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THE COLLECTED REGRETS OF CLOVER
Mikki Brammer
St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: May 9th, 2023
320 Pages
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Before reading this book I had never heard of a death doula so the premise had me intrigued. Clover saw her kindergarten teacher keel over and die and she has been interested in death ever since, especially as both her parents died not long after and then her grandfather goes and dies fifteen years later while she is off travelling. Clover keeps journals of the people she keeps company with while they pass away. There are three types of journals: Regrets, Advice and Confessions. Clover finally starts to review her own life and regrets when she gets Claudia as a client and decides to help her on her quest about her regrets.
For a story about a death doula, this book was pretty heartwarming at times and is more about celebrating life and enjoying it to the fullest. Clover’s flashbacks to her childhood were my favourite parts of the book, especially the ones with her grandfather. I was confused at times about Clover though. Parts of the book have her as a mature 20-something travelling the world and then in later parts she’s a shy 30-something with no self-esteem to self-worth. Maybe that was deliberate on the author’s part to show what a family death and guilt can do to a person.
It’s hard to like and enjoy a character-driven book when you don’t like or can’t relate to the main character and I had a really hard time connecting to Clover…in fact, this book had a lot of unlikeable characters in it. Clover has no friends and no social life outside of an older man her grandfather was friends with and I can’t blame people for not wanting to spend time with her. I did not like the little romance angle at all, it didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the story. So this was kind of a hit-and-miss with me but it has many great reviews so don’t take my word for it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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