her darkness.
The story itself felt disjointed at times. So many strands were unresolved or left open in a way that felt a little frustrating. However, there were some wonderful characters helping a Tiger through her experience, and the eloquence with which Glasgow captures the grieving process was to be applauded.
Everyone’s experience of grief will be different, but this allows a brief insight into some of the things that might affect people and how they can deal with them.