I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This: 18 Assurances on Grief

“Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.” – Earl Grollman

Clare Mackintosh is a gifted author who has brought much enjoyment to readers. I have enjoyed many of her books and found myself glued to the pages fully invested in the plots. I was also fully invested and fully engaged in I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This: 18 Assurances on Grief, her moving and heartfelt memoir about loss and hope.

“Grief has run through my life like thread through fabric; at times gossamer-thin and barely there, other times weaving thick, clumsy darns across the rips. In my grief I am a mother, a child, a sister, a wife, a woman, a friend. I am also a writer.” – Clare mackintosh

She shared with readers her own personal loss of her five-week-old son. She lays bare her loss and relives the pain while writing this memoir. A memoir which was inspired by a twitter thread she wrote on the anniversary of her son’s death.

I admired her for sharing her own personal pain and grief. She makes several powerful promises in the beginning of the book which would benefit anyone who has suffered loss. She hopes that this memoir will help others and acknowledges that parts may not be for everyone as everyone grieves in their own way.

I applaud her for her honesty in sharing her experience. Grief is indeed a very lonely experience that we all will experience or have already experienced in our lives. I love how she encourages readers to grieve in whatever way is right for them. This would be a great book to have when anticipating the loss of a loved one or for one to read after suffering a loss.

I found this to be a powerful and moving book. As with her other books, this was well written. She poured her heart, soul, love, grief, and skill into this book. I can’t even imagine how difficult this book must have been to write, how many tears she shed, or the number of memories re-lived.

Heartfelt, moving, and powerful.

Thank you to Cristina Arreola, SOURCEBOOKS (non-fiction) and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.