Grief

The first chapter opens in a cemetery. Allie Garvey reflects on the loss of her sister Jill to cystic fibrosis at the age of 17. Her mother and father grieve very differently at the loss of their daughter, leaving Allie to navigate the loss on her own, despite being only fifteen years old. Allie's mother, Linda, retreats into a dark depression, essentially corkscrewing herself into the earth, as if she wanted to be buried, too" (33). Allie dutifully checks on her as her mother rarely leaves the bedroom. In stark contrast, her father desperately seeks some positive in the death of his daughter. He is in denial over his wife's melancholia, and dismisses it as "complicated grief" that is "no one's business" (36). Instead he organizes a road race to fundraise for cystic fibrosis. Allie is left in the crosshairs, trying to make sense of her parents' grieving while...