Rating: 4.75/5
Age Range: Young adult (I mean, I'm 21 and still thoroughly enjoyed this book)
"Here is what happens when your mother dies.
It's the brightest day of summer and it's dark outside. It's dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.
That's how it feels for Tiger. It's always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger's mother dies. And now it's Tiger, alone.
Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark." [1]
I'll be honest, I just love to read, so when I went into this book, I had NO IDEA her mother was going to die. None.
I rented this as an e-book through my library and I only read the title and I'm a sucker for books on mental health, so I borrowed it immediately.
So here I am just reading along and then her mom dies and I was completely taken aback.
But this book is so much more than that. It gives so much insight into living with grief and how stressful and frustrating it can be to feel as if your grief "isn't as bad" as someone else's and how burdensome it feels to share your grief with your happy friends.
It has its cliches, you know, like "the last thing I ever said to her was..." and stuff like that, but it makes up for that in the raw emotionally insight it gives us into Tiger's thoughts. This book is raw and beautiful and you'll probably, most definitely read this in a couple days like I did and you'll probably end up missing your mom like I did, and you'll probably want to hug everyone you know like I did (which sucks cause we're in quarantine).
But you will also understand grief a little more and how important mental health is, and enjoy a lovely story in the process.
How to Make Friends with the Dark is such a good read and the only reason it doesn't get 5 stars, is because I'm extra and there's literally a chapter that ends "and that's how you make friends with the dark" or something like the title and I was expecting that to be the clean, full-circle ending, and it wasn't. There was still more. But only like, a little more; enough to make you want to know more about the characters (like the guy she's into!!! and her best friend!!) but not enough to answer all your questions.
So, no, the book wasn't perfect, but if you enjoy books like Turtles all the Way Down, then you'd love this as well.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Make-Friends-Dark-Kathleen-Glasgow/dp/1101934751
