P.S. I LOVE YOU BY CECELIA AHERN

You have probably seen this book a thousand times over the internet as it is already all over bookstagram and is a huge bestseller. I am unsure if my review of this book will add anything new to what others have said. But here I am, giving my two cents and sharing my reading experience with you about a recent book that affected me deeply.

The book is about Holly and Gerry, who were high school sweethearts. They find their soulmate in each other and are happily married until Gerry succumbs to his brain tumour. Gerry leaves letters for Holly to open each month the following year, which will help her move on and become stronger.

First of all, being married to my high school sweetheart, I could not even fathom the idea of someone losing a partner and the grief that Holly must have gone through. Believe it or not, I never knew this was the book's premise until I started it. I like reading a few books without reading their blurbs beforehand. And this book fell in that category for me. And to my surprise, I loved the book so much that I cannot even articulate precisely how much.

 

This book was all about grief, finding strength after losing loved ones and putting ourselves first. My book copy probably has many pages stained, absorbing my love for the book. I liked how the author wrote about the societal expectations of a woman who recently lost her husband. The book raised some serious concerns about how she is supposed to behave. Should she cry all the time his name gets mentioned because she has no happy memories of him to ponder and smile? Should she not feel sad and have an outburst when everybody else has forgotten him and moved on with their lives, leaving her empty? At what point in her life can she finally move on and fall in love with someone else, not forgetting her departed husband? Or is she even allowed to fall in love again? How much grief is acceptable? This book has allowed me to think about it all. After I was done with the book, content with its ending, I had some sincere reflections about society and how it treats a surviving wife. 

I love how the author has written about grief from a woman's perspective. It enlightens about the norms forced on a widow and how people envision her to behave. Yes, it is a book on grief, but it has light-hearted moments too. And I loved the family bond and Holly's connection with her friends. Though the book is close to 500 pages, I never felt it to be lengthy. The ending was not what many would have expected, but for me, it was exceptional. I think the book was all about that. (No spoilers here). I was mind blown by how the author made me love a character who wasn't even alive and loathe the characters who were hardly mentioned in less than a page (Holly’s in-laws).

The only shortcoming with the book was a few portions were unnecessarily stretchy, and some scenarios could not be related as they appeared too dreamy for me!

MY REVIEW: 4.5/5

This is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop (for the prompt: a recent book that impacted you deeply)